Full Circle

Monday night I was on the phone with my friend Jamie. At the end of the conversation he told me to brush my teeth. I instinctively quoted Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (the movie I have, due to youthful indiscretion, seen more than any other movie ever) by singing "brush brush brush, brush brush brush." Jamie told me that the way I said it I sounded like I was brushing my teeth. I said, "Like an onomatopoeia, but different. Wait, there’s a word for this, and I read about this word THIS VERY DAY." Fucking incredible. Here is what I read. The word is phonestheme and it describes a type of sound-meaning association.

To top it off, Jamie, under the moniker Jonny 5, has an album called Onomatopoeia!

To top it off EVEN MORE, I googled the "brush brush brush" quote and immediately found a blog comment on this page. The VERY NEXT comment (also quoting Pee-wee) goes:

I often say to people who are whispering behind my back "Is this something you can share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry?"

What’s the significance? My conversation with Jamie BEGAN WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE YING YANG TWINS’ WHISPER SONG. What is the world coming to? [Now checking outside for locusts.]