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MS-Word Learns a New Word
Skedaddle: ski-DAD-uhl. Run away; esp: to flee in panic. Also skedaddled; skedaddling; skedaddler.
-From Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Can you believe that Word doesn't recognize "skedaddle" as a legitimate word? Here I am, deep in the act of writing The Secret Life of Eric Saxby, wrapped up in a character's charming dialect, totally "into" my little created movie world and happily unaware that I'm typing away at a keyboard, when all of a sudden Eric utters that colloquial sweetness and - BOOM! - gets slapped with one of those irriating red squiggly underline thingees. The equivalent of the $10 adultery fine still on the books, I believe, in Maryland: rude, over-reactive, and incredibly philistine.
Heh. I bet Mac users don't have to put up with such PC suit-and-tie starchiness. I fact, I bet you can use skedaddle all over the place in their version of Word and instead of censure, upon each use, a Powerbook vends a lollipop from a supply tucked away into the sleek casing by one of Apple's quirky engineering staff. Ahh, I miss my Mac days. Sometimes.
But now back to the real issue at hand: how can such an oversight occur with a word so damn catchy and fun to say?
C'mon, try it. Skedaddle. Skedaddle. Skedaddle. See? It's fun!
Would stay and write more, but I must ... you know.
Ahem.
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Jack White is a Believer
Jack White: At one point, I thought, "Well, while I have my own shop I should really get into every mode of upholstery I can and learn what I can about everything," so I remember calling up a bunch of places that were upholstering coffins, three or four in the Detroit area. I called them all up and they just would not hire me. I was like, "I'm an experienced upholsterer and I've been working in the trade for years," and they were like "Why do you want to upholster coffins?" They thought I was some sicko or something, but I wanted to learn that part of the trade beacuse there are certain techniques used in tufting and working with silk in coffins that you don't get to do in regular upholstery, but they just wouldn't hire me. They were like, "You know, a lot of this stuff is prefabricated and we just glue it together when it gets here and you don't want to work here."
The Believer: And there's not a whole lot of re-upholstering going on there, either.
JW: [laughs riotously] No, there's not. I didn't think of that.
From an interview with Jack White, genius dominus behind The White Stripes, as found in the latest (May) Issue of The Believer.
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