....actually Light Emitting Diodes...Yes LED lights now have officially replaced any other pretenders for holiday lighting displays. Oh, I long for the days of the original chubby outside lights, mostly they are a memory. But, I have great affection for light emitting diodes, not any mind you...but the ones that have the dark blue/purple with the red...oh my it reminds me of the old days of "blue dot" brake lights on muscle cars. I never have been a car guy, but there was something about those blue brake lights on red that made me shiver with delight whenever I would see one. Now with the advent of LED christmas lights in the last 5 years or so...I am transported back to "one of my favorite things!" So if you get to travel with any Diehms this year looking at lighting displays, there is an expression from the ancient Pennsylvania Dutch that has been a Diehmism for years and years " Guchamal Doh"(sp)
which means to us "wow, look at the beautiful display"
From now on its "Guchamal Diode"
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Diehmisms
Wow, now that title is a mouthfull. It actually hurts the eyes to to see it in print as well! It's time for the long awaited "next D."
The Diehm family has long been known for it's internal lexicon. Maybe we're not as unique as I think we are, but I would venture to say our family has invented,or appropriated more words, phrases, and jargon than any ten families and put it to use for our enjoyment and apocryphal usage. "Like what" you ask? How 'bout "dun-duhs" for example. The problem of course is that most if not all Diehmisms are unspellable, they pass down only as oral tradition, so there may be argument (what, diehms argue?) about spelling.
A dun-duh is a Christmas gift whose name can not be mentioned within family hearing so as to keep it a secret. So it might go like this..."what am I getting for Christmas?" "Well a dun-duh, and a dun-duh-duh..." You get the idea. It gets to the point because Diehmisms take on a life of their own, anything secret could become a "Dun-duh"
Here are a couple of other choice Diehmisms in keeping with the theme, only "D" samples will be included.
DOOTY pronounce "doot tee"
doing dooty is basically, well, taking a crap...like the time when in stitches a boy friend of my sister will forever remember when a little brother ( present company suspected) called out to his mother "Mommy, Mommy, I got to do dooty and I can't get my zipper undone to take down my pants. Trust me, doing dooty has always been a big deal in my home.
Dunnamickadoody (pronounced of course, dunnamickadoody)
Sometime circa 1959-1960 at a circus attended by the Diehm family some glorious ringmaster in a rapturous response to some trapese artist's trick called out at the top of his lungs, "Dunnamickadoody, he did it!
Well, that was like frosting on the cake to Papa Diehm, and forever after, any successful venture a Diehm child would make was met with Dunnamickadoody she did it! or the like...
Making up your own language of course has its roots often in baby talk, which certainly applied to Diehmisms... or colloquial "Pittsburghese type slang" Internal family code language is never meant to exclude, nor is it ever really intended to be explained until now. In the world of public diaries (blogs), revealing the aprocryphal word usage of a family may bring down the wrath of the ancestors who took their family words with them to the grave, so...I am revealing these words at the risk of great peril or should i say "Dunnamickadoody, Diehm does a demonstrative dooty as a dun-duh for the world to experience."
The Diehm family has long been known for it's internal lexicon. Maybe we're not as unique as I think we are, but I would venture to say our family has invented,or appropriated more words, phrases, and jargon than any ten families and put it to use for our enjoyment and apocryphal usage. "Like what" you ask? How 'bout "dun-duhs" for example. The problem of course is that most if not all Diehmisms are unspellable, they pass down only as oral tradition, so there may be argument (what, diehms argue?) about spelling.
A dun-duh is a Christmas gift whose name can not be mentioned within family hearing so as to keep it a secret. So it might go like this..."what am I getting for Christmas?" "Well a dun-duh, and a dun-duh-duh..." You get the idea. It gets to the point because Diehmisms take on a life of their own, anything secret could become a "Dun-duh"
Here are a couple of other choice Diehmisms in keeping with the theme, only "D" samples will be included.
DOOTY pronounce "doot tee"
doing dooty is basically, well, taking a crap...like the time when in stitches a boy friend of my sister will forever remember when a little brother ( present company suspected) called out to his mother "Mommy, Mommy, I got to do dooty and I can't get my zipper undone to take down my pants. Trust me, doing dooty has always been a big deal in my home.
