communication. community. cognition.
Posts tagged Wordplay
Space and Time
Jun 25th
How space affects a woman’s perception of time.
Conclusion:
Apparently, space increases overall satisfaction.
Spell it out for me
Aug 18th
From Twitter:
As tempting as it might be to click on what I’m most certain is an “adult-dating” site, you have to wonder about how successful “Laci Casey” will be with a screen name that phoenetically reads “Do-w-your-herpes.”
Not to be outdone, the irrepessible SkateHank followed up with this gem of marketing:
Why thank you! When I think of sex, feminine names such as “Hank” and activities such as “Skateboarding” come to mind.
Actually, given my predilection for wordplay, the first thing that came to mind was the anagram HateSkank.
For Want of a Dash
“The lowly hyphen is never more important than to the man who re-sent the terms for the position he wants to re-sign.”
Open Heart Purgery
“Hearts worn on sleeves can’t hide dark secrets.”
Attitude Math
“Perpetual pessimism is multiplying by zero; Perpetual optimism is dividing by zero.”
Books I want to write
Jun 1st
There are a couple that I have in mind in real life, but it would be fun to write a couple of parodies.
The first idea was a simple juxtaposition that resulted in better titles.
“Who Moved My Cheese?” and “What Color Is Your Parachute?” became the rather disgusting “What Color Is Your Cheese?” and the distressing “Who Moved My Parachute?” Those two books would make for great business parodies, but would likely be done as a tandem.
Today, I stumbled across another idea for a mashup. Put Malcolm Gladwell
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “The Black Swan” with Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” and you get “The Swan’s Long Black Tail, or how swimming in circles can stain your butt.”
What are your ideas for clever business-book title rewrites?
[Black Swan attribution fixed - thanks for pointing out my obvious blunder]
The Law of the Letter
May 5th
Acronyms can reinforce or negate your message.
Phrased differently:
Acronyms
Can
Reinforce
Or
Negate
Your
Message.
Not every idea, initiative or government program requires a snappy acronym, but having one that brings positive connotations can only help your cause. Having a negative one can undermine your cause.
Which brings me to Sen. Barbara Mikulski. She’s introduced legislation that would force federal agencies through a review process, to see if they are contracting out services that could be done in-house. Rather than debate the merits of Senate Bill 924, known as the Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Unsustainable Procurements Act, lets focus on Mikulski’s missed opportunity.
She wants you to vote for CLEAUP.
Okay… can anyone out there see the obvious? How hard would it have been to throw in an extra ‘N’ so you can get people to back the CLEANUP Act? Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies NEGOTIATING Unsustainable Procurements.
How hard was that? It took me all of 6 seconds. The psychological boost of having a name like CLEANUP is worth the time and effort to find an ‘N,’ even if it takes you an hour or brainstorming!
The acronym can be a powerful tool, because often it is the first word or concept used to introduce your proposal or identity. It’s not a replacement for explanation or persuasion, but it is a framing tool. The Coalition Reducing Airborne Pollutants might encounter resistance from people who don’t want to deal with CRAP, for example.
Framing is so powerful a rhetorical technique, and acronyms are flexible enough that you can usually get something close enough to represent what you want and earn the extra shine that you need.
If Mikulski’s bill fails, we might have a new formulation for the Law of the Letter: “For the want of an ‘N,’ a bill was lost…”
