busker

Marinating

What could be more pleasant than a 6 a.m. Sunday morning bath, a dazzling day in the making and Callas soaring from the bedroom speakers?

The bubbles are up to my armpit, which calls for careful reading of the NYT magazine if I'm not to pick thru the soggy remains over breakfast.

This week's seems to be almost entirely kid-centric, which means careful scrutinizing for later questioning later by #2 daughter, such as over the "Teenage Brain" lecture.

I turn to the must-read Language section and if it wasn't William Safire, I'd believe I was being kidded being asked to accept Kiduage.

Once past the headline, however, we're into the real stuff:

• 'Crunk', a blend of 'crazy' and 'drunk', has elbowed aside 'Wasted', just as 'Faded' has replaced 'Stoned'.
• Whips replaces 'Wheels', *but*, an ordinary car is a 'Ride' and a large passenger car - out of style or otherwise low on prestige - is a Scraper.
• Latest term for 'Cool' is 'Tight', and the antonym is Janky, spelled and pronounced Jinky or Jainky.
• Current derogations of Dork are Dillweed and Dipstick.
• "To hit on" has morphed into "To mack".
• A stalwart 'guy's guy' is 'Bloke'. After all these years, I'm in fashion.
• 'Good-looking,' male or female, is 'Bangin'' and top of the heap of desirability is the adjective 'Blaze', as in "That Marco is blaze!"
• "Off the hook" replaces 'Wow'
• In comes the German 'Über' ('over', 'super') such as in 'His whip is über-fast'
• Wooka, as in 'That movie is wooka-sweet.'
• Not that it affects our clean-living family, but it's still 'Mary Jane' for Marijuana, with 'Dank' describing the high-grade illegal product.
• 'Pumped and 'Stoked' are finished; in comes 'Amped', from amphetamine or ampule.
• Current term for 'desirable, attractive' - as actually applied to me by one of Anna's pals (preen, boast) - is 'Filthy'.
• Like Safire, I find "Sexellent" for 'awesomely sexy,' a strained coinage.
• Chill out still means 'Relax,' but watch out for 'Marinating', a culinary term that has gained the sense of 'taking it easy'. Anything tasty is 'Apple sauce', and 'Money' is Cheddar.

Here endeth today's lesson in talkin' proper and talking young.