some people...

I don't know why people keep paying Warren Kinsella for his scribblings. I have often found his blog to be irritating, petty, and stupid - enough so that I don't bother to even look at it any more. In today's Post, he got paid to write the opening line: Graffiti is ubiquitous; it's everywhere. Duh. Check the dictionary: ubiquitous MEANS everywhere.

blythe spirit

July 24
I've been having spelling issues lately. I wanted a thorough definition for "blythe" as in "blythe spirits", the name I gave to dancers we saw on the weekend. Dictionary dot com spells it "blithe" which I think looks mean, not happy. So I thought maybe it was a British/US thing but apparently not, as Shelley's poem "To a Skylark", from which Noel Coward took his play title "Blithe Spirit", spells it "blithe".

When I was growing up, we had a cookie tin on which was printed the poem about what one is like if one is born on a certain day of the week. I read it so much that I had it memorized (too many cookies, perhaps). Some years after noticing it as a kid, it occurred to me to ask what day of the week I had been born on and Mum told me it was Sunday. Ever since then, I have been a little conceited about it.

(From Dictionary dot com:) blithe 
O.E. bliþe "joyous, kind," from P.Gmc. *blithiz "gentle, kind" (cf. O.S. bliði "bright, happy," O.N. bliðr "mild, gentle," O.H.G. blidi "gay, friendly," Goth. bleiþs "kind, friendly, merciful"). Rare since 16c. No cognates outside Gmc. "The earlier application was to the outward expression of kindly feeling, sympathy, affection to others, as in Gothic and ON.; but in OE. the word had come more usually to be applied to the external manifestation of one's own pleased or happy frame of mind, and hence even to the state itself." [OED]

The Poem

Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturday's child works hard for a living
But the child that is born on the Sabbath Day
is bonny, blythe, good and gay.

(I always thought it was a little tough on Wednesday's kid.)

word for today

June 19, 2007
bathos: 1. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.
2. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.
3. triteness or triviality in style.
—Synonyms 2. maudlinness, tearfulness; mush, gush, schmaltz. 3. insipidity, inanity.

I often have to look up words at the blogs I really like - I like the more challenging writers. What's the fun if it's all bland and boring stuff you can get anywhere? Of course, I still don't like (or get, I guess) post-modern type writers. I tried, really I did, reading The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje but couldn't get into it. And that was after I saw the movie and so understood the concept. Why can't writers write more like David Lodge who once described deconstructionism as sawing through the branch of a tree while sitting on the distal end of the same branch. Actually he did it better than that but I couldn't find the quote, which I remember from reading one of his books - probably "Nice Work", back in 1996.

Anyway, I found "bathos" in A Dress A Day today, which does have to do with dresses but also is about good writing.

not a new word but I couldn't spell it

June 18, 2007
Forbearance. I had originally written it "forebearance" and it got underlined by the spell-check. I tried "forebearence" but that didn't work either. Finally I looked up "forebear" and it said it meant one's ancestors. Well, that wasn't right. So I left off the first "e" and was able to find out that the root of the word I wanted was spelled "forbear".
1. to refrain or abstain from; desist from.
2. to keep back; withhold.
3. Obsolete. to endure.
4. to refrain; hold back.
5. to be patient or self-controlled when subject to annoyance or provocation.

I was writing a comment on Jenny's blog. Her newest puppy to raise for Guide Dogs is quite the handful and I am in sympathy as Rockwell could also be the handful.

word for today

June 7, 2007

an·te·bel·lum  (ān'tē-běl'əm) adj.   Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.
[Latin ante bellum : ante, before + bellum, war.]

I knew it was "before" something but didn't pause long enough to parse "bellum" into its other incarnations such as "bellicose" or war-like. When I was in grades 3 through 5, we lived in the tidewater area of Virginia and we visited many of the antebellum plantations on school trips and family outings. For some reason, I confuse this word with "antediluvian" which is "before the flood". On the other hand -- "war", "flood" -- they both tend to end up as a big mess that someone has to clean up.

