Month: February 2016
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One Word: Lucid
I had a lucid dream Wednesday night (February 10-11, 2016). My second one ever. At least that I woke up remembering. This started me thinking about the word “lucid” and how much I love it. It means clear and easily understood. Before discussing that, though, here’s the scoop on lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is…
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How to Verify Suspicious Email Offers
Kudos to readers who wrote me yesterday to make sure I was the sender of an email they found suspicious. (I was.) Here’s hoping that didn’t stop anyone from claiming two gigs of free cloud storage. In case it did, here’s the link again. Turns out you’ve still got time, if you act today: https://security.google.com/settings/security/secureaccount…
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Why All Men Are Transgender
It’s true: All men are transgender. Literally. As usual, it’s all about context. Let’s get us some! Recently I mentioned in an article that my wife, Cheri, is usually right. Joel Smith, in a guest post, said the same a few days later about his wife, Roni. You’d think we guys might get credit, would…
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One Word: Translate
To translate is to restate a thing in different words. It’s a simple concept with vast depths. The English word comes from Latin, where “trans” means “across”, and “latus” means to carry. Hence, to carry across. Typically we carry ideas across from one language to another — French to English, or German to Spanish. Being…
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The Book You Want to Read
“Write the book you want to read.” Not sure where I first heard that advice. Not even sure whether I ever actually heard it before. Either way, it feels familiar because it’s advice I’ve followed â perhaps instinctively. And whatever success I’ve had as a writer, I owe to that advice. Cheri and I heard…
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One Word: Flammable / Inflammable
What is the difference between âflammableâ and âinflammableâ? Nothing. Nothing at all! For all intents and purposes, they are the same word. In my previous article on the word âconnoteâ, I questioned whether there any two English words that carry both the same meaning and the same connotation. I was inclined to believe there wasnât.…
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Jonah Miller’s “Shrill, Empathic Joys”
You do know Iâm a science geek, right? The only problem being, I know very little about actual science! Itâs a field â or rather, a collection of fields â for which I have no formal training, no math foundation, no research experience. What I do instead is read obsessively â books, magazines, blogs, and…
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One Word: Vex
Iâm fond of the word âvexâ. My recent report on pangrams reminded me of this fondness. Youâll recall that a pangram is any sentence (shorter the better) that contains every letter of the alphabet at least once. Since working âvâ and âxâ into the same sentence can be a vexing challenge, itâs no wonder pangram…
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One Word: Connote
Every word denotes something, and connotes something more. Its âdenotationâ is what it denotes â that is, what it means in its most straightforward, minimal dictionary definition. Its âconnotationâ is what it connotes. Thatâs where things get interesting. The connotation of a word is its flavor, its feeling, its emotional texture. Itâs what the word…
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One Word: Pangram
You all know I love anagrams â those wonderful phrases created by rearranging the letters of one thing to spell something else. Like when I scramble the letters of âGary Leland Matthewsâ to spell âsadly elegant warmthâ (and lots of other things â most of them unflattering but hilarious). Until a few days ago, however,…
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One Word: Beggar
Hereâs a word I (sometimes) like and (sometimes) use: âbeggarâ. Depending on its meaning. Mostly the word strikes me unremarkable, even depressing. A beggar can be someone who survives by begging. That definition doesnât inspire me. As a verb, something that âbeggarsâ you reduces you to poverty. Donât care for that one, either! Nowadays we…