A Bit of Silliness . . . (but I think it's food for thought!)

       Note:  If y'all haven't been there already, please stop by TGB and read 

Ronni's excellent post on what is being done to/in our country.     

I'm still buried with my book project (it's no longer a project -- it's become a mission) but I'm trying to keep up with y'all as well as the antics occurring in the world so I'm indulging in some silliness in the interest of maintaining a wee modicum of sanity in a world that's gone mad.   

Kent McKamy, whose emails help me maintain a modicum of sanity, sent along an excellent and funny piece that he received that not only made me laugh, but gave me food for thought.  He talked about collective nouns -- you know:  a gaggle of geese, a flock of sheep, a  school of fish, and my favorite: an exaltation of larks.  However, he included one that I really think is pertinent to today's political climate:  a congress of  baboons  and that, my friends, set me a-thinkin'. And henceforth, I shall refer to Speaker of the House, John Boehner, as the Chief Baboon.

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!

Kay

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #9

I know there a a lot of newer readers who aren't familiar with my love affair with the English language because I'm wayyyyyyy overdue for a frolic through the dictionary. Those of y'all who are familiar with that quirk are probably shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and muttering, "Oh Lord!!!! She's at it again!" Those who aren't -- welcome to yet another of my quirks.

The backlog is astounding!!!! Have fun, my friends and try to work them into conversation -- it's an adventure!!!!

* quondam: adj. former, sometime

This word is easy to work into conversation: The quondam governor of Alaska is now a member of Fox News. Think she's gonna be the new Katie Couric?]

* sacerdotal: adjective; Of or relating to priests: priestly.

I like this word -- it just rolls of the tongue -- and can be applied anyone who is devoted to an interest or cause. My cousin was almost sacerdotal as he tended to his old E-type Jaguar (and wouldn't let me drive it).

* hypocorism: noun; 1. a pet name; 2. the use of pet names.

A long ago suitor called me his 'Kaybaby' -- an unlikely, cutesy hypocorism for a fiftyish, 5'10" tall woman. As Molly Ivins said, "You can't be . . . tall and cute, both. I think I was first named captain of the basketball team when I was four." 'Cute' doesn't apply to me unless you re-define it.

* misprize: verb; 1. To hold in contempt; 2. To undervalue.

I don't hate guys like Rush Limbaugh -- I merely misprize him and his ilk. Hating requires effort and energy and I refuse to expend either on them.

* conglobate: verb; to form into a round compact mass.

This is a perfect word for this time of year when Ohio is covered with the white stuff! What I want to know is: why the kids aren't outside conglobating it for snowmen and snowballs? (Sorry, I forgot that the Play Station takes precedence. Sigh.)

* obambulate: verb; To walk about.

At first glance this looks like a made-up word referring to our President or his family. However, I think it it would be fun to see a news report say that "President Obama and the First Lady were seen obambulating on the beach in Hawaii." Can y'all imagine the kerfuffle on that? And I won't say anything more except that I gotta go wash my mind out with soap. LOL

Hope y'all enjoyed the visit to the dictionary!!!!!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!

Kay

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #8

Dang!!! It's been wayyyyyyyyy too long since I did this but as as the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns, said, "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley." I do prefer the more modern version: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think I know where I'm headed. LOL

Here are some really fine words that y'all might have fun working into your conversation or writing.

brachiate: v., To move by swinging from one hold to another by using arms;
adj., Having arms.

Tarzan's ability to brachiate across the jungle served him admirably.

wifty: adj., Eccentric, silly, scatterbrained.

If you read here often, you know that the author is often a tad wifty. (Or is that a gross understatement?)

theriac: n., 1. a mixture of many drugs and honey formerly held to be an antidote to poison; 2. cure-all.

My mother's favorite theriac for a bad cold was Vicks Vaporub and chicken soup.

quidnunc: n., A nosy or gossipy person.

Every neighborhood has at least one quidnunc who knows and tells all.

hypergelast: n., One who laughs excessively. (Its antonym is ageglast: One who never
laughs.)

I like hyperglasts -- they don't take the world too seriously.

epeolatry: n., The worship of words.

I suppose that I am all too guilty of epeolatry.

Hope you enjoyed them!!!!!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!

Kay

Fifteen

Cowtown Pattie got tagged with this interesting meme and I'm taking up her challenge.

First, the rules: This should be a quick one. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag as many people as you like, including the person who tagged you.

