Spruik?


August 18th, 2007 by Sterling Hager


It is pronounced "sprook," but hold that thought.

Without any time this week to stay abreast of the shuttle scuttle over the wing ding, this Saturday morning I found this on Time.com entitled, "Why NASA Won't Repair Endeavor" by Barbara Liston. Good update, but for the record, I'm not buying any tickets for that ride anytime soon.

But the real point of this is that at the link above, right under the Time logo at the top and four in from the left, sitting there like any other average button or link or digital wallflower on a website is the word BLOGS. Thus began a journey I took around the world this morning sans shuttle…

I bought the blog bait… it's free after all… and went here where they feature to the right something they call Blog Comment of the Day. This morning the comment came from someone taking exception to Liam Fitzpatrick's post entitled Please Pass Me My Shades which is about, depending on your point of view, the tremendous or dreadful light show put on every night in Hong Kong.

Then there right in the middle of Mr. Fitzpatrick's post I found this sentence:

Would you believe that the Hong Kong government’s Tourism Commission, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board, actually spruik this vulgarity as a celebration of “the energy, spirit and diversity of Hong Kong”?

Spruik? I bet that's a word that wouldn't have gotten through the editors of Time Magazine proper since like me they'd figure no one in the world, outside of Australia, would have any idea what it means and that using such words, quite frankly, angers readers or makes them feel rather stupid. Being rather stupid myself, I had to look it up. Do you know what it means? C'mon, be honest.

Here you go. It is slang from Down Under, born circa 1915-1920, of unknown origin, all according to Random House information. It means, as you can see here at this link: to make or give a speech, esp. extensively or elaborately; spiel; orate.

The point of all this? Thanks to the Internet and social media, I can orbit the earth in seconds without ever leaving the ground, learn something in the process, and land safely back in the real world of Saturday morning in Massachusetts, America, USA. Now that's something to spruik about, wouldn't you agree?

By the way, the nighly light show in Hong Kong? Way over the top if you ask me.

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