A port(e)manteau word is an imaginative linguistic creation anyone can come up with. It fuses two different existing sounds and meanings and compounds them into a new snug expression. A wide array of portmanteaux has quietly infiltrated into our common vocabulary rut without our noticing it. Many of these words are no longer recognisable as random concoctions. Some even made it into respectable dictionaries, whereas others are so painfully adventurous that – for straight minds – their meaning becomes utterly unfathomable. A circumstance that forces the ones who coined them into a kind of zugzwang, should they want to see their congenial brain waves preserved for the next generations. But we need not worry: The universal power of social media will reliably enhance their endeavours to the fullest, don’t you think?
Posts about Creativity
TED Talk. Chip Kidd: The art of first impressions
People – and objects – are usually given a mere few merciless seconds to let their first impression shine in a positive light; when the impact thus created is of lasting effect, even the better. Who, if not book jacket designer Chip Kidd, is predestined to endorse what’s a commonly known fact. After all, books are written to be read and sold, and their covers ideally serve as a teaser, a marketing tool and as an individual advertising platform alike. Shrouding a message in mystery may be the appropriate method when targeting one specific audience – or be utterly counterproductive when addressing another.
The whys and the wherefores in favour of clarity are readily shared in this informative yet most entertaining talk. Mesmerised listeners learn the difference between those two techniques implemented by successful designers to induce instant communication with the consumer.
TED Talk. Suki Kim: This is what it’s like to teach in North Korea
To be able to write her book from an insider’s point of view, South Korean-born Suki Kim took the risk of going undercover in North Korea. For half a year, Kim worked as an English teacher at an elite school honing the country’s future leaders. While sensitising her students through concepts based on “seeking the truth” and “critical thinking“, massive doubts arose on her part at the same time: Was she putting them to peril by merely exposing them to usually unspeakable topics? “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,” is the memoir of Kim’s stay in Pyongyang during Kim Jong-Il’s final six months. Her work offers unprecedented insights into the psychology of North Korea’s ruling class.
An architectural legacy: Esma Sultan in Istanbul
The shell of a historic structure on the European coast of the Bosporus is lauded as one of Istanbul’s most exceptional venues and the distinguished guest or performers’ list includes Deep Purple, Alan Parsons, Boy George, Chris de Burgh, Elia Kazan, George Benson, actor Kevin Spacey … to name a few. But what is the mystery behind this astonishing building and its eponym?
Capsule Hotels in Japan
A grave decision: Sleeping in a Pod
„Capsule hotels are a unique form of accommodation developed for working Japanese men who are too busy to go home“ says the website for Amazing Places, Wonderful People and Weird Stuff. Far too tired to grasp their whereabouts, the too-busy men happily clambered into coffin-sized compartments to spend the night snuggled up against walls at best sealed by a tiny door. Nowadays, emancipated capsule hotels also cater to too-busy women – following the principle of: different gender, different floors, decency guaranteed. That capsule hotels are not for the claustrophobic, is self- understood – but even those with an imperturbable mind frame and without a space and washroom sharing problem may want to think twice before checking into one of the battery-style facilities: Many a foreign neighbour is stretched out in loop holes aligned to the left or the right, hovering overhead or snoring underneath, all separated only by sometimes skinny partitions.