The Melt Off '09

It has finally warmed up and the ice covered trees are shedding their layers with great crackling droppings--the dogs and I had to be careful to dodge these natural ice machines on our afternoon walk. We were middle-of-the roaders today!

If you look carefully (click on it for a better view) at the picture above of our street you can see the bits and pieces being shed.

Ice Storm of '09

Brrrr! For two days now the Beave and I have been without power, ergo no heat, no light, but we did have hot running water because we have gas. And I could cook, boil water, and most importantly, take a hot shower. We are powered up for now, but it may not last. Poor Kentucky's grid is likely to go on the blitz again. I really feel for those line-men out in this weather.
God Bless 'Em!

This photo of our home was taken this morning through a haze of frozen ice-covered branches. You can just see Ward's ice-encased FJ Cruiser on the left (see that bit of Voo-Doo blue?) Our entire street is littered with broken branches. As I am writing this I'm looking out of our second story office window at the beauty of huge old ice-covered trees. Awesome!

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Yesterday the Beave and I went to town on the pretext of looking for a pair of shoes. Truth was we just wanted to get out of Dodge after being cooped up by the freeze of last week, and it was warm and sunny and just begging us to be anywhere but here. Turns out that's how everyone else felt too! We kept running into people we knew from post and from the Beave's school. It got to be a Let's Count How Many We've Seen game.

On reflection though it was more than that. It's a sense of belonging in the community. We were genuinely glad to see everyone, even if we had just seem them yesterday, or a couple of hours ago. When we found a spot in the crowded Panera's who do you suppose was sitting next to us? Friends from post! When we popped into Barnes and Noble we ran into more friendly folks.

So this is what it feels like to be a part of Mayberry. For us military families, it's hard to come by and once we find it, even harder to give up. But we will this summer and we'll have to start the whole process of integrating into a community again. The thing is, though some places it can take longer than others, we always manage to make ourselves feel at home and part of a place Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

Cheers Theme Lyrics

Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

Malapropism or Freudian Slip?

“I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead,” said President Obama in his acceptance speech in November. Then again, in his inaugural address at the Lincoln Memorial he said again, “Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure.”

Ok, first things first, he didn’t say misunderestimate, I’ll grant you that, but why would the United States of America not endure?! But I digress, what I’m questioning is his use of the word enormity, and to be fair, only because it was brought to my attention that this word might not be exactly the word one might want to use in the context of the ginormousness of tackling job the of President of the United States. . . but then again, maybe he knows whereof he speaks.


Enormity (ĭ-nôr'mĭ-tē) pronunciation
Enormity Definition, n., pl. -ties.
1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.
3. Usage Problem. Great size; immensity: “Beyond that, [Russia's] sheer enormity offered a defense against invaders that no European nation enjoyed” (W. Bruce Lincoln).

[French énormité, from Old French, from Latin ēnormitās, from ēnormis, unusual, enormous. See enormous.]

USAGE NOTE Enormity is frequently used to refer simply to the property of being great in size or extent, but many would prefer that enormousness (or a synonym such as immensity) be used for this general sense and that enormity be limited to situations that demand a negative moral judgment, as in Not until the war ended and journalists were able to enter Cambodia did the world really become aware of the enormity of Pol Pot's oppression. Fifty-nine percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of enormity as a synonym for immensity in the sentence At that point the engineers sat down to design an entirely new viaduct, apparently undaunted by the enormity of their task. This distinction between enormity and enormousness has not always existed historically, but nowadays many observe it. Writers who ignore the distinction, as in the enormity of the President's election victory or the enormity of her inheritance, may find that their words have cast unintended aspersions or evoked unexpected laughter.

I am willing to give our new president the benefit of the doubt, but our media, should they really just parrot back what their adored one says? An example is from KATIE COURIC who interviewed Mr. Obama on January 14 with this opening question, “So, President-elect Obama, which you'll be president when this airs, by the way because this is gonna be for a primetime special on next Tuesday night, are you starting to realize the enormity of your new job?” If he’s not Katie, the rest of us surely are!

