Bouncy cushion satisfaction

A couple of years ago, a Finnish friend told me about a silly word. Finnish is one of those languages that lends itself to the packing on of sounds one after another in a single world to create increasingly specific meaning. The word hyppytyynytyydytys is probably put together mostly to demonstrate that property, or just for the Finns to amuse themselves. It means bouncy cushion satisfaction, literally speaking. According to my friend, it refers to the pleasure of dropping onto a sofa and feeling the bounce of the soft furnishings under you.

Then just yesterday, I heard about the Japanese doodle known as Henohenomoheji. It’s a face that you can draw using a pile of hiragana. Children often draw it out and sing the name of each of the characters as they build up the face. The face itself is doodled on pages, tabletops, and lampposts. It’s drawn on the heads of scarecrows and hand made dolls. Apparently this thing goes back hundreds of years.

We are such funny noisy little creatures, so adept at entertaining ourselves with the burps and squiggles we can make.