Benison

Benison

Mmmmmmmmm, benison...

Really? I'm from Wisconsin and I'm supposed to use this word without thinking of delicious yummy deer meat? Yea, fine, I'll admit it - I come from a family of hunters and have shot a gun before. Mainly a BB gun. Mainly at my brother's 45 RPM records* (he was very unimpressed). But hey, I've shot other guns. One. Can't remember what kind it was - some sort of hunting rifle. Like three times, maybe. I can't remember. I do remember getting hollered at by my brother for shooting up his 45s. I couldn't help it - I was going through a destructive phase. I also remember shooting at a cattail Dad threw into the swamp. I missed.

I was surprised though, because benison comes from Latin Benedicere and venison comes from Latin venation. Two words, both from Latin, one letter difference, and look at how different the words were from which they evolved. If that isn't a metaphor for the human race and life in general, I don't know what is.

OK, so I hate to change the subject, but this show we're watching just mentioned "Corinthian columns." While there is nothing about columns that would normally make my mind do such a shift, it's that word Corinthian. There is an entire generation of people in the US of A (if not two) that cannot hear the word Corinthian without thinking of leather. Of course there is no such thing as Corinthian leather, but it was drilled into our heads that it was "rich." And for anyone too young to remember those ads and thinks I'm hyperbolizing about how an entire generation would know the phrase "rich Corinthian leather," here you go. You're going to start believing me more often, aren't you? Damn straight.

*Or "rpm gramophone record" as per wikipedia. "Gramophone"??? Fer Pete's sake, if they had said they were "gramophone records" when I was a kid, I think we all woulda waited for CDs - despite the fact we had no idea such a thing was coming.