Bottom line, words have meaning!

Time for a Poem!

Because I miss Ward and he seems well over 10,000 miles away!

My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

0, my love is like a red, red rose,
that's newly sprung in June.
0, my love is like a melody,
that's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
so deep in love am I,
And I will love thee still, my dear,
till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
and the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will love thee still, my dear,
while the sands of life shall run.

And fare the weel, my only love!
And fare the well awhile!
And I will come again, my love.
Tho it were ten thousand mile!

Nihilism

My Word of the Day the day after the inauguration. Interesting! Below the definition of nihilism is a snippet of an article that first brought this word to my attention. It does seem to me that we are not just on the path to nihilism, we are there!

nihilism
One entry found.
Main Entry:
ni·hil·ism Listen to the pronunciation of nihilism Listen to the pronunciation of nihilism
Pronunciation:\ˈnī-(h)ə-ˌli-zəm,
Function:noun
Etymology:German Nihilismus, from Latin nihil nothing — more at nil
Date: circa 1817

1 a: a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless b: a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths2 a: a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility bcapitalized : the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination

The Cybercast News interview with the jurist Judge Robert Bork also touched upon the place of religion in public life.

“I don’t think the disputants talk much about God anymore,” Judge Bork commented. “That’s one of the things that I think is regrettable--and I know liberals have said the same thing, it is not a conservative position particularly--but it is regrettable that religion has dropped out of our public discourse. I think it impoverishes it and makes it more violent.”

He explained that he believed this violence was not armed conflict, but rather “violent language and propaganda.”

Judge Bork said he also thought that America is “now going down a path towards kind of a happy-go-lucky nihilism.”

“A lot of people are nihilists,” he continued. “They don’t think about religion. They don’t think about ultimate questions. They go along. They worry about consumer goods, comfort, and so forth.

“As a matter of fact, the abortion question is largely a question about convenience. If you look at the polls about why people have abortions, 90 percent of it has nothing to do with medical conditions. It’s convenience. And that’s I think an example of the secularization of an issue that ought to have a religious dimension.”

When asked whether a nihilistic society can remain “happy-go-lucky” for long, Judge Bork replied: “I don’t know. I guess we are going to find out.”

Wicked

Oh my heck! this is one good play! Thank you Betty for recommending it, and thanks too for not revealing the plot line so there were all of those little surprises.

This musical was just what a Broadway play should be, interesting plot with a light cheesy story line, great memorable characters and the very best singing in the world! Never once did I fidget in my seat or look at my watch. I was captivated, as was everyone in the audience last night. This is what entertainment should be!

Beave and friend and yours truly headed into the city early, to make sure we found the Kentucky Center for Performing Arts, got parking and had enough time to grab a light bite. That went well, and we actually were close enough to walk through the Fourth Street Live area before catching the show.

The only damper to our evening was the white-knuckle drive home. Due to an ice storm we were forced to go as slowly as 15 mph, and I have all wheel drive! We saw many cars, and lots of trucks, sliding off the highway. But we made it home!

Just one other comment about the play. Try not to think of Elphaba, aka The Wicked Witch of the West, in context of the original Wizard of Oz movie as shown in the second photo above.

If you do you could never imagine that Fiyero, the love interest of both Elphaba and Glinda, would fall for the former, as shown in the top photo from the play.

Lie or Lay?

I can never get this one right. Lay the book down, I lie down, but it is, now I lay me down to sleep. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter all that much, except I love the English language and I want to get it right, or do I mean correct?

