Synecdoche

(Pronounce it "sin-EK-duh-kee" and not however you were going to pronounce it.)

Here is the definition, but I will give you a thimble-full of knowledge and say "a term, Greek in origin, denoting a thing (a 'whole') is used to refer to part of it." As in, "Detroit really needs to get it together and make more efficient cars!" or whatever your soapbox is, where "Detroit" stands in for "the automobile industry, generally centered in that area of Michigan." It is fun to make up examples, especially if they're either really vague or idiosyncratic. "Switzerland sure knows what it's doing!" is something I could say, and you, sitting next to me at the bus stop, would be dragged into a conversation wherein I detail the many fine qualities of my new watch. And wouldn't you just be glad about that? It really is a nice watch, even though it can't always tell me the correct date, and I end up telling it. Symbiosis, that's what I always say, especially while waiting for a bus.

You might already have learned about this word, or this concept, "synecdoche." Probably, I learned about it in college, during one of the classes I skipped due to subway failure or hangover. At any rate, I am glad to have the knowledge now, just in time for the new Charlie Kaufman film that includes that word in its title.

At any rate, synecdoche has nothing to do with what I wanted to write about today, which is: The fact that I missed several product placement references in yesterday's reading of Chapter One of Big Stone Gap. I think that exposure to this book rendered me hysterically blind, not unlike the time I encountered Martha Stewart in a ribbon shop in San Francisco and went hysterically deaf. True story, similarly inexplicable.

Anyway, I went back and scanned the text, finding reference to:

1. Metracal shakes;


2. AYDS -- the diet candy that I'm guessing fizzled due to unfortunate nomenclature; and


3. Figurines.

Does anyone here remember Figurines? They had the greatest theme song--set to the tune of Tangerine, which I know because I am 79 years old and once danced to it with Gary Cooper at the Mocambo. I have just the vaguest memory of it, but it went something like:

Figurines... help keep you as you are...
La la la la la
128 a BAAAAAAR!

The point being that you could eat these things, these Figurines, and while you wouldn't lose weight, you probably wouldn't gain any, either. Mainly, I just enjoy singing that song. Anything to bring music to the world. Did you know that every time you sing, a baby koala gets a tricycle? It's true.

So, aside from my hysterical blindness, I have some kind of hysterical ailment involving a fever that only I can perceive, and a phantom stomach ache. It's great, and the Internet has been so helpful in determining a cure. The cure involves a special diet with lots of beets and some kind of "tablets" I'm supposed to order for $15. I'll let you know if it works. Well, if it doesn't work, I'll be on here complaining every day, so either way, you're covered.

Really, I'm just procrastinating on reading Chapter Two.