Kegel vs. kugel: choose your words wisely

So some kegel-y things have been happening lately, which I take as a sign to write about the kegel.

Kegel-y thing #1

I’ve been tweeting for a few months now, working on building a community there. Follow me @melindaschnyder.

I’m up to about 340 followers. About a third are people I met at a blogging conference last fall. Others are friends or colleagues, or people who are following me because I follow them.

Tangent: Digital Underground is following me y’all! I tweeted about the Humpty Dance song and he saw it and followed me. If only that would work with Rick Springfield…

Then there are followers who I have no idea how they found me or why I would be of any interest to them.

Like @pantyO!, who started following me the other day. Their profile says: “The world’s first kegel exercise panty!”

When I first saw it, I read it as: “The world’s first kegel exercise party.”

It is wrong that a kegel party was more intriguing to me than a kegel panty? When I thought it was a party, I actually clicked on the profile to take a look. They had a few funny tweets but in the end, I’m not following them back. If I let them in the neighborhood, it could all go downhill quickly.

Kegel-y thing #2

Back in December, I was at a luncheon in honor of Lee’s uncle Sheldon, who had just passed away. The luncheon was at the temple and there was a buffet of traditional Jewish foods. I was sitting at the table with Lee’s parents to one side and his cousins to the other side, along with some extended family across the table.

Visitors paying respects for Sheldon were stopping by talking to the family and I was just sitting there next to Lee eating. I said out loud, sorta to Lee and sorta to nobody, “This kegel looks good. I’ve never had kegel before.”

As soon as I said it, I knew it didn’t sound right.

KEGEL … KUGEL

kā’gəl … ˈkʊɡl

Kegel = Hey, I’m going to do some kegel exercises so I can tighten the muscles that form part of my pelvic floor.

Kugel = Hey, I’m going to put this traditional Jewish dish made with egg noodles in my kugel hole.

Very different words.

Fortunately, nobody was really listening to me. This is why I have a blog people. If nobody in real life will listen to me, I can pretend I have an audience just waiting to read my next post.