I looked this one up and found several good explanations. This one from Wikipedia was just good and straightforward about these two troublesome words:


The usage lay has been used intransitively in the sense of “lie” since the 14th century. The practice was unremarkable until around 1770; attempts to correct it have been a fixture of schoolbooks ever since. Generations of teachers and critics have succeeded in taming most literary and learned writing, but intransitive lay persists in familiar speech and is a bit more common in general prose than one might suspect. Much of the problem lies in the confusing similarity of the principal parts of the two words. Another influence may be a folk belief that lie is for people and lay is for things. Some commentators are ready to abandon the distinction, suggesting that lay is on the rise socially. But if it does rise to respectability, it is sure to do so slowly: many people have invested effort in learning to keep lie and lay distinct. Remember that even though many people do use lay for lie, others will judge you unfavorably if you do.

(Hey I am never one who likes to be judged unfavorably!!)

The verb lie is intransitive, meaning it does not need an object. Example: I lie down. The verb lay is transitive, meaning that it DOES need an object. I lay the book on the table.
Tenses are as follows: Lie. Past. I lay down. Past Perfect: I have lain down for five hours. Lay. Past. I lay the book on the table. Past Perfect. I have laid the book on the table.

Lay versus Lie, from another blog:

A frustrating pair. Here's the deal. In the present tense, lay is a transitive verb, meaning it takes a direct object: you lay something down. Lie doesn't take a direct object: something just lies there. If you're tired of holding something, you should lay it down; if you're not feeling well, you should lie down. (Of course I'm excluding lie, "tell an untruth" — this is just the reclining lie.)

Not too bad: if this were the whole deal, there'd be nothing to worry about. But it gets messier, because the past tense of lay is laid, and the past tense of lie is, well, lay.

This whole thing came up when I had to put the kibosh on a certain boy and girl watching a movie together on a couch in my living room, and in that case I got the usage absolutely dead on; for the correct word in that case is SIT!!

Kibosh

Isn't that an interesting word? I used it last night in thinking to myself, "I'm going to have to put the kibosh on that." Only in my thoughts I had spelled it wrong (kabosh). The etymology of this word is listed as unknown, but it sounds Brooklynesque to me.

kibosh
One entry found.
Main Entry: ki·bosh Pronunciation: \ˈkī-ˌbäsh, kī-ˈ; ki-ˈbäsh\
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1836: something that serves as a check or stop — kibosh transitive verb

So I think that as I come across interesting words I will post them under the What's Up With That Word? label or Words I Have Known and Loved, or maybe just boring old Word of the Day?

SAD Or Just Glum

It's the time of year when SAD kicks in for many people. Seasonal Affective Disorder? Why do we have to have a clinical definition for every mood we feel?! According to Wikipedia:

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer,[1] repeatedly, year after year. The US National Library of Medicine notes that "some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up."[2] The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder, and can also include heightened anxiety.

Why do we need an excuse for everything? I challenge calling this feeling a disorder. I think it's perfectly natural. Why not just say we're human and in the winter when the days are dark and gray we get glum? But when the days are sunny I feel better, or as in Wikipedia's definition, though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up. Ha ha ha! Also works: a cup of hot tea and some chocolate!

Another Western

It was just serendipity that I chose 3-10 to Yuma from Netflix and it arrived just after my book group finished reading So Brave, Young, and Handsome. And it involved those Pinkertons again. So FYI I've included an excerpt from Wikipedia on those famous detectives of the late 1800s:

We Never Sleep", the famous motto of the Pinkerton Agency, redirects here. For the 1917 film starring Harold Lloyd, see We Never Sleep (film).

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, was a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton had become famous when he foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the Civil War.[citation needed] Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. At its height, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America, causing the state of Ohio to outlaw the agency due to fears it could be hired out as a private army or militia.

The Pinkertons engaged in this movie were employed to guard a stagecoach from the Ben Wade's (Russell Crowe) gang of murderous, thieving scum-of-the-earth outlaws. They didn't really stand a chance and somehow our protagonist, rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) gets mixed up in trying to bring Ben to justice via an edge of your seat, shoot 'em up trip to catch the train at Yuma by 3:10. Of course it's much more complicated than that, and to tell you the truth I don't think I have enough testosterone running through my veins to really enjoy this kind of bloody, rough riding drama. It gives a kind of a sad twist of fate moralistic ending, but again it was just too gritty a tale for my liking.

