A couple months ago I was telling my brother Phil about a friend of mine whose name is Fabeku Fatunmise (sankofasong.com) who is a just a funny dude and a great person to work with. Anyway Phil LOVED his name and kept throwing it out all day long whenever there was a lull in the conversation. Saying it a million different ways and laughing. No offense Fabeku! I didn't mind being reminded of Fabeku and Phil was getting a lot of joy from it, so why stop? Besides asking him to stop would only assure hours more of whatever he thinks has annoyed me. Case in point - Heeeeere Moosey-Moosey which he said non-stop for 4 days while we were in Maine last summer because I asked him to shut the fuck up after the first 10-20 minutes. Like Puxatawny Phil guaran-damn-teeing 4 more days of moose calling.
I digress. I was immediately reminded of Letterman and his Oscar hosting Oprah-Uma debacle. No, I didn't think that was funny, but there was something about it that felt familiar. Only when Phil did the same thing that day with Fabeku's name, did I see myself. I do that same thing. Only not to entertain or amuse myself. Certain words I just like the way they sound. Sometimes I will repeat them over and over just to hear the intonation until they lose their meaning and become mantra-like tones in my mouth and throat. (And now of course because I'm writing about it and want an example that part of my brain is suddenly on holiday - so probably a right brain activity not conducive to writing/thinking). Anyway, even as a child I can remember saying the word THE over and over until it didn't mean anything. Of course I didn't do this publicly. Being the smart kid was opportunity enough to be introduced to Mr. Swirly. I certainly wasn't gonna add to that by being the weird kid with the Tourrette's like affinity for words.
Certain sounds and syllables are hard for me to tone. zzzzzzzzzzzz. that one makes me laugh. I'm sure there are others. But that's the one that comes to mind today.
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