March 7, 2021 · 11:22 pm
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stop it


I really hate the word ‘woodsy’.

35 Comments

Filed under Flowers

35 responses to “stop it”

  1. rafaeleventpro@aol.com
    March 7, 2021 at 11:25 pm

    Agreed. It either is or it isn’t.

    Reply
  2. Robin
    March 8, 2021 at 10:09 am

    One vote for woodsy.

    Reply
  3. Eureka
    March 8, 2021 at 10:11 am

    Very unambiguous feeling for a fairly ambiguous word :).

    Looking at the image, though, at lot of words came to mind, but certainly not “woodsy”. Towering, majestic, or, perhaps, if it were rendered in color, even green or brown, or maybe even mossy, but not woodsy.

    Though I’m curious, is “woody” as abhored or is that the correct descriptor?
    Is it the lack of linguistic or descriptive accuracy, or both?

    (All the while, making a mental note never to describe something to the Black Narcissus as such)

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      March 8, 2021 at 1:48 pm

      No – you can woodsy all you like : to me it just incredibly irritating in the same ways that ‘veggies’ is to me.

      But ignore me : I am supine with labyrinthitis and irritable.

      ‘Woody’ is better – although there is also the connotation of hard-on. Olfactively, I think woodsy is a euphemism for ‘vile synthetic chemicals’.

      Reply
      • Robin
        March 8, 2021 at 4:25 pm

        Woodsy, yes. Veggies, no.

      • ginzaintherain
        March 8, 2021 at 4:27 pm

        !

        It’s a trans-Atlantic / Pacific sparring match

      • ginzaintherain
        March 8, 2021 at 4:30 pm

        What is the mouthfeel of woodsy chez toi? I mind it less by itself – has a slightly whimsical forest clearing aspect ; but before a noun : top : bergamot,
        heart; jasmine, rose
        base : woodsy notes

        I prohibit.

        How about woodsy veggies, like roasted parsnips ? Love those.

      • Robin
        March 8, 2021 at 4:54 pm

        And sorry to hear about your labryinthitis. I thought you’d invented a malady involving excessive viewing of the 1986 musical fantasy film starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly until I looked it up.

      • ginzaintherain
        March 8, 2021 at 5:38 pm

        No – it is real. Nightmareish. Which is why I could only manage a six word post yesterday.

        I was also talking to the vertigo.

        Basically, after all the INTOLERABLE stress of this term, I am now broken.

        It is perhaps also because I had a crazily intense week of writing inspiration – I wrote a fifth of my Japan book at least plus perfume reviews : on a divine creative roll verging on hypomania – and then woke up Saturday morning with the room spinning ; IV drip etc. I tried to stand up earlier and toppled back down to the futon. Today is better than Saturday night – which I think is possibly the worst thing I have ever experienced : like being hurtled into space.
        I felt like Sandra Bullock in Gravity : catastrophically dizzy

      • Old Herbaceous
        March 10, 2021 at 12:09 pm

        Ugh, I’m so sorry. I used to suffer from occasional vertigo attacks, they’re awful. I just took Benadryl and passed out until it went away. I hope you feel better soon.

      • ginzaintherain
        March 8, 2021 at 5:39 pm

        PS

        I have never understood how people – legions that I know, my sister too, who was but an infant – find Bowie sexy in that. I know there was the ‘package’ issue, but Jesus the hair and those eyebrows

      • ginzaintherain
        March 9, 2021 at 7:55 am

        I know ….. I typed in corona and labyrinthitis and saw about 11% of people have that as a symptom.

        On the other hand I have long had left ear problems; bad tinnitus for 15 years and then a disaster about five or six years ago in London when a silicone earplug – I was staying at a friend’s noisy house – MELTED in my ear, necessitating an emergency hospital visit in the night with three very kind NHS doctors trying to get it out with sharp metallic instruments, damaging my ear further in the process. I then developed the worst inner and outer ear infection a Tokyo ENT said he had ever seen – flying home was awful – and ever since I sporadically get ear infections : I get a twinge in the chest and ear and think uh oh, especially when run down or stressed. I did have the same feeling last week so it is possible that it is a bacterial thing which can lead to labyfucktitus.

        To get a coronatest I would have to travel to a hospital too far away in this situation .