Really, I kept thinking, how do these guys go to the bathroom out there on the dusty trail? And just how bad do they smell with no showers for days, weeks (months?!) on end . . .not to mention all of that blood and guts staining what was probably 100% cotton or wool clothing!

Spaghetti Western

So Young, Brave, and Handsome by Leif Enger, was our book choice for this month. And we were hard pressed to find a food theme for it, but if only I had thought about this genre, the Spaghetti Western, I would have served spaghetti! But I didn't, and so we had white bean chili, a wonderful salad, rolls, and hermits for dessert. None of which would have likely come out of a Zane Gray novel, which is what I compare this book to, even though I've never read a Zane Gray novel. I have heard enough about the quintessential western to know that our choice certainly fit the bill.

This first-person narration gives us at the helm of our journey, Monte Becket, who is certainly not a prototypical western hero, but he provides us one. Having authored a one-hit wonder along the likes of Riders of the Purple Sage (by Zane Gray) he has spent several years trying to krank out other novels, to no avail. Having quit his average-Joe job at the Post Office he begins to feel the pressure of writer's block. Enter Glendon Hale, hero (or anti-hero depending on how you look at it) quiet builder of boats with a sketchy past, including leaving the love of his life some twenty years past.

Glendon suddenly decides he needs redemption and sets out on a quest to find and get forgiveness. He asks Monte to accompany him, and Monte says yes with the blessing of his own loving family. The two set off on what becomes an increasingly dangerous journey, as Glendon's past is brought to light and the law still has an interest in him.

This journey to redemption is well written, almost lyrical, and through Monte we get an insightful look at the characters with all of their humanness--frailties and strengths alike.

The antagonist of the story is the archetype of evil, Siringo, an ex-Pinkerton (you learn something new everyday!) and he is unrelenting in his pursuit of the two. And of course that makes the story!

There is a lovely irony in the story that Monte, having written a great romantic western that people recognize him for, when living out a tale similar to it, is completely overwhelmed by the true grittiness of such a life.

What I particularly liked about this story, besides it being a quick and easy read, is that the author researched his history, and the people and places he mentions are true, outside of his fictional characters, that is. I love the fact that the Hundred and One was really a ranch in Ponca City, Oklahoma and his description was accurate. We also get a glimpse of the end of an era, the cowboy age, and the beginning of a new one, with the use of automobiles.

So though it was a long and dusty trail, with some shoot-em-ups, there is a type of reconciliation. But it might not be the one you expected.

New Year, New You?

Nope, it ain't gonna happen! The list of changes needed would be overwhelming. But!!
I do resolve to get some things done. Being an avid list maker, as noted in an earlier post, I have already succeeded in accomplishing some things on my short list.

Monday was the beginning. These things were done:

Art work to studio for framing. I've had these two items a long time (one over 2 years) so this is big, on second thought, it's HUGE!

Bags of used clothing to thrift shop for donation. Again, those have been sitting here for a couple of months.

Tickets to the Broadway play Wicked in Louisville on January 18. This is big in so many ways! First, I bought three tickets. So that means the Beave is going with! (I should get an Olympic medal for this fact alone!) Second, it means he gets to invite his friend, and I get to chaperon their first "date." Does it get any better? Why, yes it does. January 18 is a Sunday and though the play is in the evening, the next day is an army training holiday so we won't have to worry about getting home late, we can actually go out for dinner afterward. That should make for a very nice evening of culture and manners.

So the short list is waning; the long list is still, well, long. And while I make no resolutions I do aspire to accomplish those things steadily over the next six months. Hey, I have to stay busy until Ward returns from Iraq!

Days of Auld Lang Syne

Isn't it fitting that my first post of the new year include the following by Robert Burns:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS


Never mind the fact that I'm not sure what exactly this scottish verse means!

I've heard it so many times on New Year's Eve and it's been in so many of my favorite old classic movies that it stirs my heart every time I hear it.