Three little words: Tommy Vu Rocks!

Last night I was watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN. For me, nothing is more entertaining than watching a bunch of average guys - and by average I mean average looking, average background, average lives - play for millions of dollars under the bright lights of Vegas against the greats of poker. The poker greats, by the way, are former average guys, who have won big money and now make a living playing cards.

Last night they showed the finals from one of the smaller events. The poker was not that exciting, but one of the contestants caught every ones attention. It was a blast from the past, Mr. Infomercial himself - Tommy Vu. Gone the way of the Yugo, or at least I thought, but apparently he has found a new calling, playing poker professionally.

For those of you who do not know who Tommy Vu is, he made a name for himself in the late 80's with his infomercials promoting his real estate seminars. Tom's infomercials were notorious because of his difficulty with the English language, the frequent use of bikini clad models, and his berating of the audience with his memorable quotes. Some of my personal favorites include:

"'You are loser! Get out of my way! I make it somehow!'"

"Are you man enough to get off your lazy American ass and go to Vu’s seminars?"

"Do you think these girls like me? NO, they like my money!"

I am not sure how much money Tom Vu made from Real Estate or if anyone actually went to his seminars. He his is living in Vegas, apparently after making a lot of money in the real estate game, and now plays poker professionally. He seems to be living well, and he has put on a few pounds. But still, he had the same take life as it comes attitude. Nothing seems to bother him and he seemed to be having a great time, no matter what happened in the tournament. There is a lesson to be learned here. Whether or not he is making a fool of himself on TV or if he is at a card table looking like a Vietnamese Elvis, he was having a good time and didn't take anything to seriously.

It was a reminder we can all use from time to time. God Bless Tommy Vu.

For more on the life of Tommy Vu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Vu

Yesternight

One of the fun things about kids is their simple, often fresh perspective on mundane topics, like English vocabulary. For those of you who have had to endure talking to me for more than 5 minutes sometime in the last three years, one topic that has come up is my niece Anna. Yes, I am a grandmother at heart and yes I adore everything she does. The other day, she shared a new word with me, "yesternight". Not last night, but "yesternight" as in, "yesternight we had spaghetti".

It caused me to think - why isn't there a yesternight? We have a yesterday, but we say last night. To make it more complex, we don't use the expression "last day" either. Why not? It doesn't seem to make any sense. All I know is I like the word. It seems like it should be a word and I want it to be one.

The best book I have read about the history of the English language is "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester. Mr. Winchester has written several other books, which I have enjoyed, but this is one of my favorites. For those of you who are interested, it tells an educational and entertaining story of why the English language is so confusing. Unlike the French, there never was a council of languages, which determined what qualifies to be a word or not.

Which is why I am taking a stand on "yesternight". Why isn't it a word? Who says it can not be a word? If Homer Simpson's "d'oh" can make the Oxford English Dictionary, then why not "yesternight". Of course we could add "last day" as an acceptable phrase, but "yesternight" sounds fancier.

So join me in this quest to bring "yesternight" into mainstream conversation.

Thank you
Jim

PS - for those of you who did not believe me when I said that "d'oh" is in the OED:

http://www.oed.com/newsletters/1999-07/appeals.html