"Best Bog" has an especially nice ring for us Angela Thirkell fans, since one of the novelist's characters -- the post-WWII Mixo-Lydian Ambassadress to Britain -- is a woman of strong opinions whose favorite (often scornful) exclamation is "Bog!" Next time I hear from Grammar.net, that syllable will be my response.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Grammar.net's latest cry for help
I suggested earlier this fall that winners of Grammar.net's Best Blog poll could use some help with proofreading, but apparently nobody stepped into the breach. After the contest, the site sent me (and 47 other nominees, I presume) a consolation prize -- "A gift for participation in the contest for the Best Grammar Blog of 2011." It's a badge to display on your blog, similar to the ones the top 3 winners were encouraged to post.
But as usual, the best part of the e-mail was unintentional: "We would be happy to see you in the list of grammar bloggers in our contest for the Best Grammar Bog next time if we hold it again."
"Best Bog" has an especially nice ring for us Angela Thirkell fans, since one of the novelist's characters -- the post-WWII Mixo-Lydian Ambassadress to Britain -- is a woman of strong opinions whose favorite (often scornful) exclamation is "Bog!" Next time I hear from Grammar.net, that syllable will be my response.
"Best Bog" has an especially nice ring for us Angela Thirkell fans, since one of the novelist's characters -- the post-WWII Mixo-Lydian Ambassadress to Britain -- is a woman of strong opinions whose favorite (often scornful) exclamation is "Bog!" Next time I hear from Grammar.net, that syllable will be my response.
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7 comments:
"Bog" is, of course, the basic Slavic word for "god"...
ps - Thirkell! Thirkell! I love her!
Re "Bog": In fact, at Thirkell's first mention of Gradka and "Bog," it's glossed as a word those crazy Russians use for God. (You're the expert, Ridger, but even if Gradka is Romanian, she would surely be familiar enough with Slavic to find "Bog" unremarkable?) I suspect Thirkell just liked the sound of it, so in later novels she adopted "Bog" as a Mixo-Lydian version of "Bah!" and just ignored its original sense.
I hate to drag down the level of discourse, but it should be noted that "bog" is also a slang word for - er - latrine.
Sorry to completely go off topic here ... I wasn't sure how to contact you, Jan. I've noticed that your link to John McIntyre's blog doesn't lead to his new location at http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog. You're my two favorite bloggers to follow so that link has tripped me up more than twice.
Bog bless!
In Polish, God is Bóg, pronounced 'book'. But to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, perhaps, in Britain bog is slang for the toilet.
In Irish, bog /bʌg/ means "soft"; Tóg go bog é ("Take it easy") is sometimes said upon parting company.
I got an additional consolation prize of "Best Grammar Blog of 2011 for Sentence Analysis", with an accompanying badge. Flattering, perhaps, but there are many better sentence analysers out there than me, and in any case I've never been interested in displaying badges on my blog. Or my bog.
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