I was reading this entry at Orange Crate Art and it got me thinking.

word for today

June 5, 2007
ped·a·go·gy  [ped-uh-goh-jee, -goj-ee] –noun, plural -gies.
1. the function or work of a teacher; teaching.
2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

[Origin: 1575–85; < Gk paidagōgía office of a child's tutor.]

ped·a·gog·ic  (pěd'ə-gŏj'ĭk, -gō'jĭk) adj.  
1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of pedagogy.
2. Characterized by pedantic formality: a haughty, pedagogic manner.

I may end up working with someone to develop a workshop about blogs and teaching but that's another story. In the meantime, I was looking into the subject and I noticed that one of the words used a lot by people at the college (or so it seems to me) is "pedagogy" and it is used instead of the word "teach". Now, I think it's a good idea to have a large vocabulary and to exercise it as much as one can. But there are some words that don't work for me and this is one of them. Perhaps my negative view of the word comes from the second meaning of "pedagogic" above. Merely using the word "pedagogic" seems hoity-toity and reinforces the negativity.

another word

June 4, 2007

se·que·la  [si-kwee-luh] –noun, plural -lae Pathology.
an abnormal condition resulting from a previous disease.

se·quel·a (sĭ-kwěl'ə) n.   pl. se·quel·ae (-kwěl'ē)
1. A pathological condition resulting from a disease.
2. A secondary consequence or result.

In Schedule 3 (Occupational diseases) of one of the Regulations to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, one of the headings was: "Poisoning and its Sequelae". I am reading the Act and Regulations in order to inform myself before I take a computer test to try to qualify as an adjudicator to the WSIA Tribunal. I figured I could guess what "sequelae" was but thought I should look it up to be sure.

more words

perfervid (context: In Randall Denley's column today, he was writing about Andrew Cohen's book critique of Ottawa as a lame city and he wrote: "Here I thought I was one of its most perfervid critics, not the chief yokel, a Babbitt-like defender of the dull.") Very fervent; extremely ardent; impassioned. Extremely or extravagantly eager or zealous.

What got me about the whole thing was how free these newspaper columnists are in their criticism of others. I know it's their job and maybe that's why I wouldn't want the job, even if I DO have lots of opinions. I don't think I could stand to read what others said about me. Even when I just write an opinionated letter to the editor, I get a frisson of fear up my back when it appears in print, thinking that someone will read my letter and disagree with me and SAY SO. Ack. Of course, I DO blog and what is that but an open invitation for criticism? I'll have to think about that one some more. (frisson: a sudden, passing sensation of excitement; a shudder of emotion; thrill: The movie offers the viewer the occasional frisson of seeing a character in mortal danger.)

on words

Words I've looked up lately (at http://dictionary.reference.com )

The idea to keep track started recently with "anodyne" but the germ was planted earlier with "simulacrum" and embiggened by "encromulate".

simulacrum (context "the simulacrum of youth" at http://shoeblogs.com/wordpress/2007/02/07/seventy-is-the-new-forty/ ) 1. a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance. 2. an effigy, image, or representation
February 7, 2007

anodyne (context: "This lends her Notebook an anodyne quality. " at http://festeringswamp.journalspace.com/?entryid=30 ) 1. a medicine that relieves or allays pain. 4. soothing to the mind or feelings.
April 24, 2007

encromulate (context: "A good full-body sneeze encromulates the frame, as the poet said." at http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/07/0407/041307.html )
From James Lileks himself: "Sorry; it's a Simpsons reference. Even worse, it's a reference to something actually never said on the Simpsons, but implied."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made-up_words_in_The_Simpsons#Cromulent_and_Embiggen "cromulent means valid, acceptable, or possibly commonplace"
Apr 13, 2007

syllabus (context: I use the word a lot at college but wasn't sure of its real meaning and am relieved to discover I do use it correctly.) an outline or other brief statement of the main points of a discourse, the subjects of a course of lectures, the contents of a curriculum, etc.
April 27, 2007