I have a blog again! It took me several months of building up my resolve and a week of painful IT issues to get here. My goal is to get back in the habit of writing. So I’m going to write whatever crosses my mind in my twelve minutes of free time each day.

Today I discovered the Lexicon Valley podcast by linguist John McWhorter.  While I had fun learning about the origin of the word “eleven” and the existence of a 1970s musical about the Rothschild family, my favorite part was an obscure tidbit about the origin of “Wanna buy a duck?” It comes from comedian Joe Penner, who enjoyed short-lived popularity in the 1930s and starred in films with Betty Grable and Lucille Ball before dying at the age of 36.  Penner was all about the catchphrase, and for some reason this one has lived on for nearly a century.

Tomorrow: More boring IT stuff. New theme. Cakes.