Aug

23

Word Of The Week: August 23rd, 2008

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 23, 2008 |

letterh.jpgHow do you know when a word should be hyphenated and when it shouldn’t? It often depends on usage. Take, for example, the word hitchhike, which almost always throws me because I have to stop and think, “Are there two h’s in the middle or does the first one absorb the second?” Hyphenating the word–as the Oxford English Dictionary, my usual reference, does–would make that easier to remember, but I’ve got to go with usage. Most of the time, and in other dictionaries, such as the Merriam-Webster, it’s spelled out as a single word.

It’s funny to think that there was a time when hitchhiking was more common, and more accepted, and probably even safer, than it is now. Maybe it’s still safe, but who’d risk it? My all-time favorite Far Side cartoon (I wish I could print it here but won’t out of respect for Gary Larson’s request that his work not be put online without permission) shows two women in a car. Standing on the side of the road is a giant guy with scars and an eye-patch and a hook for a hand holding a sign that says, ANYWHERE. One of the women is saying to the other, “Come on Sylvia, where’s your sense of adventure?”

There are also a couple of great short stories I know about hitchhiking. One is The Deadlier Weapon by Larry Niven, which can be found in his collection Convergent Series. A cautionary tale, the narrator decides to pick up a hitchhiker who puts a knife to his neck. The driver cleverly manages to turn the tables by demonstrating that he has the deadlier weapon. Roald Dahl’s story The Hitchhiker, in his collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, is a less cautionary tale–although it does advise against trying to bury the needle of the speedometer on your new car, unless your passenger happens to be a practiced “fingersmith”.


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Morgan on August 23, 2008 8:39 am

    Words like “hitchhike” always throw me because when you take time to look at it, the double “h” in the middle just doesn’t look right.

    I’ve seen the Larson cartoon you mentioned. I love Larson and was so sorry that he stopped doing the Far Side. I also mourned the untimely departure of “Calvin and Hobbs.”

    Larson did a lot of reptile-related cartoons (remember the young snake complaining, “Rats again, Mom?” at dinnertime?) so when he was slated to speak at a reptile conference Larry attended in California, it was the buzz of the crowd.

    Larry said it turned out to be a huge letdown. Like lots of creative geniuses, Larson is funny on paper but lacks any skill for translating that humor to a listening audience.

    Even less funny is actual hitchhiking. It’s been my experience that most hitchhikers are scary-looking people, and the people who offer me a ride I don’t want when I’m on my afternoon walk are even scarier. Larry wants me to start carrying a gun with me, but I’m such a klutz I’d probably shoot myself. So instead I’ve started walking with a neighbor. I won’t have to outrun an assailant now, I’ll just have to outrun her.

  2. Andrea on August 26, 2008 10:45 am

    Those sound like cool stories, gotta hunt those down.

    My mom tells me she used to hitch all the time in the 70s. Insanity! I’m probably lucky to be here.

  3. Christopher Waldrop on August 26, 2008 4:13 pm

    Morgan, that’s unbelievable that there are people offering you rides when you’re just out on your afternoon walk…but thank you for reminding me of one of my favorite jokes. And for reminding me of one of my other favorite Far Side cartoons. In The Prehistory of The Far Side Larson prints a very funny mistake a newspaper made. They printed the cartoon of the young snake next to one of Dennis the Menace and another kid eating sandwiches–but they reversed the captions. The young snake is saying, “If I hadn’t learned to make peanut butter sandwiches we would have starved to death” while Dennis is saying, “Rats again, Mom?”
    Andrea, hitching is one of those things that probably isn’t really that dangerous but still not a very good idea.

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