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.

I can be an environmentalist, if there's something in it for me.

Today is Earth Day. I know this because I went to Google and there was one of those cute little drawings there in place of the normal Google logo. I am not an environmentalist. I mean, I don’t wish harm upon the environment, but I am a documented destroyer of planets. Basically, I am selfish and lazy and I just don’t give much thought to my earth-ruinous habits. I’m not proud of this, but there it is.

But! There is hope! If being environmentally friendly can also be fun and cute and helpful AND satisfy my enjoyment of shopping for online goodies? I’m totally on-board. Behold, the Rume reusable grocery bags. I bought six of these last year at Delight.com, one of my favorite shopping websites, and everywhere I go I get compliments on how smart and lovely they are. I mean, how much better would your wretched trip to WalMart be if it ended with someone telling you how fabulous your bags were? And even better, each bag holds more than twice the amount of a WalMart bag AND you can sling them over your shoulder, resulting in fewer trips from the car to the house lugging in groceries or books or whatever crap you’ve been buying because you shop way too much. And until I can afford that chauffeur/personal valet to cart my stuff for me, these will have to do.


I got the two Spring in New York sets, but the Fall in New York are lovely, as are the red ones they brought out for Christmas. The gorgeous new metallic bags should only be used if you are uber-fabulous and can carry them off.