Lurgy

23 October 2008

So what if the OED doesn’t think it’s a real word? It sure feels real to me.

Nicola and I woke up sick today. We will be hiding away from our screens drinking hot tea and canceling appointments, and you may perhaps not hear much from us today.

I sure hope your day is much less sore-throated than mine.

Posted by Kelley | Filed Under blog, life

Comments

4 Responses to “Lurgy”

karina on October 23rd, 2008 12:02 pm

Oh, what a fun word. I’m sorry the symptoms aren’t pleasant, though. I hope you both feel better soon. Rest and stay warm and keep Tea by your side. It is magic. And here’s a hug from me.
Robin on October 23rd, 2008 12:03 pm

Bummer . . . perfect time for the both of you to listen to “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin. Even if it’s not one . . . you’ll enjoy each other’s company more because of it.

Your post on Late Blooming gave me way to much to think about – a thousand contexts outside of the artistic. (Managing!) There’ll be a response to that sometime way out in the future when you least expect it.

Hope you both feel better soon . . . beautiful, sunny, cool day here in the Northern reaches of Wisconsin. A “Heavenly Day”.
karina on October 23rd, 2008 12:05 pm

Oh, and for the record, the online version of the OED does think it’s a word:

“LURGY. Also lurgi.

Usu. in phr. the dreaded lurgy. A fictitious, highly infectious disease invented (?) and made a byword by the Radio Goons (GOON 4). For the possibility that the word is not invented, cf. fever-lurgy, dial. var. of FEVER-LURDEN, and E.D.D. s.v. lurgies, lurgy adj. & n.
1954 Radio Times 9 Nov. 20/3 The Goon Show… Poor Arnold Fringe is suddenly stricken with the Dreaded Lurgi… Within a few days Lurgi has claimed nine thousand victims. 1969 I. & P. OPIE Children’s Games ii. 75 (heading) The dreaded lurgy. 1971 It 15-29 July 5/3 The youth of Australia have been saved once more from the dreaded lurgy, marijuana. 1974 H. MACINNES Climb to Lost World ix. 149, I was beginning to feel weak and knew that I had caught the dreaded swamp lurgy.”
Kelley on October 23rd, 2008 1:55 pm

Thank you both for the kind thoughts.

The dreaded lurgy, that’s it. It’s a term from my childhood, and I was gobsmacked not to find it in the Shorter OED (I was feeling too pitiful to drag myself ten feet to Nicola’s office to look at the Big Kid’s OED…).

Robin, there even more to think about in the Gladwell Columbia lecture (including non-arts applications). I’ll be chewing on it a long while. And yes, management included, and counseling/therapy — experience-based skills require, well, experience (grin). I have to say, I find the whole thing reassuring as well as intriguing.