Monday, November 24, 2008

Oh, the Quangness of it all!

Years ago I had a friend, a woman, who made me laugh. Not just a courtesy "heh heh heh," but the type of deep gut laugh where your abdomen has contracted some sort of perpetual spasm. You stop laughing for a moment, trying to get control, afraid of being in the Guinness Book of World Records like that person who can't stop hiccupping. But, your abdomen starts contracting again all on its own and before you know it, you're out of control again.

Since I don't know if she would appreciate having her name plastered all over the Internet, and because some people who know her might just say "Her? She's about as funny as a morgue," I will resort to calling my friend Gut Laugh Girl for the purposes of this blog.

Gut Laugh Girl, my kindred spirit soul sistah, loved to make up words. She also appreciated a fine verbal concoction when made by someone else. My absolute favorite phrase that she introduced to me was Foreign Quang. Kinda rolls off the tongue, huh? Foreign Quang. Not a delight that she invented, but one that she learned from someone else who learned from someone else. My goal? To lovingly hand Foreign Quang to you, just as she passed it to me.

Ever have to scrape that goopy pile of food remnants from the inside of the kitchen sink drainer? Foreign Quang. Ever notice you were trailing something from your shoe, and upon closer investigation realized that you had stepped in gum, but the gum had attracted all sorts of kibbles and bits that were now lodged in the tread of your shoe? Foreign Quang. Ever try to scrape some dried Foreign Quang off of a wall, only to discover that your son and his nose were too lazy to look for a tissue?

Quick usage sample: "Oh Heavens, Gertrude! You must have sat in some Foreign Quang on that park bench. It's all over the back of your skirt."

Or another: "Would you please give the dog a bath? He has some sort of Foreign Quang matted in his fur."

In the virtual world of blahhh-ging, we spew forth from our minds our own Foreign Quang, in written form; odd bits and pieces of our lives, scraped off of a wall or obtained from a park bench. We bloggers hope these pieces, over time, give our readers a feeling of normality in an insane world. A feeling of "Wow! I thought I was the only one who felt that way." A connection. A bond. A sisterhood. Or if you're a guy, a bro-hood.

We hope you kick off your shoes, cozy up to the keyboard, and hang out for a while.

7 comments:

  1. Why thank you! I thought of it myself. :)
    So when are you going to start your own blog?

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  2. Oh my goodness. As you know, I've been reading your blog for a while, and I must admit I always wondered what the heck 'foreign quang' was, but for some lazy reason, i never clicked to find out how to use it in a sentence.

    Yesterday (I think), I didn't have your site handy, and decided to google you. I googled "Randi" and got the strangest things (go ahead, try it yourself). Then I added in "blogspot" in hopes of finding you. I could have taken a few seconds to either go to my own blog and click for you, or go to my google reader.. but don't ask me what possessed me to google it. As I tried, I finally remembered the words "foreign quang".

    Didn't think much more of it. Then today, I thought back to my google searches and then finally finally clicked to figure out how to use foreign quang in a sentence.

    Dang. What took me so long? And why did I post such a long comment about not much? Happy Day, and it's such a pleasure reading your blog, Randi.

    Daisy

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  3. Daisy! I am so excited that you are now in the elite club of people who can spread the phrase "foreign quang" to the world! Yay!

    And I am happy that you wrote a nice long comment because believe it or not, yesterday I was looking at my Google Analytics and it told me that someone found me using the phrase "randi blogspot foreign quang." Now I know it was you. I love nice long comments anyway.

    Thanks for coming by and for always being so nice. Your comments mean a lot.

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  4. Oh wait a second.. my forgetful mind is remembering...

    you said "we spew forth from our minds our own Foreign Quang, in written form; odd bits and pieces of our lives, scraped off of a wall or obtained from a park bench."

    and I go... oh wow. Yes, I do spew forth my own Foreign Quang, don't I? And yes, much of it scraped off a wall and then lo and behold, I have a wonderful reader like you reminding me that it's okay, and I am not crazy, because we all have our moments.

    Hmmm. I suppose in my long winded way, I was just trying to say thank you so much for writing yours. Thank you so much for reading mine.

    I hope we will continue to share our respective foreign quang's we find. Did I use that properly in a sentence?!! :)

    Daisy

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  5. Daisy: Great Job! You've successfully used Foreign Quang in a sentence and are now officially ever so cool. And you know what made me sooo happy? You "get it." You knew exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks, Daisy, *sniff, sniff*

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  6. Confession. This is the first time I've clicked here too.Pity there are no multi-nationals out there looking for Foreign Quang producers, Randi - you and I would have it made!!

    ReplyDelete

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