a whole nother

The purpose of this blog is to offer documentation and commentary on the phrase "a whole nother," which was the subject of a paper I wrote last fall for a linguistics class with James VandenBosch. I highly recommend taking this class, and I'll post the paper on this site in the next few days for your enjoyment.

Today, I have two "a whole nother" stories to share.

First, this past Tuesday, I gathered with the WAs of this fading era and also with the WAs-to-be. Near the end of our "meeting" we gathered in the chapel undercroft (which, by the way, is a sweet way of saying "basement") in a circle for old WAs to bequeath advice upon new WAs. Martinus, somwhere in his advice, dropped the phrase "a whole nother." It was at the end of his last sentence and he was trailing off, so I didn't quite catch the context, but he did say it.

Second, today in class, John Witvliet (who regularly says "a whole nother") was reading from a book by Joeseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI. It was a book about the newly elected pope's views on worship and liturgy, and they sounded surprisingly Protestant, given many of the conservative stances of the pope, especially concerning Vatcian II, which we all know as a crucial turning point in the history of Protestant and Roman Catholic worship practices. Apparently Ratzinger has another book on worship that is slightly more edgy, and to get at the polarities in edginess, Witvliet dropped "a whole nother" to describe said book. It was glorious.

Predictions for tomorrow: two.