May 2025 Vol 7 Issue 5
Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN)
Teaching English-as-a-Second Language to Economic Immigrants
Let Us Help You Tell Your Story
Welcome Mid-May, 2025!
In the 2020 film, “Wild Mountain Thyme,” based on John Patrick Shanley’s play, Outside Mullingar, the male protagonist, Anthony Reilly, recalls the death of his mother as a time “when all the colour went out of the world.”
I can relate to that observation these days, as I grieve the recent passing of my mother, Bernice Shih, a long-time supporter of my work as a writer, editor and teacher.
I dedicate this simple issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter” to the memory of Bernice, who died peacefully in her sleep earlier this month — and to all of the amazing women including mothers who read this newsletter, many of whom have known such loss.
Although Bernice and I did not agree on everything in life (who does?), she was a devoted mother.
I will always remember her gentle, kind nature and her deep commitment to her Christian faith.
“Death is not the extinguishing of light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come”–Rabindranath Tagore
Rest in Peace, dear Mum.
Elizabeth
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In This Issue:
Article One: From loss to laughter, with Susie Dent–In memoriam: Bernice Shih
Shop News
About Us
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Article One: From loss to laughter with Susie Dent
Laughter can provide tremendous medicine when one has been grieving a loss for a while, or a loss that has been expected. Laughter can bring life to a survivor’s weary mind and spirit.
I don’t mean that we should force or rush our ways through times of grief to laugh, but only that tears and heartbreak can gradually give way to humour and hope.
My sense of humour has been influenced by years of reading, writing and teaching English literature and language. Some of that humour I shared with my mother.
So this month, with a nod to my ESL students past and present, I will share ten humourous–or ironic–“curious words” or phrases, their histories and meanings. Each is vivid and often light-hearted. They can inspire us to apply them lightheartedly in daily life.
These words (and many more) have been collected by celebrated British lexicographer, Susie Dent, in her 2023 book, Interesting Stories about Curious Words: From Stealing Thunder to Red Herrings. (John Murray Press).
(1) “Right foot foremost”: Historically, in the West, it has been considered unlucky to enter a house, or even a room, on one’s left foot. In ancient Rome, a boy would be stationed at the door of a wealthy homeowner, to caution visitors not to cross the threshold with the left foot!
(2) “Pecksniff”: This irony-laden term refers to a “hypocrite, who speaks pompously about morality” while doing “heartless things ‘as a duty to society,’ and forgives wrong-doing in nobody but himself. “Pecksniff” is the name given to the arch-hypocrite in Dicken’s novel, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44).
What I find humourous with this word is the very sound of the term and the absurd clash between the appearance and reality of such characters’ personalities.
(3) “Shaggy dog story”: This phrase refers to a “supposedly funny story, told laboriously and at great length with an unexpected twist at the end. It is usually more amusing to the teller than the hearer and is so-called from the ‘shaggy dog’ that was featured in many stories of this genre in the 1940s.
Etymologist Eric Partridge shares a classic “shaggy dog story” here:
“ ‘Travelling by train to London from one of its outer dormitories, a businessman got into a compartment and was amazed to see a middle-aged passenger playing chess with a handsome Newfoundland [dog]. The players moved the pieces swiftly and surely. Just before the train pulled in at the London terminus, the game ended, with the dog victorious.”
The businessman commented: “‘That’s an extraordinary dog, beating you like that—and obviously you‘re pretty good yourself.’ –‘Oh, I don’t think he’s so hot; I beat him in the two games before that!’”
(4) “Yahoo”: This is the name given by Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver Travels (1726), for people with human forms and vicious propensities. Swift may have based the word on a blend of the two exclamations of disgust, ‘yah!’ and ‘ugh!’”
But in common speech today, “yahoo” conveys humour, arguably due to its unpolished sound.
(5) “Salad days”: With this phrase, Shakespeare refers to “days of youthful inexperience, when people are very green or naïve”: “My salad days,/When I was green in judgement, cold in/blood, /To say as I said then!” (Antony and Cleopatra, I.v. (1606).
This phrase could also work on a seasonal restaurant menu . . .
(6) “Mrs. Malaprop”: This name comes from the female character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play, The Rivals (1775), who frequently misuses words. “Malapropisms frequently flourish,” Dent writes, where naïve or ill-read people “try to use technical or professional language.”
Dent continues: “In The Times newspaper (4 May 1985), writer Philip Norman “reported a miners’ leader who denounced his bosses as ‘totally incontinent,’ and a parishioner who complained to her vicar about the church’s poor ‘agnostics.’”
Dent writes that “medical terms” are often “prone to malapropism [with] examples including ‘teutonic’ ulcers, ‘malingering’ tumours, ‘hysterical’ rectums and ‘Cistercian’ deliveries.”
The phrase comes from the French, “mal a propos,” (“not to the purpose”).
