1 August 2003
trend that won't #1: shipspeak
Were you aware that "trend" could be used as a verb? It can! So it's possible to have a trend that doesn't in fact trend in a somewhat ironic sense. Like the pet rock after the first couple months.
Anyway, it struck me that, given the recent success of the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean movie, nautical terminology will soon be hip additions to common vocabulary. Let's say a guy and a girl go on a date. He gets directions to her house ("Turn port at the third stop sign, then at Anystreet make a turn starboard") and soon the two of them are "underway" to the restaurant, which is known for the particularly good "mess" in its "galley" (i.e. no "seabiscuits"). They converse, and after dinner she entertains thoughts of being "First Mate" to him as "Master". As she slips out to powder her nose in the "head" he wonders too if they might "come alongside" each other. She gets back to the table with her panties in her purse and a "come aboard" look in her eyes...
And so forth? Naah. I don't think it could ever catch on because too many people would giggle at calling the restroom a "head". And who can tell left from right, let alone "port" from "starboard"?