To Martinique, that Monserrat mystique

misheard as

Vermont’s unique, Vermont’s a rotten state

I have a friend, Mandy Green, whose name is a mondegreen of “mondegreen.” She wrote a kids’ book, “Gazoon High Twizzle,” about a mondegreen of “gesundheit whistle,” which means whistling after a sneeze. See it in animation at GazoonHighTwizzle.com.

“Good King Whatsisface backed out, on a piece of Stephen” is the one I remember most.

I used to reread* the book just to find the mondegreens (and no, I didn’t know that term then; it was probably too early)

Also remember–if a word is known by *everyone*, there’s no need to have a dictionary. Putting a word in the dictionary doesn’t mean that everyone knows and uses it. It means that *enough* people know and use it that other people will say, “what did she say?” often enough that you can justify the space in the dictionary bcs they may need to look it up.

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have boobies

However it’s not boobies it’s groupies. In my defense it is the Pussycat Dolls singing this so boobies really would not be out of the realm of possibility.

@Lynn, Yes, horribly enough, the MW definition is, in fact, “a vegetarian whose diet includes fish.” I agree, it’s a contradiction, which is why I offered “a person who observes a mostly veg diet but also eats fish.” In my own experience, I find that if I don’t lead with “I’m a vegetarian…” people need further explanation that no, I would not like an occasional hamburger. It’s an imperfect solution, I’m afraid, but one with which I’ve made peace after 17 years of being a pescatarian.