I took about 5 months off from writing Tangents. Many of you may have come to the horrifying, devastating (read: having no visible or felt effect) conclusion that this blog had petered out and died. Alas! No!
I got married, guys, and while I've still found plenty of ways to waste time, for a while I let go of this blog to figure out my new life. Now that I've done so (read: summer is here), Tangent Space(s) is back.
And we return with a story I meant to blog about a few years ago...
Answering rather brilliantly
"if I do say so myself," which is a weird phrase because it always follows something the speaker did indeed just say
Several years ago, one of my best friends was getting married. Being much cooler and more adventurous than, say, I am, he decided to have his bachelor party in New York City. (Who wants to cavort around Times Square, Broadway, and Central Park when you can comfortably play games in an apartment? But that's not the point of this story.) I wasn't able to make the trip to the Big Apple, so I was home that night, going to sleep at a somewhat reasonable time.
At approximately 3:45am, several hours after my somewhat reasonable bedtime, my phone rang. Now, reader, you may or may not know me well, but either way please believe me when I tell you that when I wake up unexpectedly, I do so as an alternate bear-zombie version of myself. I don't know who or where I am, I paw the air while growling, and my face displays the vacant, heartless stare of the undead.
So it was that Zombie Bear (not a bad Smash Up deck, I bet) Jon answered his phone in the middle of the night, wondering who in the world would call at such an hour. The answer, of course, was a member of my friend's bachelor party; and while the caller's ID will remain secret, it's a safe bet he resembles an iconic 80s teen movie star. The point is, I answered the phone with about 10% brainpower.
"Jon!!!" the caller said, "You're smart!" (At this point I started waking up to flash my modest smile, graciously accepting the compliment.) "We were trying to think of adverbs that don't end in -ly. Can you think of any?!"
Now, there are like 3 things in the world that merit a call at 3:45am:
1. A medical emergency to a loved one
2. The death of a loved one
3. A wake-up call to prepare for a 6am flight
A fun little word challenge is obviously right on the bubble, but I don't think it makes the cut...
At any rate, I think deep down I appreciated the chance to play a role in the bachelor party, so I used what little brain power I had access to and got to work. My first thought was the one that proved to be key, and that was-- remember what an adverb is. It's a word that modifies a verb or adjective (or another adverb, but it was way too early to get that close to adverb-ception). The first category, adverb that modifies verb, isn't very helpful as all the ones that come to mind off the top of one's zombie bear head end in -ly: quickly, furtively, secretly, stealthily (we are apparently modifying the verbs of spies and pickpockets).
But the second function of adverbs! Yes! Which adverbs most commonly modify adjectives? Many of them work, e.g. quite, rather, very, super, and so. I rattled these off, along with the only one I could think of from the first category, "well."
And so, after an episode likely not remembered by the actual attendees of the event, I drifted back to sleep considering myself a Bachelor Party Hero...
What's in an adverb?
other than the letters L and Y
- Can you think of more adverbs that don't end in -ly?
- What's your favorite adverb?
Jon
 |
| Not sure if a photo credit is needed for some janky piece of clipart. If so: digilearner.com |
