Month: January 2020

[from the Thelmese dictionary] Snorgle (not to be confused with “snorkel”) is a unique phenomenon which occurs when a snore combines with a gurgle to produce a particularly disruptive sound capable of keeping bedmates awake for hours due to its inconsistency of volume and cadence. Along similar lines, a snork is a sort of abbreviated snore which occurs just as the would-be snorer’s head drops to his/her chest, most often when the drowser is in sitting position. Whereas snoring is generally an ongoing smooth, even sound, both snorgling and snorking are characterized by erratic and startling noises. Snotsicle is included with the other two words simply due to its alliterative similarity (the three words all beginning with “sno”) as well as its connection to noses. Snotsicle refers a phenomenon which occurs when a careless nose-blower goes out into freezing temperatures and forms a structure akin to a stalactite in a nostril. And…when the spouse of someone (who shall remain nameless) points out the formation of a snotsicle on his/her mate, one can safely bet that snorgling will be brought to the attention of the public even if the snotsicler is also a snorker!! Just sayin’…

Centipede — centi (100) pede (feet).  One hundred feet.  One hundred little feet. One   hundred   little   fast   feet.   I’m sure that another potential word of the day is centipediphobia – with which I am afflicted.  Although, admittedly, if one hundred feet involve, say, fifty marathon runners, I could live with that.  Or fifty ladies getting pedicures at the spa.  However, the word’s actual definition is “a predatory myriapod invertebrate with a flattened elongated body composed of many segments. Most segments bear a single pair of legs”, and that is not okay.

Living on the third floor of a brick apartment building as a child, I found that insects and arachnids seldom made it up to our apartment.  But on several occasions during my growing up there, a stray centipede would make an appearance zooming around the bathtub wall just as I would be getting into the tub.  Yieeeeeeee!!!  The stuff of childhood trauma!!!

As an adult, my fear still lurks!!  I am told that centipedes are friendly critters because they eat other insects and spiders.  I have struck a bargain with spiders in my home.  They must abide by certain rules:  don’t overpopulate; don’t grow beyond a certain size; eat your quota in bugs; and don’t invade my personal space (which means my field of vision).  So, if centipedes want to be helpful household critters, those same rules would apply.  And I would add the stipulation that they would not be allowed to outrun me (with the note that I am technically much more concerned with my ability to outrun them since it is highly unlikely that I’d every actually intentionally run toward one).  I had a friend who recently asked me if centipedes are good swimmers.  My response was that I am not sure, but I do know they are not good drowners as they do not go peacefully or gracefully.

Now that I have spent waaaaayyy too much time thinking about “centipedes”, I will probably have difficulty going to “sleep” (yesterday’s Word of the Day, which involves a lot of responsibility, anyway).  But I’ll try…..

According to Wikipedia, “sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and reduced interactions with surroundings”.

Whew! What a lot of responsibility involved in sleeping! Especially when we should be using that time to rest up!

More from Wikipedia — “It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness, with sleep displaying very different and active brain patterns”

So…we have all that to do, plus our ability to do it is decreased!! That’s a lot to think about. Pretty tiring. I guess I’d better catch up on my sleep — but it seems like a lot of work!

Initially, I was going to procrastinate in posting a Word of the Day with the plan of doing it tomorrow. But I found this in Wikipedia: “Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline. It could be further stated as a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one’s productivity often associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and inadequacy; it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive.” So…now I am feeling the weight of the implications of “avoidance”, “negative consequences”, “depression”, and “low self-esteem”. Wow!! Taking this information into consideration, I have decided to post the above. Tomorrow’s word may need to be “guilt”. But, since I honorably credited Wikepedia for their disheartening definition, at least it won’t have to be “plagiarism”. Whew!! Now I can sleep with a clear conscience (or perhaps a tad of guilt). Either way….sleep beckons.

Spire — a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on top of a building, such as a church tower. We tend to see a spire as something spiritual, majestic. What about “spire” as a root word? Part of aspire, inspire, respire — also spiritual and majestic. To aspire, we are reaching upward, seeking that which is beyond our grasp. To inspire, we are lifting others upward, moving them to break boundaries into unknown possibilities. To respire is to breathe, to absorb the essence of life.

What is the spire we see when we look up? What is it that urges us to reach for the pinnacle? Each of us has goals that are individual, specific, meaningful to us. We have the power to choose the direction. Spiral upward!!

Lumber. Included in slumber. “Sawing logs” as the old saying goes. (Logs is included in blogs, but that is irrelevant). Time to lumber up the stairs to slumber and to saw lumber. I could mention plumber here, but it seems plumb dumber…

A digit can be a numeral, a finger, or a toe.   Digit rhymes with fidget, which your digits can do.  And it also rhymes with idjit (a Thelmism) which you might be if, for example,  you use your central digit to “flip” an avian symbol at another idjit, perhaps one who is driving erratically.

Today’s world tends to be digital — on/off, yes/no, us/them — with checkboxes purporting to cover all the areas.  But they seldom do.

Analog is better.  Analog allows for nuance, for interpretation, for the infinite number of possible circumstances and responses in the realm of humanity.  Take clocks, for a basic example.  An analog clock shows me how much “space” I have to go between where I am now and where I need to be. Glance at a digital clock, and it announces, “Surprise!  You’re late!”  No, no, no.  Not okay.

“One-size-fits-all” seldom fits all.  “Zero tolerance” does not allow for choices, reasoning, weighing extenuating circumstances, and the natural and meaningful consequences that follow.  If we respond only to someone else’s set of checkboxes, we will never stretch, grow, calculate, learn from our mistakes.  Even in mathematics, although our society tends to use the decimal system, there are many possible ways to solve problems –for example, the binary system, the duodecimal system, “new math”, set notation.  Why should we limit our possibilities?  We could not have come so far in society without exploring, testing, developing new theories, discovering.  And yet, despite the vastness of our universe, our current society keeps trying to box us in.  Advertising tells us what products we “must have”.  Government strives to limit our freedoms.  Schools want to corral students into a narrow curriculum.  Technology is often valued over the arts.

We need to stay on our toes.  We need to count using not only ten fingers and ten toes but also elbows and ears and eyes and grains of sand and a myriad stars.  (Those stars are out there, you know, along with a yet-to-be-known number of other constellations, worlds, solar systems, planets, societies.)

In other words, let’s not be idjits.

It is a pronoun that can replace any noun and perhaps the occasional gerund.  But don’t take my word for it.

I am at a loss for today’s word. Has anyone found a word? Maybe it’s hiding — glossed over (what some folks do to spiffy up the truth, which happens a lot lately). Or in blossoms (those hints of spring we long to see – hang on Punxsutawney Phil and Buckeye Chuck; we’re comin’ for ya!) Maybe it wriggled into c’lossus, like Colossus of Rhodes (reference “rhoda”, word of the day awhile back).

Even if it’s sometimes hard to find the right words to express it, we all have experienced a loss at one time or another. We may have lost a pet or a parent or a friend or an election. Loss is loss, no matter what the specific loss. And it hurts. Even loss of time is painful. We look into the mirror one day, and that child is gone. And loss of self, loss of integrity, loss of principle — all things to grieve, especially in current times.

But, though we mourn our losses, what can we find to fill the void? What is an alternative word? Hope? Resilience? Discovery? Invention? Love?

There is so much that is possible. What’s your word?