I distribute a small bracelet called an Ablet. It’s actually a counting device based on the Abacus. There are two rows of 9 beads each. The first row is the ones and the second row, the tens. If you are using it to count rows or stitch repeats in knitting, every time you complete a […]
I have a few ideas for blogs “brewing,” but they need a little more time. Since I like to write about things that are random, eclectic and idiosyncratic, I went back to www.portent.com‘s idea generator to try out a few things. I like it because it is the epitome of randomness – key in a word
The word of the day, the other day, was “placate” – to appease or try to please. Well, obviously we, up here in the North, have not been living properly or something, because the “gods” are not happy with us. Therefore, they are withholding Spring. We need to placate them, some how. Human sacrifice used
In going back to YouTube to double check something in their cat video, I found this expanded video on how IKEA actually made the film. If you love cats, you’ll like this one. I love cats, but I also like explanations of how things came to be. I like to explore the thinking behind an
I enjoyed a post the other day by author Karen Dales. She has written several books and was commenting, in her blog, on our limited vocabulary – 3,000 words. Apparently the average North American uses only about 3,000 words, as a working vocabulary. This is sad. I guess we can blame laziness or a shift
I usually try the cryptic crossword puzzle in the daily paper. Yesterday, there was a clue that I knew was an anagram, that is, the letters in the phrase “at shop” had to be rearranged to get a language spoken in Afghanistan. I didn’t know the language so I looked it up – Pashto. While
Yesterday’s post about scents really warranted a follow up. I think that the Demeter Fragrance Company needs some help in identifying perfumes for the letters U and X, since they have none listed. I thought that I might draw on my interest in poetry to give them some ideas. The first poem that came to
I can’t remember the exact day that they chose the new pope, but I think it was last Sunday. So today is Saturday – just a week later and Demeter, a fragrance company, has just launched a new scent, “Holy Water.” Perhaps the company started experimenting back in mid-February, when the last pope said he
My mother often used expressions, I thought I understood, but probably didn’t. I’m not sure my mother always understood them either, but it did make for a colourful use of language and I’m all for adding colour (and salt) to anything. One expression in particular always puzzled me – “hell bent for leather.” I decided
So “gravid” and “aracana” duked it out on www.onelook.com and it seems that “arcana” won for the word of the day – Feb 20, 2013. “Arcana” is the noun and “arcane,” the adjective. The original internet language, HTML, is often referred to as an “arcane” code. Arcana/Arcane means mysterious, difficult to understand, awkward. HTML is
