Ahoyhoy™,
In my last post (see here) I promised to finally explain what M.E.S.S. stands for. As I started explaining myself, I inadvertently veered off topic and started thinking about glossaries. Why? I don’t specifically know why my mind wanders frequently. I’ve just accepted it as an inconvenient normalcy… Anyways, thinking about M.E.S.S., glossaries, and my distractibility inspired me to create a separate page on my site for important definitions, terms, concepts, resources, and anything else that’ll help people better navigate my site. Hence, I started this article series: ROYSPLAININ’. As different things come up, the theme of this series will change, but they’ll all converge on serving as a glossary for my writing moving forward. Welcome to the inaugural article!
Explaining M.E.S.S. will take three posts. In this inaugural post I’ll explain two of the four letters: the “E” and the second “S”; in the next I’ll explain either the “M” or the first “S”; in the last I’ll explain whatever remains. (The order of those releases depends on feedback about this one…)
The second “S” in M.E.S.S. stands for syndrome. That’s straightforward enough that I feel underwhelmed even explaining it… After all, M.E.S.S. is about the disturbing behaviour that I’m trying to describe—the one that keeps cropping up—so that the second “S” stands for syndrome shouldn’t shock you. Nonetheless, I’ve mentioned it for closure. Onwards to the “E”…
The “E” stands for entitled. I’m specifically referring to inappropriate entitlement. An example will better convey my point. Please join me for Hook-and-loop Fastener Thursday, October 28, Monday, November 15, 2021 Monday, February 7 2022.
As for the title of this series, I came upon it during one of my diversions—you know the type I mentioned earlier. I like punchlines. Well, it’s not just punchlines, it would be more accurate to say incredibly short stories—jokes fit that model perfectly. That got me thinking about how explaining a joke always ruins the joke, which led me to this title. Roysplainin’ is an allusion to “mansplainin’,” and “whitesplainin'”—I hope my explanation shows you that there is an exception to the explaining-a-joke-always-ruins-the-joke rule.
Thank you for your time,
Roybert S. Henanigans
NOTE 0: As promised, here’s the word count for Hook-and-loop Fastener: 531 words.
NOTE 1: The delay was pretty much due to me feeling under the weather. No, not physically ill, but I was just kind of all over the place. On the bright side, it gave me plenty of time to solve the backlog problem! Thank you for your patience.
NOTE 2: Postponed until Monday, November 15, 2021 Monday, February 7, 2022.
NOTE 96: I’ve updated my Contact Me page explaining how you can help me if you choose to. This includes a messaging form, my gmail address, my Twitter account, and a donation button to my Ko-Fi page. I’ll update specifics gradually over the course of this week!
justcallmeroybert 