(7) “In the groove”: This phrase refers to being “in the right mood; doing something successfully, fashionable.” From this comes the “dated slang word ‘groovy’ for something fashionable or exciting.” The term alludes “to the accurate reproduction of music by a needle in the groove of a gramophone record.”
Resurrect this expression and you’ll earn the scorn of everyone who hears you (lol)!
(8) “When the fat lady sings”: This term refers to a time when “everything is finally over. The full expression runs: ‘The opera is never over till the fat lady sings.’”
This refers to “the final act of the opera, in which the heroine often re-appears. Opera singers are stereotypically endowed with figures as full as their voices,” Dent adds. Politically correct it is not!
(9) “Pope”: This word is more evocative than funny. It “derives from Old English ‘papa,’ from ecclesiastical Latin, and Greek ‘pappas,’ a child’s word for father” (just to add to the mix of this issue on women and mothers)!
“Pope” may not be a humourous word, but it is very evocative and timely, as Dent writes that “the smoke that emerges from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during a papal election is known as the fumata.”
She adds: “Black smoke indicates there is no clear majority; white smoke is issued when a final choice has been made.”
This resonates for us, given the recent election of Pope Leo XIV; and with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent comment that “no white smoke” rose from the White House chimney during his recent meeting with US President Donald Trump!
(10) “To visit the Spice Islands”: This phrase is one of many euphemisms for using the toilet, and, Dent says, was “favoured by the Victorians” (who else?!).
She further writes that “In the 1800s, those caught short would ‘play arse music,’ ‘use the thunder jug,’ or even ‘starch the potatoes.’”
Contemporary Western culture discourages “bathroom humour,” sometimes referred to as “little boys’ humour,” among adults. And yet, the influence of such idioms, often from Victorian culture, persist.
Dent adds that “in the last hundred years we have turned to” expressions like “‘emptying the anaconda’” for such bodily functions (!)
Many of the words in Dent’s book (including most above) are onomatopoeic, meaning that they phonetically imitate, resemble or suggest the sound associated with it. This may be the main basis of their humourous effect.
Each of the words in Dent’s book carries at least one–or several– stories, as she illustrates in her collection. Words remain the building blocks of all stories and therefore of all of our communication.
Very often, sharing certain words and stories (from an early age) provides the building blocks of our relationships with beloved adults, especially our mothers.
And now it’s your turn: What curious or “gem” words do you use in common speech? Do any of them come from talking with your mother or another family member?
Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear from you.
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SHOP NEWS:
In light of family bereavement and related matters, I have temporarily slowed my ESL teaching for a few weeks. But I look forward to welcoming new students in upcoming weeks.
Regarding my mother’s late life care, I want to thank St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s parish nurse, Laura Van Loon, for her extraordinary and very compassionate service to Bernice and to my whole family.
Laura helped to intervene when Bernice endured falls, hospitalizations, assessments and moves between care facilities, as most failing seniors do.
While I’m sorry that my mother didn’t live long enough to attend the Mother’s Day lunch I had organized for her, I’m grateful to the staff at Saskatoon Convalescent Home for all of their diligent care for her and so many other seniors.
If you are seeking a long-term care bed for an elderly relative in the city, I encourage you to consider the Convalescent Home, where kindness is evident each day.
The home’s building may be older (some renovations have occurred, with more forthcoming). But the staff have been remarkable.
There are daily activities, usually six days per week (unlike other long-term care or private care homes), and a beautiful, garden/courtyard in the spring and summer, where residents can appreciate the good weather.
I believe deeply in such an approach to elder care.
My family and I also thank Rev. Roberto De Sandoli and members of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, the late Ted and Mrs. Audrey Gilroy and especially Greg Gilroy; Dani VanDriel; Lesley Bens and other close friends who have supported me through these past years of caregiving.
Thanks, too, to the care staff of Sunnyside Adventist Care Home, Luther Heights Intermediate Care Home, The Franklin Retirement Home, City Hospital (Geriatric Care Unit) and Saskatoon Community Clinic, for their service.
I’m deeply grateful to Ben Nussbaum (of Nussbaum and Associates) and Lance Bergen (of the Saskatoon Funeral Home) for their help when dealing with estate or memorial matters.
Thank you to the members of Saskatoon Freelancers’ Roundtable (my writers’ group) for the messages of condolences they have sent me, and for their compassion during times when we as creatives face adversity.
Finally, I thank all of our extended family and friends who wrote, called or visited my mother during the past few years, especially folks affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Canada (and St. Andrew’s, Saskatoon) or with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, where my mother volunteered or worked for most of her adult life.
Mother’s Day has passed. But during the month of May, or whenever you can arrange to share physical space with family and friends, I urge you to pause whatever you’re doing to hug those you love.
We never know how much time any of us has left.
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ABOUT US:
Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.
Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now help newcomers to Canada land better jobs and economic immigrants to secure greater contracts by improving their English skills.
Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my website (www.elizabethshih.com).
After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss English classes with you!
Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca).
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