StrangeSights

• It’s certainly copped its share of mockery thanks to those TV infomercials but the ‘Snuggie’ continues to make fashion inroads, recently reportedly appearing in New York Fashion Week. The “blanket with sleeves”, marketed as the ideal way to keep “totally warm” when feeling chilly, was modeled on the catwalk along with one of the latest manifestations of the concept - a snuggie for dogs.

• Colombia has a hippo problem. Authorities there have hippos in their sights as they look to round up the species - first brought to the country by now dead drug lord, Pablo Escobar. A debate has reportedly erupted over what to do with the hippos which Escobar originally imported - along with rhinos, zebras, giraffes and kangaroos - to stock a private retreat he had created. International experts have reportedly been brought in to help come up with a solution amid fears that the animals could cause environmental damage as well as injure people.

• And, yes, time for some more words. This time it’s a new British dictionary called Pimp Your Vocab which is aimed at providing adults with some insights into ‘teenglish’. The book was written by Lucy Tobin while she was at university, inspired when a tutor didn’t know what IM-ing (talking to friends via instant messaging) meant. Among the words explained in the book are ‘cool beans’ (similar to ‘great!’), ‘teek’ (’very old’ as derived from antique), and ‘neek’ (a combination of geek and nerd). Australian-based website Word Up also collates youth slang. It’s entries include ‘devon’ (when something bad happens), ‘chillax’ (combination of chill and relax), and ‘diss’ (meaning to disrespect).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.