And we're off










Welcome to the Tiramisu Square blog.

I'll get to the reason for that name in a bit. But as you can see from the graphic above, our reason for being is to record life with the mistress of the malaprop, my 85-year-old mother, Regina.

Regina's utterances are the stuff of family record, a place if you will, where the English language goes to die.

Here's a quiz for you: Try to guess the intended words in the next few phrases; hints in parentheses.

1. Heineken remover (eating mishap)
Associated Press

2. Mork and Mindy (pocketbook fashion)

3. Escalators (COVID-19)

4.  IKEA (international intrigue)

5. Amtrak (think powder, not trains)

Stumped? You should be; this is, after all, a lesson in misspeak. Here are the answers:

1. Heimlich maneuver.: You know, when someone chokes, on, say, a bottle cap.

2. Dooney and Bourke: Why would anyone spend all that money on a pocketbook?

3. Ventilators: That (Andrew) Cuomo keeps saying there aren't enough of them to treat people for the virus.

4. Al Qaeda: Home improvement terror network

5. Anthrax: Dangerous white powder that travels by train.

Not to belabor the metaphors, but Regina tends to rush her way through a conversation, as if she were in a car pressing the gas pedal too hard. The result is often a linguistic fender bender.

Both friends and family get a kick out of our malaprop list, one we've added to time and again. But the decided favorite is the name of this blog. You see, my mother told me a long time ago she wanted to go to China, to the place where the world saw one dissident's lonely stand (above) against his government during protests in 1989.

She wants to go to Tiramisu Square.

You, of course, know it as Tiananmen Square. See what I mean?

Next up: Going COVID crazy





   





 






 

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