The word for today is “sobriquet.” It means nickname or epithet. It’s such a sophisticated word for such a common subject. I found it in a crossword clue – “Hemingway sobriquet.” The answer, of course, is “Papa.” I have spent a great deal of my life, trying to figure out how people get nicknames. These […]
The word today is “grandmother.” I often say, “I plant the flowers that grew in my grandmother’s garden.” I was my grandmother’s child even though we were not related biologically. My grandmother adopted my mother, after her son had died at the age of seven of scarlet fever. My grandmother came from the Saar valley
Our word for today is “locus,” which the dictionary defines as, a place, position or location. I found it in a mystery book by Ann Cleeves. It suggested something important. The locus of a crime, for example, might be where the crime happened or where a body was found, but the person not actually murdered
The third word in our blog posting exercise is “hook.” It’s one of those words or concepts that is both very simple and yet, very complex. On one level a hook is an object that is useful. I think of all the hooks beside back doors where people conveniently hang coats, hats, bags etc. Here
The word for our blog posts today is “dazzle.” So, of course I couldn’t just stop there. I had to go the whole nine yards, well, OK, five words – razzle, dazzle, sis, boom, bah! When in doubt look it up – “razzle dazzle” means 1 : a state of confusion or hilarity. 2 :
I am working on a blog challenge with a friend. It’s a great way to fight the doldrums that happen in summer, in politics, in aging bodies etc… It’s also a wonderful way of not only improving your writing, but also your outlook. We are giving each other random words and writing a blog post
In a puerile way, I have always been interested in the term “vowel movement” – not just because it rhymes with bowel movement – but that’s part of it. Yes, a lot of s**t comes out of people’s mouths, mine included, and people seem to use grunts, groans and “duhs” more than they do words
It’s all about the words. This is the inspiration I read in the Globe the other day. It was Russell Smith’s column on art, poetry and blogging. It begins by saying: A blog is a hobby; a blog is a notebook; a blog is a forum; a blog is a piece of art. A blog is
I saw this word on FB. It’s from the site Wordporn and it means – an overwhelming urge to run away. I didn’t identify with it immediately. It wasn’t really onomatopoe-ic enough – in other words, it didn’t sound like what it meant. Escape words need to roll off the tongue. They need to run
I just had to comment on the insane re-posting and “discussions,” if they can be called that, of a particular dress, more or specifically, the colours of a particular dress on FB. “Maybe it’s the time of year or maybe it’s the time of man,” but every once in a while a totally meaningless item,