Here are Pattie's memorable books:

1. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
2. Mistress of Mellyn, Victoria Holt
3. Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi
4. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
5. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth
6. Mary, Queen of Scots, Antonia Fraser
7. Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
8. Lord of the Rings, Triology, J.R. Tolkein
9. Centennial, James A. Michener
10. The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
11. Chariots of the Gods, Erich von Daniken
12. Animal Farm, George Orwell
13. The Color of Turquoise, Ellen Meloy
14. Ten Little Indians, Agatha Christie
15. The Bible, mortals

Here are mine (in no particular order):

1. Hawaii, James A. Michener
The beginning of a long love affair with Michener's wonderful novels that combine fiction with history and do it well.

2. Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The most glorious love poetry ever written.

3. The Clowns of God, Morris West
What if the Pope had a vision of the Last Things? This book gave me a lot of food for thought.

4. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
A perspective on the Civil War and yeah, Rhett Butler won my heart.

5. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, Lawrence Block
The best and most fun book on writing fiction ever.

6. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, St. John of the Cross
Painfully beautiful thoughts on one man's struggles with God and his faith.

7. 1984 -- George Orwell
Scared the hell out of me at thirteen; now I think he was right but got the year wrong.

8. Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo
Jean Valjean's adventures in 19th century France fascinated me.

9. Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostevesky
Caught my attention with its radical philosophy and gave me a different perspective on the world.

10. The Devil's Dictionary -- Ambrose Bierce
Wordplay at it's finest. I fell in love with Bierce's piercing wit.

11. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Possibly the most beautiful love story ever written. Garcia Marquez has the soul of a poet. I read it in both English and Spanish and the translator did a wonderful job.

12. The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter -- Sharyn McCrumb
The first of a beautifully written mystery series that retells the legends of Appalachia.

13. The Deep Blue Good-bye -- John D. MacDonald
The first in the Travis McGee series that rekindled a love affair with mystery series that began with Nancy Drew. I'd go sailing with Trav anytime.

14. The Metamorphosis -- Franz Kafka
Definitely food for thought in this surreal novel.

15. Proteus -- Morris West
A fictional albeit believable commentary on violence and terror in the modern world.

I'm not tagging anyone. If you decide to take the challenge, let me know. I'd love to know what books y'all love!!!!!!!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #7

I'm far and away overdue to do this post as I have a serious backlog of weird words to share with y'all. I am going to try very hard to make this a monthly feature. If I don't y'all, can rag on me for breaking a New Year's resolution and won't that be fun?

alienist: n., psychiatrist. This kind of makes sense. It comes from the French word, aliene, which means 'insane'. Therefore an alienist is a doctor who treats the insane. It's sort of a tossup as to which sounds better: "I have to see my alienist." or "I have to see my psychiatrist." Either way, people will think you're nuts.

elozable: adj., amenable to flattery. I like this word. We are all elozable. It's only human and helps keep us away from the alienist.

frigorific (frig-uh-RIFF-ik): adj.; causing cold. chilling. From the Latin word "frigus", this is a perfect January word. It sounds vaguely obscene and illustrates what I think of winter. On a cold day, you can stick your head out the door and say, "Good Lord, honey, it's freakin' frigorific out here!"

scapegrace (SKAYP-grayss): n.; an incorrigible rascal. My question is this: have you ever known a rascal who wasn't incorrigible? However, I do like this word a lot. Given my circle of acquaintance, I can make good use of this word.

bifurcate (BYE-fer-kayt): v.; to divide or cause to divide into two branches or parts. The illusionist seemingly bifurcated the lady in the box. Sounds a lot nicer than "sawed her in half", doesn't it?

Hope I increased your vocabulary and gave y'all a giggle or two!!!!!!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!

The 2008 Word of the Year!!!!!!!!

Those fine folks at the New Oxford American Dictionary have announced their Word of the Year for 2008. It's always interesting as their goal is to choose a word that has relevence to the American way of life.

I know y'all are on the edge of your desk chairs in anticipation so without further adieu, I proudly present the 2008 Word of the year: hypermiling!!!!!!!!!!

What, y'all ask is hypermiling? Hypermiling is to "attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques." Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

Some of the more rabid hypermilers do some pretty wacky things to optimize their mpg. For example:

* driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals)

* “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining

The AAA has warned that hypermiling is unsafe. I don't know. I'm not a hypermiler. Miss Ruby is a very efficient lil' machine and I do my best to keep her running smoothly.