      • ginzaintherain
        March 9, 2021 at 7:59 am

        Reading this though, I did have the feeling last week that I was having to ‘drag’ air into my lungs in the left side more than usual – with a mask on teaching it did not feel very pleasant.

        I wonder ….

  4. Bibi Maizoon
    March 8, 2021 at 1:51 pm

    Absolutely useless in describing fragrance. What is it? A pine forest or sandalwood? Oudh, cedar, vetiver, oak moss, mahogany, or aged patchouli?
    Then again, I’ve seen amber, tobacco, ambroxan, and birch tar described as woodsy or woody. What’s up with that?
    Woodsy sounds like 70s flocked wallpaper.

    Reply
  5. fragroom
    March 8, 2021 at 2:29 pm

    Now that you mention it, I will stop using it forthwith! Tee hee!

    Reply
  6. brielle87
    March 9, 2021 at 2:10 am

    Woodsy sounds a bit dumbed-down to me. I prefer to hear a scent described as having “wood notes” or even better, just list the wood note it is supposed to contain, i.e. cedar notes, sandalwood, notes, rosewood, etc…
    I am so sorry you are having such terible medical issues lately. Labyrinthitis sounds horrible and I wish you a speedy recuperation. I think all the stress you are under has caused these problems. Please take care and be well.

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      March 9, 2021 at 7:46 am

      Thanks Brielle.

      I am resting at home. The problem is that each time I enter the school with all the people and the lack of ventilation, week after week, month after month, and then people GETTING it and still not opening windows, it has been unbearably claustrophobic for me, a constant suppressed panic attack that finally has cracked in my brain. I am lucky I am a person that can’t vomit easily (basically never), otherwise it would have been a total spewfest. I was really looking forward to a nice spring holiday but couldn’t make it til the end of term. Now I will have to do replacement lessons ( as per my contract – they are being quite amenable ) dotted throughout ; I feel less dizzy today so hopefully the treatment is working. Mine is a mild case because I can stand up and move around once I get through the hideous lifting oneself from the pillow stage. Proper full on cases sound atrocious – people can’t even move and the world is just swimming. They truly have my pity and empathy : the sheer vertigo ( while lying down ) on Saturday night was the worst thing I have ever experienced.

      Agree about ‘wood notes’ or individual ingredients – for me woodsy is a generic copout

      Reply
  7. David
    March 9, 2021 at 9:16 am

    I hope you are feeling better. Good feelings sent!

    I also hate woodsy. I generally hate the overuse of putting a “-y” on words to make or invent an adjective. I have seen people write words like Alaska-y (Alaskan exists, you know) or neighborhoody (neighborhood itself can be an adjective) or weekend-y (just sod off).

    My utmost disdain goes to the use of “funk” to describe umami-rich food. I have been reading a lot of cookbooks in quarantine and every time an author writes that a certain food has “funk,” I want to throw the book across the room (well, i read on an iPad so throwing is out of the question). Funk is only allowed when writing about Chaka Khan circa 77 when she was still with Rufus….I don’t know what put me on a sassy horse tonight, but it kind of feels good to get this off my chest.

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      March 9, 2021 at 9:58 am

      Love Chaka : when I did my Miller Harris event, D and I came home and had a private disco. listening to my new ¥50 Chaka Khan This Is My Night 12” ( I like her 80’s stuff as well: also her tuneless funk albums like Clouds). Umami as funk is unacceptable, as is The Japan Times’s only using the word nuke rather than nuclear, which raises my cortisol every time as I know they think they are being groovy. Alaska-y is kind of cute because the y is so wrong after the a, though I don’t imagine ever saying Kamakura – y.

      Neighbourhoody is only for dipsticks.

      ‘neighbourhoody veggies for sale’ would lead to said sign’s immediate destruction by flaming bazooka.

      Take care in Brazil – from what I have reading the situation looks horrific from all the Borsonaro-y cretinous ineptitude-y balonaramic bullshit

      Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      March 9, 2021 at 10:00 am

      We could start a new political party which has only one campaign promise : ridding the world of the misused y.

      It would be a landslidey victory

      Reply
  8. OnWingsofSaffron
    March 10, 2021 at 6:16 am

    Dear Neil,
    I hope you‘ll feel better soon: strong as that immense tree in the picture; flexible and energetic as bamboo; and as fresh and alert as patchouli from Sumatra! There, said it all without that horrid word!
    Stay safe and out of pain.

    Reply

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