Posted on 06/18/2013 4:03:50 AM PDT by SoothingDave
Word For The Day, June 18, 2013
In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day".
boondoggle [boon-dog-uhl, -daw-guhl]
-n
1. a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout.
2. work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy.
3. a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or the nation.
vt
4. to deceive or attempt to deceive: to boondoggle investors into a low-interest scheme.
vi
5. to do work of little or no practical value merely to keep or look busy.
[1930–35, Americanism; said to have been coined by R. H. Link, American scoutmaster, as name for def]
I recall as a girl going to the park having boondoggle projects. Key rings, necklaces, bracelets. Those were the days.
Contact pittsburgh dad!! He wants to be invited to a firehall wedding so as to do a bit about them!!!
It’s just under a year away now. I imagine he’ll find someone’s wedding for his bit before that.
I’d never heard the word used in that sense before. Just the “enormous waste of (gov’t) resources” sense.
http://www.kia.co.uk/new-cars/range/suvs-4x4-cars/new-sportage/intro-video.aspx
I think I’m gonna start calling my new car a “Spor-taj” like these Brits. LOL.
Honey, let’s take the Spor-taj to Tar-zhay.
You can google it in pictures and it will come up. It’s strips of plastic in different colors that you braid to make stuff. Girls love it.
Bingo.
But you knew that.
my girls always called that stuff GIMP! LOL! not sure what the derivation of that is either.
Boondoggle. The word itself points me immediately to one of the biggest evah: Boston’s “Big Dig”. A rebuild of Boston to accomodate traffic (the plan was already out of date and proven a failure before the first shovel-ready job was begun). What was to cost $3 Billion ended up somewhere near $20 Billion, and repairs for the many faulty works will be going on long past the time you and I have become dust.
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