Gryphondear's Word of the Day

The word of the day for May 11, 2008 is "imperfection" — noun — : the quality or state of being imperfect; also : fault, blemish.

My sister and I were decrying modern times—O tempore, O mores. People today seem to dislike themselves. They want to be someone else. They want to be thought "mad, bad and dangerous to know." At the same time, they don't want anyone to think that they are "different" or crazy. When creating cards in her friend Betty's craft class, my sister deliberately changes things to suit herself. Others in the class get upset that Sis's efforts aren't exactly like the examples. Betty tells the others that it's all right. If they want identical cards, they should buy them from Hallmark.

My friend Monae of Sometimes A Sigh Says It All..... is the real inspiration for this word. She was termed "silly" by someone whom she values—as though silly is a bad thing. I believe that a certain amount of silliness is necessary in this world. It's both the innocence that brings us to Heaven and the non-linear thinking known as genius. It's the joke that keeps us from slipping into despair and the harbinger of hope. So, Monae, keep on being silly. Gift the rest of us with the imperfection of innocent enjoyment of the world.

Dogs know how to be imperfect.

Our quote for the day is from Henry Miller (1891–1980), U.S. author. “Reflections of Writing,” The Wisdom of the Heart (1947):

     The world itself is pregnant with failure, is the perfect manifestation
of imperfection, of the consciousness of failure.

;^) Jan

gryphondear at 10:12:34 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Sorry, folks. The word of the day for yesterday was supposed to be "purloin" not "sternutation."

I have fixed it, I hope.

 

gryphondear at 1:56:21 PM CDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

The word of the day for February 6, 2008 is "purloin" — transitive verb — : to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust.

Dan of Slapinions wrote in counter-response to a note I left in his blog: 
     In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at
     sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All 
    Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween,
    the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day.

I really like the whys and wherefores of the holidays we celebrate and the dates on which they are celebrated. Most of the Christian holidays are celebrated on days reserved for other deities. For instance, the nativity of Christ is pretty much accepted nowadays to not have happened on December 25 from evidence presented in the Gospels. Dec. 25th was celebrated as the birthday of Mithras. Many of the saints who were downgraded in the Roman Catholice housecleaning a few years back were just whitewashed local deities anyway.

Then we have nations creating secular holidays like Memorial Day and Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth and Labor Day (which is celebrated on May 1st in most places, but the first Monday of September in the US). For sheer nerve, we also have the commercial "celebrations" created by the greeting card companies: Sweetness Day and Grandparents' Day. Personally, I like to celebrate October 4th as Broderick Crawford Day since I heard it posited by Garrison Keillor several years ago. Once when I mentioned this holiday while buying a KFC dinner, the sweet-young-thing clerk said: "I'm sorry, I wouldn't know about that. I'm not from around here."

Those of you who, like the KFC clerk, are too young to remember the 1950's television show Highway Patrol—starring Mr. Crawford behind the wheel of a CHP cruiser rolling through the fruit groves of Orange County—would not know that it is proper to celebrate with doughnuts and oranges on 10-4.

Our quote for the day is from George Leybourne, lyricist, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze":

     ..And my love he has purloined away.

;^) Jan

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The word of the day for May 4, 2008 is "purchase" — transitive verb — 1 a archaic : GAIN, ACQUIRE b: to acquire (real estate) by means other than descent c: to obtain by paying money or its equivalent : BUY d: to obtain by labor, danger, or sacrifice. 2: to constitute the means for buying [our dollars purchase less each year]. — intransitive verb — : to purchase something.

Cyb came down by herself Friday evening and went home again yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, she had to fight gale force gusts and dust storms both directions. This morning there's no wind at all. Anyway, while she was down, she helped me clean out the refrigerator. We threw out the fuzzy green and pink stuff and some false-bargain meat that had proved so tough that marinating and stewing left it too hard for even the puppy to chew. All the shelves are free of milk and juice and just-plain-whatisit stains. After she went home, I even wiped out the soda pop from when the can exploded in the freezer. I just feel so virtous.

Last time Cyb was here, my son-in-law, Ryan, asserted—while walking Bubbles—that every dog should have a bandana. Cyb won't go so far as her husband, but claims that the breed specifications for border collies calls for the trendy canine neckwear. I doubt either of them means to start some group to provide dogs with cotton triangles, but Cyb mentioned the bandanas while she was doing her duty as my shopping enabler at the Petco. Bubbles needed more dog biscuits and a replacement squeeky fox. (We're averaging one every two months so far.) Anyway, the dog now has a bandana. So far he hasn't chewed on it—at least, while I was looking.

