Hey Doug! Last month, you used the phrase “slake the thirst” in a story on 11Alive to describe how negative political advertising satisfies viewers with a taste for fear or horror. I don’t hear “slake” much. Is that really a word? If so, why wouldn’t you use a more common word, such as “satisfy,” “quench,” “gratify” or “relieve”? Thanks. Btw, are you still writing your blog? – Ted Simmons, Decatur GA
Thanks for checking in, “Ted.” I get writing inspiration from many sources. Here’s a partial list.
- Cold fear. That describes my normal state, as I crunch out words at 5pm for a piece due to air at six. This writing is by-the-numbers, where I cling to the hope that my grammar and facts are accurate and rarely produce anything memorable, writing-wise, unless it’s memorably awful.
- Embarrassment. I have numerous reporter - colleagues at WXIA who seem to effortlessly write elegant prose on a nightly basis. One of these days, they’re all going to figure out that my effortless writing is utterly pedestrian by comparison. So I have to try harder than everybody else, or else they’ll get onto my game.
- Squidbillies. This is a TV show, which happens to be made in Atlanta. It’s among many that are well-written. When a character named Krystal told a convenience store clerk that she wouldn’t stop ordering soft drink refills “until my bottomless thirst is slaked,” it stuck with me. When that happens, such phrases seem to find their way into news stories.
- Music. Once, I sidled up alongside the singer for the Rock*A*Teens on a barstool at Manuel’s, and told him I’d swiped a lyric he’d written for a story. He was neither impressed nor flattered.
- Jeff Dore. The WSB reporter is a clever dude, a standard-setter. When covering a hailstorm, he described the ice chunklets as “the size of Spanish olives,” discarding the conventions of marbles and golf balls. I copy him shamelessly whenever possible.
As Tom Lehrer once sang: “Let no one else’s work evade your eyes. Remember why the good Lord made your eyes. So don’t shade your eyes, but plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize.”
Posted by Funkmeister on November 8, 2010 at 9:48 am
But be sure and to call it “research.”
Posted by SpaceyG on November 8, 2010 at 11:38 am
Please don’t deign to respond to anyone who would question your way with words. You can smite them with brimstone instead.
Posted by wagwar on November 8, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I first tine I heard “slake” was from Radar on MASH a few years back.
That doesn’t make me old, but I am anyway.
Posted by Sagebasics on November 8, 2010 at 5:37 pm
I first heard the term “the thirst slaker” in the Falstaff beer commercials in the 1960′s:
“Falstaff. The thirst slaker. The beer you reach for first, when you want to slake your thirst.”
Posted by burke brennan on November 8, 2010 at 9:11 pm
From the late, great Deacon Lunchbox:
What you lookin’ at chump?
Slake that leer
I just happen to be drunk on some righteous Omni Beer!
Posted by live apt fire on November 9, 2010 at 9:16 am
If I’m not mistaken, the late Mr. Lunchbox was once in the Opal Foxx Quartet with Chris Lopez, the aforementioned Rock*A*Teens singer. Now it all makes sense.
Posted by DaleRussell on November 16, 2010 at 12:02 am
How the heck do you pronounce slake? Never heard that word, that I can remember. Yet, I drink beer and watch a lot of beer commercials and loved MASH.
As for Jeff Dore – get him to pony up his resume reel that got him hired at WSB. I can’t remember which Dynasty was in power in China at the time, but I do remember watching it and thinking – I need to quit now. One story was done a la Charlie Osgood – all in rhyme. That one alone, was worth the price of admission.