Spelchek in my computer doesn't know the verb to scunge. It keeps trying to change it to skunk. The dictionary in my computer says that scunge is an Australian noun meaning dirt, scum, or a disagreeable person (also in the Oxford Dictionary), related to the verb to scrounge. Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary (of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words) doesn't list it. It goes from scumble to scurfy without a pause. (My predictive editor is going crazy.)

Well, my father used the verb to scunge to describe the inactivity of a lazy person. One who scunges is one who lies abed in the morning, or who lounges around all day without doing anything. Anyone who knows me also knows that my father demanded that I justify my existence each day, so scunging was a very important word to him, defining how not to spend one's time. Scunging does not justify one's existence. However, sometimes it is very pleasant and even necessary. Even my father acknowledged that. For instance, I was allowed to and also encouraged to scunge the day after I finished exams. Of course, there are different levels of scunging: there's creative scunging, desultory scunging and hopeless, miserable, unhappy scunging. I like to think my scunging today has been creative. Besides, it's Saturday and if that weren't enough, tomorrow is Mother's Day.

Have a good one.