Recombobulation

I actually saw the original, handmade "Recombobulation Area" sign at the Milwaukee Airport when it was put up as a joke sixteen years ago. The signs (and the word) were the brainchild of Barry Bateman, the Director of Mitchell Airport. Harold Mester, Mitchell Airport's Public Relations Manager, said, "Whether it’s a word or not, I think we can all agree we all feel discombobulated after going through a security checkpoint and need a minute to recombobulate." According to an article in OnMilwaukee.com, not a single grammarian complained. The word was named the most creative word of the year by the American Dialect Society in 2009. It's a fun word because discombobulate is a fun word.

The movers are due in an hour to help me move TOP World Headquarters from the front to the rear of the house. Mainly, a couch needs to switch places to make room in "the Lightbox"—that's what Peter Turnley dubbed my back room, because it has windows on all four sides. But most of the work is going to be putting together the new desk and then a whole lot of recombobulating. It's a great opportunity to clean, reorganize, and re-situate everything, and maybe even rethink a thing or two.

I particularly want to thank all my Patreon subscribers and various others who make substantive contributions to this little enterprise. With tax day now weathered, you have successfully kept TOP going for another year. I'm very grateful. If anyone else would like to pitch in, it would be most appreciated. My brother used to refer to TOP as a "vertical magazine," and many people think of their Patreon donations as being like a magazine subscription. Note that the donations are monthly, not one-time.

Today is another glorious Spring day in the Finger Lakes! A cloudless sky and brilliant sunlight. 2024 marks my ninth year here. I have loved living here more than any other place I've ever lived (and there have been a lot).

I hope to be back working tomorrow. The desk might take longer than that—the new one needs to use the same top as the old one, which is going to take some doing. Pictures when I can manage. Thanks for your patience and forbearance today, and I shall keep you posted.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

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Comments

[ASW]

What I want to see is a picture of your room with windows on all four sides. I'm trying to imagine it but I'm not coming up with anything.

Do you access it through a secret underground tram? Does the tram also reach the pool hall?

As they say on the online forums, pictures or it doesn't count!

[Mark Sampson]

When you have everything recombobulated, not today or even this week, please show us a panoramic view of the "lightbox".

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I would assume that the Society for the Restoration of Lost Positives would have put their power fully behind the posting of the sign at the Milwaukee airport!

(Discombobulate itself seems to go back solidly into the 19th century.)

[Herman Krieger]

Back Room-
A place where secret, administrative, or supporting work is done.

[robert e]

Thank you for the delightful addition to my vocabulary, which I hope to employ as much as possible going forward. Good luck with the recombobulating!

[Matthew]

Good luck with the move.

I have a box in my garage with bags and bags of cables and connectors. Each time I needed to move or reconfigure electronic equipment – computer, stereo, what-have-you – I would disconnect everything, put it in a bag, and then reconnect everything again on the other end.

Those bags and bags in the box are the bits that I never needed again. Don't know why I had them then, but they might have been important, so I still have them now.

[Bruce Hedge]

Nine years at Finger Lakes?? Wow, it seems only last month I asked in the comment section how you pronounced "Waukesha". Congrats from south of the Equator on still being my port of call every morning.

[Dave Millier]

My daughter is fond of saying "It's a great day, I'm feeling gruntled".