Category: Misc
-
One Word: Solitude
Some words I love because of the way they sound. The way they feel when I write them. Their playful ambiguities. Their spelling quirks. Others I love mostly on account of what they mean to me. āSolitudeā is a word I love for many reasons ā but mostly for its meaning. I love to be…
-
One Word: The Singular They
Glad tidings! English now has a third-person pronoun that is both singular and gender-neutral. Best of all, itās grammatically correct, according to all the best authorities we need to heed. Itās a pronoun weāve always had ā and used. For centuries it was universally accepted. For a while it fell out of favor in formal…
-
Phyllis Ring’s The Munich Girl
Cheri and I are thrilled to be reading the newly released novel from our friend Phyllis Edgerly Ring. Itās called The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies That Outlast War. Not yet too far along, but already loving it. (Iāll post an update here when Iām finished.) Normally I donāt mention new books ā…
-
Fabiola Gianotti’s Baffling Anagrams
CERN, the worldās top particle physics facility, has a new director-general, the fabulous Fabiola Gianotti. She took the reins this month, having been democratically chosen by colleagues. The soft-spoken, hard-driving, serenely brilliant Italian scientist will need every atom of her legendary stamina for the coming ordeal. Thatās not only because sheās the first woman to…
-
Two Words: Compound
This series is about single words that are each, individually, worth a thousand pictures. Seems a simple enough premise. Except when it isnāt. What about āwordsā that consist of two or more words? Increasingly Iām feeling the need to write about expressions such as ālame duckā, āice creamā, or āson of a gunā. No, wait…
-
One Word: Common
Looking over the list of words Iām writing about, it strikes me how high a percentage are common words ā not fancy, unfamiliar words of the literary-technical variety. Not always, of course. I just wrote about āepistemologyā, an uncommon word meaning āthe study of how we know what we knowā. Thatās a word I almost…
-
One Word: Crumb
Some words fascinate me on account of unusual or specialized ways they can be used. āCrumbā is such a word. Singular, not plural. Iām not especially interested in crumbs (plural), the little shards of bread, cake, pie crust, and the like that break off and make a mess that needs to be cleaned up so…
-
One Word: Twangled
Twangled ā seriously? Yes, ātwangledā is a real word. An odd, quirky, playful word, with a self-mocking tone that makes it fun to use (sparingly). No, I hadnāt heard it before either. Hereās how it came to my attention: Recently I posted a list of various ways my full name (āGary Leland Matthewsā) could be…
-
What’s More Practical Than Being Happy?
Nothing! This principle — the practicality of happiness — was first impressed upon me some years ago during a meeting of the Knoxville Bahaāi assembly. We had decided to send a gift as a token of appreciation to a wonderful lady who had provided heroic service to the community. An assembly member named Betty suggested…
-
All the Candidatesā Anagrams
Itās that joyful season when anagram freaks (like me) dig deep to see what things we can spell by reshuffling letters in the names of leading candidates for President of the US of A. Break out your Scrabble blocks, and letās begin. First, a note: When anagramming public figures, I shoot for humor ā ideally…
-
One Word: Turmeric
The word āturmericā fascinates me. So, for that matter, does the actual spice — as distinct from the word. Hereās the scoop: Turmeric powder ranges in color from bright yellow to deep orange. It has a pungent, gingery-peppery flavor and is a main component of curry. Because of its color, itās sometimes called āIndian saffronā.…
-
One Word: Reunion
Reunion strikes me as possibly the most sublime of all English words. I love its sound. Even more, I love its meaning. Phonetically, reunion is a word that could be classified as “euphonious” or “mellifluous”. These are neat words, too: The first refers to sounds that please the ear; the second, to sounds that flow…