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Categories
Category Archives: What Words Mean
Naming Rights
I am currently trying to write a murder mystery, not because I have a great plot line in mind, or a deep roiling well of family dysfunction and tragedy to draw from, but mostly because I want the naming rights. … Continue reading
Posted in Pot Pouri, What Words Mean
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He/She/Ze
(This fanagram is also available as podcast. Click on podcast in the category menu at the right.) I first ran into the pronoun “ze” (pronounced zee) at Frances’ graduation from Grinnell College. In the written material, the third person singular … Continue reading
Posted in Nature, What Words Mean
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Mac ‘N Cheese
This January we met our children and their significant others in Hawaii for a delayed Christmas vacation, primarily because Hawaii emerged as the midpoint of our scattered lives. Ned and Emily joined us from China, while Frances and Dan traveled … Continue reading
Posted in Food Stuff, What Words Mean
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Oops! Dissected
Now that my children are grown, I can’t remember the last time I used the word “oops.” Sure – it’s part of my vocabulary, but I have never spent any time considering its various implications. Until of course, last week … Continue reading
Posted in What Words Mean
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When the Spit Hits the Spam
My interest in idioms was prompted by an offhand comment by my cousin Susie who remarked that she had enjoyed a slim volume called “Hog on Ice,” which provided derivations for common American idioms. I then began to notice that … Continue reading
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The Shape of My Container
In my second year of medical school, I subscribed to an odd little periodical called “Disease-a-Month,” basically a Cliff Notes for the aspiring doctor. Each month the bright yellow pamphlet would provide a summary of the most salient facts about … Continue reading
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I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buttery
The quick trip to the grocery store was pathetically mundane. I was simply there to pick up the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies, but at the egg case I found myself caught in a morass of conflicting humane, ethical, … Continue reading
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Words with No Meaning
A while ago I wrote about the specialized vocabulary shared by seasoned crossword puzzle aficionados – words that tend to have a lot of “e’s” in them, like epée and ewer, essential to the crossword fill surrounding the theme words. … Continue reading
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Word Freak
April 1978 was a watershed momemt when I first time that I completed an entire Sunday NY Times. Finally I felt that I could legitimately call myself a cruciverbalist. Since then, the Sunday NYT crossword has become a weekly ritual, supplemented … Continue reading
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Ephemeral, Evanescent and Fugacious
I remember one dinner table conversation years ago when all of us kids were challenged to present and defend our favorite word. My father’s favorite word was “magnolia,” which I thought was a sissy word for a family patriarch, and … Continue reading
Posted in Such is Life, What Words Mean
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