The other four finalists for the 2008 Word of the Year were:

* frugalista: a person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.

* moofer: a mobile out of office worker: i.e., someone who works away from a fixed workplace, via Blackberry/laptop/wi-fi etc. (also verbal noun, moofing)

* topless meeting: a meeting in which the participants are barred from using their laptops, Blackberries, cellphones, etc.

* toxic debt: mainly sub-prime debts that are now proving so disastrous to banks. They were parceled up and sent around the global financial system like toxic waste, hence the allusion.

I like all these words and think they can serve us well in our shaky at best economy and environment! And they shouldn't be too difficult to work into a conversation either!

Whaddya all think?

Happy Blogging!!!!!

Kay (who is definitely a frugalista and proud)

What's in a Name? A Rant

William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

The reason that I thought of this is I noticed a tendency among some Conservative Republicans to always refer to Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama in a misguided (at best) attempt to smear him with great emphasis in my not so humble opinion. I am being kind in my thoughts on this because I try very hard not to cuss here and not offend anyone. Cussin' is--again in my not so humble opinion--the quickest way to detract from one's message is and lower oneself to the offending party's shoddy standards.

Think about your own name? Did you choose it? Probably not. Most likely your parents named you. And for better or worse, you're stuck with it. Do you like your name? I don't particularly like either of the names my parents gave me but those are the names I was baptized with and I've lived with for over sixty years. They're not embarrassing or weird -- I just don't like them.

Can you imagine being stuck with Obama's name as cruel as children can be at times? No wonder he was 'Barry' in high school. My dad hated his first name --Marion -- and refused to answer if teachers (or anyone else) called him by it. He preferred his middle name.(Now y'all don't have to wonder how I got so ornery -- the nut didn't fall far from the tree. LOL!) As to Arab names, I know several nice Baptist young men named Rasheed and other similar names who would probably get pretty hostile if you called them an Arab. Parents can get pretty creative in naming kids.

And what does his name have to do with his leadership ability? Playing games with Obama's name makes the person who does it look really awful and it reflects on his party. I'd rather they attack his platform than resort to petty ridicule. The latter means they haven't progressed beyond the playground.

That Obama has obviously come to terms with his names and himself because he has the ability to laugh at himself and I find that admirable. He is who he is and can even laugh about it as seen in his speech at the annual Al Smith Dinner. I hope y'all do, too!



Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kay

Jeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzz

From my Now-I've-Heard-Everything Department:

Click on this link and see what the social worker/psychology types have come up with now! I nearly died laughing at this story until I realized that it spawned a 366-page guide and then I got angry at the stupidity of it and that these people are taking this seriously.

Most of y'all who visit here are parents and/or grandparents. I ask you in all seriousness how many of your kids and/or grandkids said "yuck" when they didn't like food? Hundreds, right? Did it matter if it was ethnic or plain old American stuff? I would bet my little red car it did not!

I can see it now. The phone rings and it's the school:

Teacher: "Ms. Dennison? Connor said 'yuck' in the cafeteria today.
Kay: "What swill were you feeding him?" {The Kay has always hated school cafeteria food}
Teacher: "Hummus."
Kay: "I don't blame him -- I'd say 'yuck', too -- it gets stuck under my partial!"
Teacher: "But it demonstrates racist tendencies . . ."
Kay: "Uh-huh!" {click}

What has this sad world come to when a little kid can't say "yuck" when he doesn't like a food? I wish I'd put a buck in the bank every time the Dynamic Duo said "yuck" 'cause I'd have a nice nest egg for my retirement.

Hell! I say "yuck" to food I don't like!!! Does that make me a racist? I feel sorry for anyone who tries to tell me I am and I don't particularly care what their racial/ethnic group is -- I'm an Equal Opportunity butt-kicker when someone presents me with such idiocy!

What do y'all think?

Happy Blogging!!!!!!

Kay

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #5

I haven't done one of these for a longgggggggggg time and frankly, I've missed it. I was required in college to take a class in Linguistics and I found that I love exploring the language and it's origins -- especially the weird words -- and I subscribe to at least a half dozen different sites that send me interesting or weird words. Here are a few of my recent finds. I hope y'all enjoy them as much as I have. The challenge is working them into casual conversation.

trichotillomania: (n.) the abnormal desire to pull out one's hair.

I think of it as a disease brought on by people who drive us nuts!

Cockaigne: (n.) An imaginary land of ease and luxury.

Remove a couple letters and you get a substance that takes you to that land. Coincidence?

quisquilian: (adj.) worthless, trifling.

