Words on Wednesday

Another word game this week:

Found here, with new words appearing each Sunday.

There are no rules to this game.

A free association list of 10 words. Read; react; write!

1. Flicker :: photos


2. Styling :: haircuts


3. Episode :: two-year old meltdown


4. Sexier :: desirous, wandering heart


5. Studious :: contemplative, library, quiet, solitude


6. Mushroom :: fungus lady at the farmer's market


7. 8 minutes :: time to get back to work


8. Bald :: eagle, mountain, head


9. Immunity :: immigration policies; sanctuary


10. Sectioned :: bleachers WTF? Why did I think of that? At least I've been honest with this, writing the first thing I think.

Found via this blog.

Another item of worthy wordiness: this week's topic at A Word A Day (AWAD) is words about words and language. Upon glancing at the subject line of my Word A Day email yesterday, not reading closely, I thought the word was catechesis. Funny since the word was catachresis. If you don't know Anu Garg's A Word A Day, check it out. Join over 640,000 word lovers from more than 200 countries who receive AWAD daily and know that the New York Times got it right when it wrote that AWAD was "the most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."

Words on Wednesday: Writing Prompt

I stumbled across this site recently. One Word presents daily a single word writing prompt that is revealed when you press the Comment button. There is a 60 second timer that gently chimes (so much nicer than a clanking buzzer or gong) when the time has elapsed. Unlike timed standardized tests, you get to finish the sentence you're writing before posting.

I have used this recently for two purposes:
1. It's a good warm-up exercise before one starts to write.
2. Although it's only a minute, it's a great way to procrastinate while at work!

I don't spend too much time looking at what others have left. Like my own quickly jotted notes, most aren't very complete, and some are painful (or painfully boring) to read. I like this site and think I will continue to be a regular visitor for my daily one word dose.

Several months ago, I decided to start an occasional post on words, language, and writing on Wednesdays, that day chosen for the obvious reason of the alliterative sound of 'Words on Wednesday'. But, I haven't followed through with that idea and, in fact, have only posted on Wednesdays four times this year. Only two of those posts were even remotely about language and writing. Maybe, the occasional -- okay, I'll be truthful: sporadic -- Words on Wednesdays will appear with a bit more frequency in the future, but no promises! I have at least one post perculating about playing word games like Scrabble.

Top Contender for Worst Book I've Read This Year

I tried -- really tried -- to finish Holding Her Head High: 12 single mothers who championed their children and changed history, by Janine Turner (a book I received as a review copy through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program) but I can't do it. When you find you are reading with the purpose of counting the number of cliches per chapter, there is no point in wasting any more of your time. I had begun to feel like a roadside gawker at horrible highway accident.

For the record, in the chapters I read, the phrase -- as if you might not remember the title of the book -- holding her head high was used an average of 4 times per chapter. Maximum chapter High Head Count: 8. If that doesn't give you a sense of the tediousness of this book, I might discourage you with the following: improper use of quotations, misspelled words, poor (or wrong!) word choice, dull sentence structure, sloppy research, an inappropriately casual narrative voice, repetitive paragraphs, and poor organization. In general, it reads like a 8th grade term paper -- one that would get an 'C' from a burned-out easy grader.

How anyone could make the lives of some of the women profiled (Helena Augusta, Christine De Pizan, Abigal Adams*) boring is surprising. More surprising still is that this book was published (although I'd guess that Turner being a Hollywood actress may have had some influence on the book deal). Some LT reviewers commented that this book should have been marketed differently (as a devotional rather than a sociological or history work), suggesting that for a different audience it would fare better. I don't think so; poor writing is poor writing. A sad comment to make about a book with a topic that suggests that it could be so much more.

(*Note: Please don't bother to correct me about A. Adams. I know that Abigal Adams wasn't a single mother; John Adams outlived his wife. But, because she raised her children by herself during the Revolutionary War and Adams' ambassadorial trips to Europe, Turner chose to include her in this work. There are other profiles in this book that are, arguably, not about single mothers.)

Wednesday: Words and Winter

I read recently that the collective noun for Ravens was an unkindness of ravens. "Before or after Hitchcock made that movie?", I thought.

This led me to a search engine to confirm. While I can't find a definitive origin (I'm sure it's out there, but I didn't look extensively), I did find that there are numerous collective nouns for birds.

How about a murder of crows? Or a siege of bitterns? Others include:

-a wake of buzzards
-a cast of falcons
-a confusion of guinea fowl
-a kettle of hawks (Dinner, anyone?)
-a parliament of owls
-a congress of eagles
-an exultation of skylarks

I thought a A Unkindness of Ravens, A Murder of Crows might make a good title for a mystery. I don't read mysteries, but I wasn't surprised when I queried Amazon that I found results. Ruth Rendell wrote a book called An Unkindness of Ravens; Cuba Gooding starred in a movie in 2000 called A Murder of Crows. More on collective nouns for birds can be found here.

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Winter is still a few weeks away, but we had our first snowfall overnight. I love the first snow of the year: new, fresh, bright, the whiteness of it all. I like celebrating the cycles of the seasons and snow, rather than ice or cold, is the sign of winter to me. I like to be reminded of it, but I would be happy if winter only lasted a few days and then we could get on with it. Snow that melts after a few hours is the best kind. Today's was like that, at least on the roadways. I had to grab my camera to capture the snow before it melted away:

The thick wet snow coating the limbs of the trees:






The last few green leaves on the undergrowth, struggling against the elements:




Chimneys seem purposeful. I like the monochromaticism of this picture, all whites and grey. A plume of smoke would have been perfect!




The abandoned, seasonal bench on the front porch, where it isn't too welcoming at this time of year:




The beauty of a single leaf upon the new snow: