All-purpose words

My 23-month-old niece is uncommonly adorable, and here's the latest: Whenever something goes wrong, Julia says, "Oh, panda." It's her way of saying, "Oh, crap" or "Oh, drat." This is the result of her watching Jen play the Wii Fit soccer game, in which you take a header at the soccer balls coming at you but try to dodge the shoes and panda heads that the "heathen children," as Kristen puts it, are flinging in your direction. (I don't know. It's supposed to help with balance.) Whenever Jen fails to dodge a panda head, Jules exclaims, "Oh, panda!" and she has translated this to other areas of her life that cause dismay, such as when she breaks a crayon or drops her popsicle or douses herself with water as she did at lunch yesterday.

This made me think about Becky's story of her students in China and how they love Liz and Zack's last name so much that they started using it to replace the word "psych." Like, if you play a trick on someone, instead of shouting "psych!" the Chinese kids shout "Bogaczyk!" That would make me feel awesome, like I was secretly famous in China, but I don't think Liz agrees. When I pointed out to her that it's like our made-up all-purpose word "gooturducken" she replied that, "it is not, in fact, like gooturducken" in a tone that's difficult to replicate in print.

My personal all-purpose word? "Ovechkin." It all started with this awesome commercial:



Try using it yourself. I think you'll find it works quite well. Something about the three syllables and the ending on an "N" sound. It all works.