8.15.2006

You can't make one word out of 'friends' and 'shenanigans' (unless it's shenanifriends) but I tried

One of the brothers that was on the dive trip with us last week emailed me a bunch of photos of the trip. For all of his haphazard snapping, some of them are quite artistic. I don’t think they were intended to be so, but backgrounds and stuff make them look like they’ve already been cropped and sized and stuff. They’re quite good. Anyway, I just got them and I haven’t even been home three days yet, but I’m looking at these and it already seems like it’s been a long LONG LONG time since the trip. Here’s why.
I seem to have difficulty continuing to be friends with people that were once only acquaintances. There have been a number of occasions lately where I spend a great amount of time with somebody in a very short period of time, (i.e. not really knowing someone very well and going to Florida with them for a week and really having a good time). That having been said, I feel like once that happens, there is never a means by which to keep in touch with someone I know I get along with really well without seeming sappy or nostalgic. Know what I mean? It always comes off (I think) as this let’s-keep-in-touch/it-was-real/we’ve-seriously-bonded type dorky thing, where it’s really a hey-had-a-blast/we-should-do-it-again/it’s-cool-to-make-new-friends situation. Know what I mean? Because I don’t have a whole lot of close friends, as in seriously close friends, and maybe I’m not supposed to (and do too much other stuff to have any), but that rather irks me. Especially friends my age… The people I spend most of my time with are between 35 and sixty-something, which means the AVERAGE age is like, people older than my parents… That’s not to say there aren’t benefits of spending time with people older and wiser than you, but that gets old (literally) after a while. I get along fine (usually) with (mature) people my age, but I really don’t know that many of them.
So now that I’ve just spilled my guts on all that, let’s have a share of something that could be a weekly treat…
-Shenanigan: Trickery, underhand action, intrigue, skulduggery.
“You’ll most commonly encounter this word in the plural. It seems to have originated in California at about the time of the Gold Rush, though it was first recorded in print only in 1855. In the years since, it has been spelt in about a dozen different ways, though recent dictionaries have settled on the version above. Where it comes from is still a matter of substantial dispute; the first five dictionaries I consulted gave four different origins (Oxford Dictionaries—as so often—opting for the ultra-cautious “origin unknown”). The word looks Irish, and there was no shortage of Irishmen in the California diggings, so it’s plausible to suggest the Irish word sionnachuighm as the source, meaning ‘I play tricks’, which is pronounced roughly as ‘shinnuckeem’. Others argue it comes from an East Anglican dialect word nannicking for playing the fool. Yet others guess at a link with the Spanish word chanada for a trick or deceit, which is another half-way plausible source, considering California’s history. Yet another theory was put forward in 1948 in American Speech for an origin in German schinnagel for a nail that holds the rim to the wheel, which produced the German slang terms schinageln, to work, and Schenigelei, a trick. As the man behind the market stall said, you pays your money and you takes your choice ...”

8 comments:

Horse N. Buggy said...

You spend time with people from 28 - 60s.

Anonymous said...

How about immature people your parents' age? *waving arms in air wildly*

Hope to see you Friday. I'll bring the Maalox.

Horse N. Buggy said...

Whoa. You're not quite his parents age yet. Let's don't add years where they don't belong. I am certainly not his parents age.

Anonymous said...

well, I'm not exactly his parents' age, but probably closer to theirs than the 'glot's.

Horse N. Buggy said...

OK, I'll give you that. And Bookie, you make an interesting point. Even at my advanced age, I think there are still some people who I feel that I make an instant connection with. I don't travel with strangers, so I guess I'm thinking more of people I meet at dinners or parties and think, "Wow. I really like this person. I want to be friends with them." But then it falls apart. In the past, I didn't try to keep in touch. These days, I'm making more of an effort and finding that it takes sustained effort. It did seem much easier when I was Poly's age.

Anonymous said...

It is very interesting to read all of your comments because often how we perceive ourselves is not how others pereceive us at all. H'n'B and Book Reader, I have always considered the two you naturally magnetic people who have a variety of people feel at ease with you instantly. It seems we all recognize the "sustained effort" it takes to have real friendships. Even then, I can relate with you Poly wondering if the initial connection can remain over time and absence. BR offers some good advice to appreciate those precious moments as they come!

Horse N. Buggy said...

Well, I *do* have magnets in my bra, so maybe that accounts for it.

Anonymous said...

Nice observation, Book Reader.