Our quote for the day is from William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Antonio, in Twelfth Night, act 3, sc. 3, l. 44-5:

     Haply your eye shall light upon some toy
     You have desire to purchase.

;^) Jan

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The word of the day for April 30, 2008 is "cleanser" — noun — 1 : one that cleanses. 2 : a preparation (as a scouring powder or a skin cream) used for cleaning .

Jimmy came yesterday to clean and keep Lloyd company for the afternoon. A cheerful, competent young man—I hope we suit him as well as he suits us. He did the bathrooms and vacuumed and dusted the rest of the main floor—we don't use the basement except for storage & laundry. It was so nice to come home to a clean smelling house without having to do it myself.

That's a statement I never thought to make. Mother used to say that the first sentence I ever uttered was, "I do it myself." Anyway, there's still plenty for me to do. Further, as it becomes evident that I am letting other things slide in favor of caring for Lloyd, the Home Instead agency will adjust Jimmy's hours or bring in more help for Lloyd, whichever will be most helpful. The peace of mind is worth the minor disruption of someone else in the house.

Our quote for the day is from Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773), British statesman, man of letters. letter, Dec. 11, 1747, Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl, Earl of Chesterfield, to his Son, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl, Esq, 5th ed., vol. I, p. 298, London (1774):

     I knew a gentleman who was so good a manager of his time that he
     would not even lose that small portion of it which the calls of nature
     obliged him to pass in the necessary-house, but gradually went through
     all the Latin poets in those moments. He bought, for example, a common
     edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, read
     them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina: this was
     so much time fairly gained.

               [“Necessary-house” or “necessary-vault” was a term used for
          “privy.” Cloacina, or Venus the Cleanser, is referred to here
          somewhat frivolously as the goddess of sewers.
               I don't know whether to applaud this practice as a time saver
           or to deplore the subsequent "sacrifice" of the books. - J]

;^) Jan

P.S. Don't forget to strew primroses on your doorstep tonight, as they used to do on the Isle of Man, to keep out the evil fairies. )

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The word of the day for April 29, 2008 is "toast" — transitive verb : To drink to the health or honor of. — intransitive verb : To propose or drink a toast. — noun 1a. The act of raising a glass and drinking in honor of or to the health of a person or thing. b. A proposal to drink to someone or something or a speech given before the taking of such a drink. c. The one honored by a toast. 2. A person receiving much attention or acclaim: [the toast of Broadway].

Here's an excercize we all can do. Check out the L'Chaim site put up by Frank Darcy. Set an alarm for 8:00pm local time on May 1, 2008. Lift a glass to survival and to remembrance.

So many of us have lost loved ones to cancer and other causes this year. Yet many of us are surviving cancer or other possibly fatal diseases and the treatments to make us well or at least comfortable. We need to stop periodically and pay tribute to ourselves for just being here. We need to reflect on the happy times with our loved ones who have graduated out of their mortality. On May 1, at 8:00pm I intend to lift my glass.

Our quote for the day is from Frank Darcy:

     It would be a time that we can all share, and say L'Chaim - To Life!
     A time to say that despite it all, we're still here, 
     A time to say that we still doing the dance of life,
     A time to remember those we lost, 
     A time to give the finger to death.
     So come join the celebration and toast L'Chaim - To Life!

;^) Jan

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The word of the day for April 28, 2008 is "librarian" — noun — : a specialist in the care or management of a library.

At crew meeting last week, my supervisor showed us a YouTube video called Shift Happens. It is about the paradigm shift from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. It mentions how many Google searches occur per day and asks who answered those questions before Google. The answer is librarians.

My sister and sister-in-law are both librarians. Mother would have loved for me to be a librarian, too, but I like to read too much. (Plus, I hated shelving books as a library page. It hurt to put them up without reading them.) Don't get me wrong, librarians read—voraciously, omnivorously, religiously. However, I am not willing to read stuff that I don't want to, solely for the knowlege to tell someone else where to find answers they don't have the wherewithal to look up themselves. Yet, I find that I must do too much of that as a design tech, which is drafting and configuration control—not literary research.

