11:33 a.m. - December 22, 2002
From the Mixed Up Files of Jason [edited] [edited].
An aha! moment:
Several years ago my students wanted to know the ASL sign for a word, a word that I did not understand and sounded like scandalist. I had them use it in a sentence He's a scandalist and I recall thinking What the hell is wrong with me as I stood in front of the whiteboard and wondering what it was they were trying to communicate and what exactly was a scandalist. Finally we all threw our hands in the air and called it a day.
Fast forward to two minutes ago: They were working with scandalous. As in the then-slang and now-forgotten mot du mois.
This episode was in 1999. And only today, a few days shy of 2003, have I understood. I catalogue and review, just like this.
Scandalous. Scandalist.
It's like understanding a joke long after the bar is cold.
This happens often to me.
