Language's Dynamic Nature: From Weather Archives to Gig Work

Key Quotes

"one of the expressions i've been sharing when you and i do live presentations before audiences is temperature blanket also known as a weather blanket and i can't believe the response i've been getting people love these terms yeah i love them too i didn't know them before you started talking about them in these presentations what i learned from you is that this is like a knitted blanket or it could be a scarf where the colors of each row represent the weather on that particular day in that particular place so it's like a diary in yarn you know different blues for cool and different reds for warmth and so on yes"

Martha Barnette explains that a "temperature blanket" is a knitted item where each row's color corresponds to the day's temperature, serving as a yarn-based diary of weather. Barnette highlights that this concept has garnered significant positive responses from audiences.

"but i've discovered it goes much deeper martha it does yeah there are a lot of people who make weather and temperature blankets and scarves for themselves and they're beautiful lovely stuff but since 2017 there has been something called the tempestry project t e m p e s t r y the people involved are not only crafting the weather into tapestries but they're doing it for historical periods they've standardized it makers are even extending the concept backward through time they're doing what amounts to weather blankets for things like their grandparents' lifetimes oh my gosh that is beautiful and i love the word tempestry that's just incredible"

Grant Barrett introduces the "Tempestry Project," which expands on the concept of temperature blankets by creating weather tapestries for historical periods, even extending back to previous generations. Barrett expresses admiration for the project and the term "tempestry."

"so i don't know if folklorists have a fixed name for these kinds of pranks but in books of folklore these kinds of pranks are often under the heading of made you look made you look because there are other types of pranks just like this and this particular one is often found but now i haven't found it in any books of folklore but you know where i find it in high school yearbooks going back at least 30 years what yes including being used to distract opponents on the basketball court wow yes where like somebody's like trying to make like the free throw that's going to like clinch the game and somebody says somebody says you dropped your pocket yeah"

Grant Barrett discusses the prank "you dropped your pocket," categorizing it as a "made you look" prank, similar to others found in folklore. Barrett notes that while not always documented in folklore books, this specific prank appears in high school yearbooks and has been used to distract people, even in sports.

"so so efficacy is about under controlled conditions and effectiveness is about uncontrolled conditions and so that's where you run up against differences generally efficacy tends to pair with words like controlled conditions specialized valuations clinical trial treatment effectiveness tends to pair with words like applied settings everyday performance policy strategy outreach enforcement prevention efforts gotcha do you see where we're going with this yeah okay that makes a lot of sense which that implies that i've also been using it wrong for a couple years now so okay what's encouraging here is that a you're recognizing that you can change the way you use the word and b you're still getting your degree so uh you're learning and that's okay"

The speaker explains that "efficacy" refers to performance under controlled conditions, such as in clinical trials, while "effectiveness" pertains to performance in uncontrolled, real-world settings. The speaker reassures Sarah that recognizing and correcting word usage is part of the learning process, especially while pursuing a degree.

"so i don't know if it's a military term it sort of had that flavor to me but she said oh gosh i think my mother used to say it more often so that's what i heard from her oh it's so interesting because you know it's not all that common to go gunny bags meaning to become broken to to fail suddenly so you can say this about people who go a little nutso you can say this about machines that stop working you can say this about plans that fail to work um or you can say this about a situation that just erupts into chaos to go gunny bags and so typically when you see it written out it's g u n n y b a g s usually as one word always plural sometimes as two words and what we're talking about here are usually given as gunny sacks and other forms and a gunny sack is made of martha what would you call this kind of a coarse fabric gunny is a fabric that originally was made of is this jute is this kind of originally from india and actually the word originally comes from indian languages as in the continent of of the country of india so it's a little bit of a pleonasm gunny means sack so gunny sack means sack sack it's redundant it's redundant yeah"

The speaker clarifies that "to go gunny bags" means to fail suddenly or erupt into chaos, applicable to people, machines, plans, or situations. The speaker explains that a "gunny sack" is a coarse fabric, often made of jute from India, and notes that "gunny" itself means sack, making "gunny sack" a redundant term.

"and i have a proposal that in construction projects where they have a punch list which sounds really negative they also use bliss list punch list being the all the little random items that you have to do before the project is done sure sure and just think how great you'll feel afterward you know it'll be bliss all the grout and caulking and broken things that have to be done it's a bliss list you tell your contractor he'll get it yeah just reframe it think about it differently anyway i really enjoy this newsletter by gwen moran it's called bloom anywhere you can find all of our past episodes and a zillion ways to reach us on our website at waywardradio org"

Grant Barrett proposes applying the "bliss list" concept to construction projects, suggesting it as an alternative to the negative-sounding "punch list." Barrett believes reframing tasks as part of a "bliss list" can foster a more positive outlook on completing necessary work.