day of the word

Here in the flats of Mudville, we like certain words. Turgid, tortuosity, lugubrious...these are words that just lumber and plod about once in your mouth, like shoes clumping on hardwood floors. These are words that make me feel cozy in my own dyspeptic skin--another word I greatly approve of. But turgid--essentially to mean bloated--is nearest and dearest to my heart because of the short story, Turgid, by Mary Gaitskill. Once published years ago in a New Yorker, I no longer have a copy of it and I believe it was never printed in book form. But what I do have is her collection of short stories, Bad Behavior. No other author I can think of succeeds in being so naughty and poignant at the same time. OK, I'll give it up for Matthew Klam, author of Sam the Cat for naughty, funny and entertaining. But deep it ain't.

So from mudville, have a turgidly tortuous day and a lugubrious deep, deep sleep.