I wrote an album review for the local magazine that I freelance for, Performer Magazine, and was trying to find a different word for “showcase.” I asked a few other editors if they had any ideas, but nothing captured exactly what I was trying to express.
That’s OK, I thought, there’s still the world of online thesauri. First I tried the old standby, Thesaurus.com. I typed in ‘showcase’ then ‘show case’ and didn’t get a single result for either version. Well, actually, Thesaurus.com asked if I meant ‘show case’ instead of ‘showcase.’ Looks promising. Sure, I clicked, why not? No results came up.
After a couple of minutes of questioning Thesaurus.com’s ability to function as an actual thesaurus, I moved on to Merriam-Webster – that paragon of Word of the Day. Again I tried both ‘showcase’ and ‘show case.’ Again, I got no results. Well, almost no results. Merriam-Webster didn’t exactly say: ‘We ain’t found shit!’ But it was close.
Instead, it asked if I could’ve been searching for either of these two words:
Jocose
Sausage
Really. Sausage. Showcase. Jocose. Showcase. Sausage. Oh yeah, I can see how those might be related.
Fail.
May 8, 2008 at 9:44 am
I have the best Thesaurus in the world–THE SYNONYM FINDER by J.I. Rodale. Don’t know how many times that fat baby has pulled my butt out of the fire. Used it with every one of my stories, articles and novels. Couldn’t do without it…
May 8, 2008 at 9:48 am
Hey Cliff. The Synonym Finder is, by far, the way to go. I’ve spent a lot of time pouring over that thing. When I first bought it, I thought it would do my writing for me: I’d just be able to open it up and well chosen, intelligent words would just pour onto my page. Writing is a little more work than that, though, isn’t it?
May 8, 2008 at 10:02 am
Writing, as the great Robert Penn Warren said, is “the pain I can’t live without”. The SYNONYM FINDER is a tool, nothing more. Like a good set of dictionaries. But it doesn’t provide the inspiration, talent and perseverance required to be an author. That, I’m afraid, is something innate. You either have it or…
A pleasure to meet a fellow Queens fan. And do check out Mugison, the opening act (on YouTube ot whatever) because that guy has chops. Just ordered the last Metallica album Cliff Burton played on, “Master of Puppets”, and that one could be Cliff’s summer music as he sweats his ass off in his office, finishing his next novel. Good to hear from you, man…
June 24, 2008 at 9:32 am
glass case, cabinet, display case, display cabinet, vitrine, platform, vehicle, setting, stage
…
Oh, did you want a verb?
Picky.