Our quote for the day is from Stephen Sommers, Lloyd Fonvielle and Kevin Jarre; The Mummy; 1999:

     Evelyn:    I am proud of what I am.
     Rick:       And what is that?
     Evelyn:    I, sir, am a librarian.

;^) Jan

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The word of the day for April 26, 2008 is "beatify" — transitive verb — 1 : to make supremely happy. 2 : to declare to have attained the blessedness of heaven and authorize the title “Blessed” and limited public religious honor.

My son began calling my mother "GrandmaAgarForceofNature" while he was in High School—not to her face, mind. The soubriquet fits her so well that my sister and I plan to publish the Force of Nature Cook Book filled with recipes gleaned from Mother's recipe box. Some of the recipes we found were the old standbys: spaghetti sauce that was basically a white sauce with tomato juice, for instance. I don't ever remember having some of the recipes; I suppose people gave them to her or she copied them out of magazines. One, which we intend to put into the book purely for the weird factor, involves olives in lemon jello. [Don't hold your breath for the publication date, we have to recreate some of the text.]

Since we were raised Methodists, Mother expended no effort to emulate Marjory of Kemp. Marjory, who wanted to be a saint and spent most of her life and a great deal of her husband's money in the attempt to achieve it never was recognised by any pope, but probably would be a better patron of travelers than St. Christopher mainly because she always managed to get on the boat that made it. Mother's forte was that she just "knew where people were going wrong and what they should do to straighten out their lives." (Some of you may rememeber the "Button Box.") Not that she was overbearing (for the most part): she just let you know what she expected of you. Mother and Dad raised the three of us in the United Methodist Church. They taught sixth grade Sunday School for a number of years—not while we girls were in that age group. I don't know whether that was because Jo and I were so angelic or whether they thought they needed to save their strength for Wes's cohort.

Our quote for the day is from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. “Eloquence,” Society and Solitude (1870):

     There is also something excellent in every audience,—the capacity of virtue.
     They are ready to be beatified.

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The word of the day for April 22, 2008 is "excrescence" — noun — 1 : a projection or outgrowth especially when abnormal [warty excrescences in the colon]. 2 : a disfiguring, extraneous, or unwanted mark or part : blot. 3 : by-product 2 .

The Renaissance Fest was not the only thing I did last weekend. I also bought clippers to trim Lloyd's hair. Betty Lewis, who cut his hair for about 25 years, retired a few years ago. He hasn't been able to find a barber to suit him since then. For the past month he has been telling me that he needed a hair cut, but when I would offer to go with or take him to a barber, he would say "Not right now." Or he would carp about my choice of barber or shop. So I have given in, and he is nearly cue ball at the moment.

Also for the past few weeks I've had to shave him, because his hands have developed arthritis. It must be especially hard for him to give up personal grooming because of inability. His finger and toe nails are another thing I have to do for him. I now have a rotary file machine because his nails are so tough. If he decides that he doesn't like the way I trim him, he'll just have to try for the Guiness Records for hair and nails. lol

Our quote for today is from Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist. Paper, Autumn 1986, New York. “The Anorexic Ruins,” repr. In Looking Back on the End of the World, ed. Dietmar Kamper and Christoph Wulf (1989):

     We are no longer in a state of growth; we are in a state of excess. We are
     living in a society of excrescence.... The boil is growing out of control, recklessly
     at cross purposes with itself, its impacts multiplying as the causes disintegrate.

;^) Jan

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The word of the day for April 20, 2008 is "inevitable" —  adjective  — : incapable of being avoided or evaded [an inevitable outcome].

One of the reasons that Lloyd doesn't like reenactments is that so many of them started as US Civil War history buffs. As Lloyd says, it doesn't matter how many times they replay the battles, the North still won the war. They ought to get over themselves.

I, on the other hand, am in favor of people seeing how we used to do things. If the apocalypse leaves enough of us for a breeding population, somebody will have to remember or reinvent enough of the old technology to gather/hunt for food. Someone will have to show us how to weave and spin and create cooking pots from raw materials. Someone will have to remember the rituals that apply.

And this is what Lloyd missed—inevitably:

 

Our quote for today is from Philip Guedalla (1889–1944), British author. “Some Historians,” Supers and Supermen (1920):

     History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other.

;^) Jan

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