De Sica brought me another icy drink. I had a feeling he was avoiding something, the way he kept bringing up new questions. He looked like a cool customer in his Canadian tuxedo and those shades he still had on. Was he evading eye contact? I figured they were prescription glasses and he left the regular ones in his car.
“Here you go. Sorry about these shades. They’re prescription. I left my regular glasses in the car.”
“I figured.”
“So, about those portmanteau words?”
“Yeah?”
“They may go back to the 19th century, but Stephen Colbert is coining them all the time.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “He slices ‘em and splices ‘em like a plastic surgeon on speed.”
De Sica’s lip curled like he had just smelled something rotten.
‘He came up with “mantasy” for men’s fantasies,’ he said.
‘Right, and “Wikiality,” from wiki and reality, which is based on his assertion that if enough people believe something on Wikipedia it becomes reality.’
‘Just recently he said the Colbert Super PAC offered an Occupy Wall Street “Co-Optportunity.” You can find plenty more by going to www.colbertnation.com and searching for Colbertisms.’
I like your blend “portmanteautally,” which teens and twenty-somethings would agree is portmanteautally awesome.
Thanks, Steve.