Next time you're feelin' blue just let a smile begin....

Happy things will come to you, so Smurf yourself a grin....

My word of the day -- and probably many other people's word of the day as well-- is: weltschmertz. Why do I love my word-of-the-day widget? Usually the words are limited to 'copacetic' and 'lionize' which do me fine. I feel intelligent for knowing them and haughty for being disappointed in my 'word of the day' widget for not supplying me with a genuinely new word. Generally speaking, I feel satisfied. What's a weltschmertz? Apparently it is a noun, "sentimental pessimism; sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life." Woh. I mean, that's a heavy word. It even feels heavy as it over the tongue and forces its way through the upper layer of teeth--and its German for those who don't know/couldn't figure it out (of which I may have been one, I won't say)-- so it comes out awkward and bizarre as Vel-tuh-shmerts.

I mean good golly, how often do you see a word with 6 consonants in a row? All right, 'catchphrase,' 'borschts,' and of course, 'eschscholtzia' for those Californians. Really though, otherwise there are only a few and those few don't seem to struggle to get out of the mouth nearly as much as weltschmerts. So there it is, a nasty word that seems to carry its definition quite well, as it leaves a seriously nasty taste that doesn't appeal to any of your tastebuds after having said it. In the end, that feeling will stay, too. Sitting there always a reminder of the unfortunate luck of of its ill existence. I suppose each person should probably say the word, genuinely say the word out loud once--if for no other reason than to get a good idea of its meaning.

Apparently (thanks wikipedia) it is a term coined by a German author, Jean Paul and 'denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who realizes the physical world can never satisfy the demands of the mind.' Huh. Well, until this word came along most of my mental demands were pretty well satisfied to tell you the truth, particularly as far as my word-a-day widget was concerned. And now?

Now after this latchstring (6 consonants in a row) has been untied I feel like a sisyphean lengthsman (6 consonants in a row) constantly searching a nasty street for the papers that have appeared since the earliest archchroniclers (6 consonants in a row) who must have put together, what used to be very satisfying, word-a-day calendars that are now tranfigured into weltschmertz (6 consonants in a row) inducing widgets for some lonely and erudite florist selling eschscholtzia (6 consonants in a row) to use as a catchphrase (6 consonants in a row) to impress and deter customers with their generally offputting attitude as they sit on their lunch break...eating their borschts (6 consonants in a row), of course. I feel that way, well, because there are many words out there that I'll see, pick up, read, and promptly forget; it leaves me with a sense of loss both of myself and of the language--of which I won't really be able to do anything about. Weltschmertz.

LAW

All right, so there was another word that has 6 consonants in a row: postphthisic. Here's the thing. I searched high and low for a definition of this word--I plugged it into google--and came up without a definition (not even urban dictionary had it in there). Apparently the word only exists for the purpose of having an additional word with 6 consonants in a row. This being the case, I have decided to also come up with a word. Or at least alter a word so that though it has 6 consonants in a row, it will leave me with a much better feeling after it all....

WeltSchmurfs: la LA lala-la La, La, lala- LA....it mean, uh, it's a noun. and it's, 'a smurfs world'/ It can also be used, more colloquially, to describe yourself as optimistic and excited about an enormous world of opportunities,

e.g. "As one little American student in this crazy French law school situation, I'm really in a weltschmurfs here!"