This one could be useful in describing a lot of the members of Congress -- don't y'all agree?

heliolatry: (n.) sun worship

Compulsive tanners practice this.

titivate: (v.) to make or become smart or spruce.

Using this in conversation could cause some raised eyebrows! I think George Carlin would have liked it!

quotidian: (adj.) 1) Occurring or returning daily; as, a quotidian fever. 2) Of an everyday character; ordinary; commonplace.

I think y'all will all agree that the words here could not be called quotidian.

And last but not least, I'll leave with a word to think about . . .

callipygian: having well-shaped buttocks.

The Kay heads to her corner and puts on her Thinking Cap.

Hmmmmmmmmm . . .

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!

Kay

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #1

Welcome to a grey March day in Ohio! The weather is changing almost by the minute so within the last week we've had snow, rain, and beautiful sunshine. Bet y'all can't guess which I liked best! At any rate, Spring is approaching and this old gal is delighted except that next month I have one of those dreaded birthdays that end in zero. Sigh. Oh well, as someone wiser than I said: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." But I digress from my thoughts for today . . .

Some of you may know that I am a rabid and unrepentant logophile which has been defined as "lover of words" and "slave to words." Both apply to me. The latter because of my love and need to write and the former because I have an unceasing fascination with language and all its many facets so I subscribe to about a half dozen mailing lists that send me a word each day. Each includes the definition and some include the history and etymology, i.e., the roots of the word. Most of the words I receive are pretty mundane but others simply astound me and I scratch my head asking, "Who'd have thunk there was such a word?" and try to figure out how to work it into conversation or writing.

I have also been very interested in the roots of words since I studied linguistics in college and had to write a paper exploring the etymology of five English words on a related subject. Dr. Baxter, our prof, was a rather staid sort despite his being the same age (39 at that time) and era as yours truly, and Spring fever was upon us so we all chose off-the-wall topics. Mine was probably the tamestc: alcoholic beverages. The kids all chose things like swear words or sexual terms. At any rate, I had a ball seeing how the words I chose came into our language and have been hooked on word origins ever since. (Did you know that the word 'whiskey' is derived from the old Celtic word ouisquebaugh? It meant "water of life" and many an Irishman will tell you it's true!) By the way, I got an A which surprised me 'cause Dr. B. was pretty stingy with As.

In the past few weeks, a couple words have really caught my fancy and I wanted to share them with y'all and ruminate a tad on them.

YourDictionary.com recently delivered 'hoghenhine'. It's a English medieval legal term defined as a legal member of one's family or a visitor who stays past the third night in someone else's home. In medieval times it was customary for travelers to spend the night in stranger's homes -- no Holiday Inn or Motel 6 back then. Under English medieval law if a visitor stayed three nights or more, he/she wasn't a stranger and therefore a family member for whose actions the head of household was responsible. Scary thought, huh? One could be beheaded (they weren't wimpy about punishment in those days) if you let some poor schmuck stay an extra night and he insults the king! No wonder Ben Franklin said, "Fish and house guests stink after three days." I'm still trying to figure out how to work it into conversation. The best I can come up with is: The Man is my hoghenhine and I am his. LOL We each have spent more than three nights in each other's homes but somehow I don't think either of wishes to take on the responsibility implied by this word.

A.Word.A.Day left me laughing hysterically when they sent 'omphaloskepsis' which is the art of contemplating one's navel. In fact, I emailed it to various friends who I thought would giggle, too. Go figure -- there's a word for that. Its roots, as y'all probably guessed, are in ancient Greek -- from "omphalos" which means navel and "skepsis" which means enquiry. It results from a group of mystics called omphalopsychics who practiced staring at the navel to spur hyponotic meditation. And that was a news flash to me and leads me to ask those of you who are into meditation to try this and let me know if it works. I mean it.

This one's an oldie. A while back good old Dictionary.com sent me my all-time favorite word: sesquipedalian. It means given to using long words or a very long word. It was used by the ancient Roman poet Horace in his Ars Poetica which may have been the first international bestseller. I love this word. I use it rather frequently. I'm wont -- probably because I read too much -- to use words of multiple syllables and quite often I am berated because I do by those who don't. They ask, "Why do you use such big words?" Now I just shrug and tell them: "I'm sesquipadalian." It works for me and so what if they think I'm nuts?

Hope you enjoyed my words today as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you! I'll be back with some more new pieces soon!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kay