Dunnamickadoody (pronounced of course, dunnamickadoody)
Sometime circa 1959-1960 at a circus attended by the Diehm family some glorious ringmaster in a rapturous response to some trapese artist's trick called out at the top of his lungs, "Dunnamickadoody, he did it!
Well, that was like frosting on the cake to Papa Diehm, and forever after, any successful venture a Diehm child would make was met with Dunnamickadoody she did it! or the like...
Making up your own language of course has its roots often in baby talk, which certainly applied to Diehmisms... or colloquial "Pittsburghese type slang" Internal family code language is never meant to exclude, nor is it ever really intended to be explained until now. In the world of public diaries (blogs), revealing the aprocryphal word usage of a family may bring down the wrath of the ancestors who took their family words with them to the grave, so...I am revealing these words at the risk of great peril or should i say "Dunnamickadoody, Diehm does a demonstrative dooty as a dun-duh for the world to experience."
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Dutkiewicz
Who is Adam Dutkiewicz you may ask? He is a the multi-talented muscian, producer and flamboyant heart and soul of the Metalcore band "Killswitch Engage.' He is one of my heroes. Why would this rather foul mouthed musician( his stage personna may offend, even I cringed) be a hero. It has to do with my musical taste. I love sweeping melodic/harmonic metal music. Think early Zeppelin meets Boston (ironically where AD was trained) with rather angry (Metallica) influences, paying close attention to how guitar, drums and really good vocals (although the screaming for me is optional, but hey, its "for the kids" as they say) work together into a melismatic rainbow of sheer musical delight.
Adam Dutkiewicz is on the forefront of production of this so called "nu-metal" which inspires my workouts, and makes me glad I am a child of rock and roll. Just think, Adam was born a couple of months before I graduated from Wittenberg, when I was preparing to enter the world of theological education. Thirty two years later as I stood protecting myself from a rather fierce mosh pit listening to one of Dutkiewicz's most successful productions, fellow Massachusetts natives, "All That Remains" at, yes, "The Club Zoo" I was enraptured by my favorite of their songs "This Calling." I thought to myself, not many have this calling, in fact. I'm grateful to God that I do.
oops gotta run time to rehearse for my tenor roll in Camille Saint Saens' Christmas Oratorio.( He was the Dutkiewicz of his day!)
Adam Dutkiewicz is on the forefront of production of this so called "nu-metal" which inspires my workouts, and makes me glad I am a child of rock and roll. Just think, Adam was born a couple of months before I graduated from Wittenberg, when I was preparing to enter the world of theological education. Thirty two years later as I stood protecting myself from a rather fierce mosh pit listening to one of Dutkiewicz's most successful productions, fellow Massachusetts natives, "All That Remains" at, yes, "The Club Zoo" I was enraptured by my favorite of their songs "This Calling." I thought to myself, not many have this calling, in fact. I'm grateful to God that I do.
oops gotta run time to rehearse for my tenor roll in Camille Saint Saens' Christmas Oratorio.( He was the Dutkiewicz of his day!)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Defense (clap clap) Defense (clap clap)
He who does not play the big "d" sits on the little "b" is really how the expression goes. It was one of the sayings of my favorite coach of all time, the late Tony Archibald
I was so fired up to stop the other guy, that alas I was never an offensive threat in basketball, the game I love.
It started early on when as an "all field no stick" little league first baseman for the Poland Fireman, I was passed over when it game time to pick the All Star team.
But, I have always subscribed to the theory, if the other team doesn't score you will never lose!
Team defense is as much fun as team scoring IMO. When I coach basketball I subscibe to the Bobby Knight school "Pressure the Ball" So many good things happen with this simple first rule of defense. As more and more kids fall in love with "shooting the three," they become less proficient in handling the ball and are subject to being pressured!
In offense, we coaches often talk about scoring options, and rightly so! I know there are certain players I want taking shots. The more legitimate scoring options a team has, the more points they may score; its that simple. Granted, it takes a team for those scoring options to function.
