Lastly, But Not Leastly

The guest who gives the Senior Citizen Center menus each morning on my radio show is a nice guy who can add a few words and get away with it. As he reads the next five days’ offerings, he will tag either the final day or the final dessert with, “And lastly, but not leastly…”

We talked about it and, one day, I used the big studio dictionary while he was reading to see if the word actually existed. Dead end. Later, I checked the Internet and found that, while it appears often, it’s mostly by pinheads who I don’t trust.

Yet, words do make themselves into the language one way or another. Substandard usage (ain’t), slang, regional and a word which gains currency simply by widespread acceptance. Some words are fine now, while a hundred years or so back they were obscenities. Some words now that can’t be said in polite company were just fine in the past.

Everybody has a story.
Philip Pack died today. “Phil swam competitively and often recalled a 3-man relay he swam in at the YMCA against Olympic swimmer and movie star Johnny Weismuller. Although he lost, he claimed he would have beaten the original Tarzan if it were not for the diminished lung capacity he suffered as a result of working in the mines. While crossing the Atlantic on the SS Chatham, his ship was torpedoed by a U-boat and was sunk; he later served in the Pacific. Living in NYC, he used to buy shoes and sandwiches for homeless people in Grand Central Terminal.”