It has been quite some time since I have read a book that made me feel so old and frumpy yet the pundits who collaborated on writing The DailyCandy Lexicon have achieved just that. Let’s put it this way, if their intention was to target the 40-somethings and remind us of what it was like to be young, in fashion and in the know, then they achieved their goal with great distinction.

But just for the sake of setting the record straight, I used to be hip. Heck, I used to live out the scenarios in the book! But now I’ve got the daily grind with which to contend and I normally don’t have an after party to attend unless I’m the one assigned to clean up. I also haven’t dressed up in ages to meet anyone at any bar nor have I woken up with Mr. Wrong after said sordid night. I guess that’s what makes me a frumpy-esque 40-something while the editors of DailyCandy come off as much, much younger. And hotter. And popular. And chic. And…

And it’s precisely because of this youthful mindset that the bright point of this book is how the DailyCandy staff turns everyday walking-around words into buff and well-defined pop culture puns. An example of their cheekiness lies in words such as reply-arrhea, meaning “email incontinence or the inability to stop emailing”. Or how about their creation of e-mnesia, meaning “the condition of having sent or received an email and having no recollection of it whatsoever”.

Yet, there are other words that I feel like I’ve either heard before or they just shouldn’t have made the creativity cut such as nontourage, “a group of non-desirable syncophants” and drailing meaning “drunk emailing”.

However, I think that many readers will chuckle their way through the slender book. It can be read cover to cover within a lunch break and that also includes taking time to admire the graphic illustrations which are quite excellent.

If you don’t have access to the book, DailyCandy is also on the web and can be found here.

What I liked about the website is that they have organized the subjects by city so you can find what’s in, what’s hot and where you should be seen at by clicking on the city closest to your location.

Therefore young’ins, I leave it up to you to get out there and get big laughs with the new vocabulary learned from this book. This jealous chick is heading to bed – I’ve got a big day planned at the grocery store tomorrow!)

Daily Candy Lexicon was published in 2008 by Virgin Books.