But defense only has one option. Every player must work together to accomplish the result of preventing the other team from scoring. Defense is the ultimate team experience. If one player doesn't play defense, the whole system fails. Hence the expression "play d or sit on the b"
How I miss getting to teach this game!
Bigg Daddy D
I was so fired up to stop the other guy, that alas I was never an offensive threat in basketball, the game I love.
It started early on when as an "all field no stick" little league first baseman for the Poland Fireman, I was passed over when it game time to pick the All Star team.
But, I have always subscribed to the theory, if the other team doesn't score you will never lose!
Team defense is as much fun as team scoring IMO. When I coach basketball I subscibe to the Bobby Knight school "Pressure the Ball" So many good things happen with this simple first rule of defense. As more and more kids fall in love with "shooting the three," they become less proficient in handling the ball and are subject to being pressured!
In offense, we coaches often talk about scoring options, and rightly so! I know there are certain players I want taking shots. The more legitimate scoring options a team has, the more points they may score; its that simple. Granted, it takes a team for those scoring options to function.
But defense only has one option. Every player must work together to accomplish the result of preventing the other team from scoring. Defense is the ultimate team experience. If one player doesn't play defense, the whole system fails. Hence the expression "play d or sit on the b"
How I miss getting to teach this game!
Bigg Daddy D
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
"D" is for different
Ok, I'll admit it, writing and I are not best friends. In fact, the thought that I am a blogger is making me laugh in my IC Light.
I'm different. I have a passion for disparate things. My blog is an invitation for readers to enter the world of a pastor/coach/musician/fisherman/frustrated golfer/unhandy-man...
By reading my Blog you will become familiar with an old guy's love of metalcore.
By reading my Blog you will be invited into a world of theology and coach speak.
By reading my Blog you will enter the mind of what makes "different" so much fun.
Two things you can count on. My posts will be relatively brief, which in and of itself is laughable, considering my preaching is considered verbose and too long...
And, my grammar and syntax will be shoddy at best, and littered with these (.....) My daughter knows what they're called....
Each post will be a rhapsody on the letter "D...." The American Heritage Dictionary defines a rhapsody as an "exalted or excessively enthusiastic expression of feeling in speech or writing.
"Different" is not only fun it is thought provoking. I've become dangerously close to not thinking enough. When your passions lie in the center of life's political and theological spectrums, one can become lazy. You know, "if you don't stand for something then you will fall for anything." The things I stand for, I can't stand... for! The apostle Paul stated it something like this...The good I want to do I don't do, and the things a I don't want to do I end up doing! It's what drove him to total reliance on the grace of God! Different does not insist on being right... or wrong. It's just different.
God is different, not that much different than you and me..... but really different. And I believe that "different", like love, makes the world go around.
I'm different. I have a passion for disparate things. My blog is an invitation for readers to enter the world of a pastor/coach/musician/fisherman/frustrated golfer/unhandy-man...
By reading my Blog you will become familiar with an old guy's love of metalcore.
By reading my Blog you will be invited into a world of theology and coach speak.
By reading my Blog you will enter the mind of what makes "different" so much fun.
Two things you can count on. My posts will be relatively brief, which in and of itself is laughable, considering my preaching is considered verbose and too long...
And, my grammar and syntax will be shoddy at best, and littered with these (.....) My daughter knows what they're called....
Each post will be a rhapsody on the letter "D...." The American Heritage Dictionary defines a rhapsody as an "exalted or excessively enthusiastic expression of feeling in speech or writing.
"Different" is not only fun it is thought provoking. I've become dangerously close to not thinking enough. When your passions lie in the center of life's political and theological spectrums, one can become lazy. You know, "if you don't stand for something then you will fall for anything." The things I stand for, I can't stand... for! The apostle Paul stated it something like this...The good I want to do I don't do, and the things a I don't want to do I end up doing! It's what drove him to total reliance on the grace of God! Different does not insist on being right... or wrong. It's just different.
God is different, not that much different than you and me..... but really different. And I believe that "different", like love, makes the world go around.
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