Sehnsucht is such a fine, elusive wisp of a word that I was going to suggest a more "high-browed" (than "country songs") example: Walt Whitman's closing lines to "Song of the Universal" Is it a dream? Nay but the lack of it the dream, And failing it life's lore and weal...

PH: I'll let one of the regulars with a higher ranking than mine take on "sehnsucht"; to all others who commented my reaction is much like "A good pun is its own reword" (that is, I'm pleased that my rambling seemed to meet with approval--which made this one of my nicer Father's ...

During the halcyon days of my misspent youth, "Palooka" was an eponym that was generally unknown in my "stompin' grounds" because the local newspaper--unanimously referred to as the "Weekly Wiper"--did not carry that cartoon strip (or any other); to fill the verbivorial...

And who shall lead the parade of my many betters who easily--almost with a flip of the wrist--cause a click on Podunk (found in the text of today's GoodWord, Palooka, to activate a link which produces something other than "Sorry, that word was not found."? Line up against the wall please, ...

It's odd how the otherwise useless and inane sticks to one, like chewing gum on the sole of a shoe (for sake of clarification, in this missal I'm not referring to elected politicians). One such piece of grey-matter “brain-sludge" in my case is that during the middle of previous century my favor...

Under the heading of "a good pun is its own reword", a "buccaneer" seems like a pretty high price for corn.

The best example I know of the use of this word concerned a fairly new and (relatively, of course) inexperienced naval officer who was docking his ship in its home port, and was made more than a bit apprehensive by the knowledge that an admiral's vessel was already tied up and its ranking officer--w...

Slava's cited link will, in fact, lead to a page that is quite replete with limericks of all class and color (that is, shades of white). What's missing is a Search function that would allow the would-be submitter hshr--a concise way of writing "his or her"--to determine whether a particul...

I have to confess that if my words occasionally amuse the reader, anything mistakenly perceived as a “skill” is nothing, neither more nor less, than a side-effect of an inability to remember where I put my car keys while possessing/burdened by an uncanny facility for remembering--often with crystal ...

I realize that I’m casting a rather wide net here, in an attempt to both add my one cent (a value I place on my opinions when compared to the “two cents worth” of my betters), but—like MTC —neither can I be sure whether either Socrates or Pyrrho of Elis was the patron saint of those devout followers...

Perry: I can certainly empathize with your tongue-impediment problem; many of my younger days, spend in municipal public service, were under the employment supervision of pusillanimous purveyors of public perfidity who--the truth be known--were barely bright enough to dress themselves; keen observer...

At the risk of wandering an unacceptable distance off the beaten path delineated by my many betters, I must ask—knowing that the question will provide an appalling confirmation of the extent of my ignorance: Does there actually exist a book, manuscript, work-in-progress, pamphlet, or collection of t...

misterdoe asks:

How does one spell hysterically?

I'm not sure, but I think you do it the same way you drive a baby buggy; you tickle its little toes...

My favorite--tho not necessarily in the Amish context--is the song "Throw mama from the train a kiss, a kiss"

Apparently it was an elephantine pregnancy that brought forth a mouse.