It would shock me if, after all this time - after over four thousand posts on this silly blog thing - I haven't entitled a post "Penultimate," as it's one of my favorite words. We should have words for the next to the last, just as we should have words for the things before & after. But as far as I know we only have penultimate.
& it turns out I did use the word in a post, from over fourteen years ago, when I was about to do my next-to-the-last Self Help Radio on KOOP in Austin. My how time flies. It goes like this:
Preface To My Penultimate Show On KOOP: Yes! I Got To Use The Word Penultimate!
I mean, how often do you get to use the word "penultimate"? Most people prefer "next to last," but not only does "penultimate" sound way cooler than "next to last," but it reminds everyone that the meaning of the word "ultimate" is "the very last." So the next time you see "Billy Joel - The Ultimate Collection," hold the record companies to their promise! No more Billy Joel collections ever!
Oh, tis a sadness to be approaching the end of my KOOP times. I feel blue. But I look forward - to other radio stations in the universe,* to those pesky podcasts which, at last count, almost a few folks have downloaded. & then I look back - & it seems like KOOP is giving me the finger - wait! It's apparently just scratching its face. Whew!
There are so many wonderful stories & experiences that I had at KOOP, I am sure. I have obliterated most of them, of course, with heavy drinking & short-term memory loss incurred by a desperate need I have to impress the women by breaking beer bottles on my head. But my record number of concussions in one four-hour period surely reflects the joy given to me not only by being a part of what is truly a crazy-ass experiment in community radio, but also by the crazy-ass listeners who for whatever reason kept coming back to my show, listening, calling, calling again, still listening, calling, calling into the night, calling even when I am at home & not on the air any longer, continuing to call into the wee hours, calling, calling, hey!, I got caller ID buddy, be aware of that, you freak!
It's the penultimate time you'll get to hear me on that radio station! Pass it on! Use that word all the time until people get annoyed with you. You know you wanna. Come on!
* This turned out to be prescient! I got to be a part of so many other radio stations in the universe!
Anyway, today is the penultimate day of 2022. You knew that. That's why I thought of it!
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