I don't know Penny Lewis, but I really appreciate the sentiment.
Eupemisms can indeed be cumbersome.
Like "Talk to a man about a horse." What a mouthful. Just say you gotta pee.
On the other hand, euphemisms can be enjoyable. It is more fun to talk about Sam Hill than Hell. And I do appreciate the people who choose to yell "Judas Priest!" instead of invoking the name of Jesus. Unless they're invoking Rob Halford. Which I guess is possible.
There's the line from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? where George asks:
"Martha, will you show her where we keep the... uh... euphemism?"
Good stuff, that.
Hey, it just occured to me. The hippos George & Martha, are they so named because of Edward Albee's play? Probably. Huh.
Good stuff, that.
So, Penny. I never did read your email. I just assumed that "euphemism cumbersome" was your way of saying that you had a line on some cut-rate penis-enlargement, and opted out.
And now that I think on it, that's actually a pretty apropos random phrase for spam-filter-evading software to pick for a title.
Good stuff indeed.
3 comments:
Or, they might be named after the Washingtons.
George and Martha Washington. Yes, heard of them. Makes more sense.
But I googled it, and I found an interview with the author, and check this out:
James Marshall (JM): I was sitting in a hammock at my Mama’s house in Hilotus, a little town outside of San Antonio, and I was doodling on a page. Actually, it was just a blank page and there were two little dots already in the paper and I recognized them as eyes and I started developing around the character that has become Martha, my hippo. And inside at that time — inside the house — my mother was watching a televised version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. And the characters are George and Martha. And I thought to myself, “well, those are two pretty good names,” so I borrowed from Edward Albee, who I’m told is not amused by this.
So, thanks for making me look it up. Interesting...
It's certainly more interesting to be named after an Edward Albee play than the Washingtons. Now I'll think of that each time I see a G&M book.
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