Lush Desert Islands

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Julianne. I’m calling from San Diego, California.

Hello, Julianne. What’s happening?

Well, I have a question for you.

I was driving home from the beach a couple of weekends ago listening to your show,

And Martha made a reference to things that you would want to have on a desert island.

Oh, what did I say?

I don’t remember the context, but you were just talking about things,

And a desert island.

And I thought, now, wait a minute.

I know of a deserted island, but I’d never, well, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard

This reference to a desert island.

And I’m sort of thinking, what is a desert island?

To me, that sounds like it would be an oasis.

And I’ve always heard it referred to as a deserted island.

So that got me thinking.

Yeah.

And so I’m thinking, well, you know, I’d like a desert island.

That would be fabulous.

But I had not heard.

Yeah.

So anyway, I just thought I’d check in with you to see if I’m missing something or if I actually caught a little bit of a boo-boo there.

Interesting.

Cupcakes on palm trees.

That’s what I’m thinking.

Cupcakes on palm trees.

Falling down, hitting your head.

I don’t know.

That’s nice.

Yeah.

You know what?

Actually, desert island is far more common than deserted island if you look at the corpus.

They’re different, though, right?

No, not necessarily.

I mean, the desert in Desert Island refers to just original.

Climate, right?

No, no.

Well, originally desert was just any kind of wasteland, a wilderness where it looked abandoned,

Even though somebody might not have been there before.

It’s just a wilderness.

Grant, don’t you use desert island rather than deserted?

They’re different.

Deserted island means no people.

Desert island refers to the climate and the dryness.

No, no.

And so you can have a deserted desert island.

With dessert.

I like the dessert part

Me too

No, desert in this part is like

If you look at the Swiss Family Robinson

The title page for that book

It’s the Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson

Blah blah blah blah

On a desert island

But it’s not actually desert

Because there’s tons of lush greenery, right?

Yeah

Interesting

I take it in the context of the deserted island

Which is always that story

What are the ten things you’d like to have

And a deserted island and that sort of thing.

And then this desert island.

So anyway, just curious.

I love this.

We all have these different readings of this.

And for me, it’s always been like, oh, it just means it’s, I mean,

I’ve probably even encountered things like the title page,

This Was Family Robinson, and just kind of got what they meant,

But always have preferred in most contexts where the context wasn’t clear to assume it meant dry.

Yeah, yeah, you think sand dunes.

But when I picture a desert island, I picture a desert island from the comic strips,

You know, with one palm tree or something.

Yeah, the one rock and trying to help in the sand.

Right.

Yeah.

But there’s usually water around it, which would be, to me,

I always think of the word island as being, you know,

A piece of land popping up out of the ocean.

Yeah.

Right.

So what would you take to your desert island?

What would I take to my desert island?

I would take my dog.

I would take a complete set of all the Robin Williams movies and performances.

I missed him terribly, and that would make me laugh while I was alone on a desert island with my dog.

Nice.

Well, you’re allowed to say deserted if you want.

You got a good friend, something to keep your spirits up.

That’s pretty good.

That’s right.

That’s right.

And, of course, I’d have all the dessert I wanted.

Right.

I’m still thinking about that palm tree.

Red velvet cupcakes raining down with the cream cheese icing.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Hey, I’m with you.

Julianne, thank you so much for giving us a call.

Well, thank you.

It was fun.

Take care now.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

You have a good day.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

And you know, we didn’t even talk about just desserts.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Just desserts.

One S or two?

Two.

No.

What?

Oh, well, for you it would be desserts because you want the sweet things.

I’m thinking what I’m owed.

I’m owed the sweet things.

My wife rolls her eyes at my sweet.

I’m like, sweet things.

Right, right.

Key lime pie.

I know.

If you want to make this man happy, send him a key lime pie, right?

Yeah.

Right?

But just desserts.

It’s one S.

Yes, one S.

And it refers to?

To what’s deserved, what’s merited.

So it’s a different dessert altogether.

Yes.

Desert altogether.

Yes.

Nice.

A form of deserve.

How about that?

The thrill of English.

The thrill of English.

The agony of getting it wrong, which happens to all of us every day.

Call us and tell us how English did you wrong, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.