That Interview Thing - Part I

I did A Free Man’s Interview thing, which means that Arizaphale of Now Where Did I Put That Flaming Sword? interviewed me, & I interviewed Father Muskrat.

Except, I think Father Muskrat decided to concentrate his efforts of late on evenly distributing his bodily functions into inappropriate receptacles instead of being interviewed, but...y'know...either way...

I've been getting kind of totally slammed by what I like to call "life spackle" lately, so I've broken up the interview into two parts to make posting (and reading, I imagine) more manageable:

1. You've got to admit, your blog has an unusual name. What does it mean (if anything) and what was your motivation in choosing it?

I overheard the name for my blog during Thanksgiving dinner maybe three years ago, uttered by my nephew. “But I was twipply skwood, because I did it at Mama’s house!”

I knew immediately that I had to adopt this new phrase…whatever it meant. As it turned out, my nephew had discovered the joys of superstitions and was entertaining his side of the table with the wishful thinking of a just turned six year old.

I don’t know if superstitions are the same the world over, but here in the United States, in addition to being somewhat reckless, walking under a ladder is also bad luck.

“I was skwood (screwed)” he explained, “because I walked undew a laddew (under a ladder)!”

He continued, “But then I was doubly skwood, because I did it at midnight.”

Finally he concluded that he was “twipply skwood” because he walked under a ladder at midnight at mama’s house.

So: skwood = screwed, twipply skwood = triply screwed

2. Why the signs? What's the attraction?

My dad has two theories about signs. One is "the brother in law theory." Someone has a brother in law in the sign making business and so a lot of stupid signs get made just to give the brother in law some business.

Dad’s other theory is that any sign means there’s a problem that, for whatever reason, no one feels like solving. I’m not sure if those two theories are mutually exclusive, or work together somehow. But either way, there are just so many entertaining signs out there.

Of course, it’s not always a sign. Sometimes it’s a fish with a tattoo:Sometimes there’s a sale at Target on movies featuring men with angry expressions on their faces:

And sometimes I see a truck that says “Fish” and I wonder, “Is that a noun or an imperative verb?”
And then I take a picture. Because why not? I mean, surely there are other people who wonder how hard it was to get the fish an appointment at the tattoo parlor and whether or not the sign on the truck is really ordering all who read it to go fishing.

Anyhow, that's two out of six. The other four are shorter and I'll post them as soon as life gives me a break here and/or some excess computer time.