Month: November 2010

Today’s writing Wednesday involves a Homophone game I used to play with Tesla.  He invented it  in kindergarten, the day he learned the word “homophone,” and although the game is easy to learn, it’s advanced enough to entertain everyone.  It also requires careful thinking about words, so it qualifies as today’s challenge game. The game involves guessing pairs of homophones based on a two-word clue. For example:  If the clue is “spiteful armies,” the answer is “malicious militias.” Or: “Stopped dog,” as a clue for “paused paws.” Higher points if the homophones are in exactly the same form (“paused paws”

I love blog comments.  I read them, I respond to them, they make my day.  I make it as easy as possible to join the conversation, and hope all of you decide to do so. (I do have a “first-comment moderated” policy, so if your first one doesn’t show up right away, forgive the delay and know that subsequent ones will show up as soon as you post them.) That said…permit me to offer a word or two of advice. 1.  “Hi I love this blog. Great blog.  This post really helped me with my research,” posted on a book

Over the weekend, one of my Tweeps (a word I never thought I’d use in a serious fashion, but there you have it) asked something along the lines of “Does anyone else keep buying books before finishing the last ones?” The answer, in my case, is a resounding YES. Most of my friends (and many other Tweeps) said the same.  Which started me thinking: why?  What is it about bibliophiles that makes us so compulsive about acquisition of titles, even when our reading lists stretch out and the stacks by our beds rise high enough to endanger small children and

I haven’t got a book to review this week (too many office fires to put out) but I’m offering a “helpful alternative” in place of the usual review, along with a promise that between now and next week I’ll read and review Keep the Change, the new book from Steve Dublanica, author of Waiter Rant.  I bought the book on release day, but haven’t had the opportunity to read it in its entirety yet. It’s rare for me to promise a review in advance, since I only review books I recommend, but I did sneak a look at this one

Yesterday I was in the weeds. I had too many projects, all of them urgent, and far too little time in which to complete them.  I’ve talked very little about my day job here, and intend to keep it that way, so details will be sparse, but the most common meaning of “in the weeds” – a restaurant kitchen and/or wait staff that cannot keep up with the orders, reaches critical mass, and prepares to go down in (sometimes literal) flames – pretty much explains it.  My day job normally involves a low-stress office environment (in an admittedly high-stress profession)

On November 13, Tesla and I will be participating in the Read-a-Thon for Hunger.  As Thanksgiving approaches, those of us with the blessing of food to eat and warm houses around us should take a moment to stop, look around and give thanks for the simple fact that even though we don’t always have everything we want….we have enough, and many people do not. Take a moment to look over the Read-a-Thon for Hunger website.  It’s not a 24-hour obligation, or even an all-day affair (unless you want it to be) but taking the time to read in honor of

This week’s Wednesday Writing challenge explores the difference between reality and hype. We’ve all seen the ads: “Visit Tourist Attraction X, the greatest thing since Kleenex!” or “Buy SnackieCakes…0 calories, tastes like real sugar!” We’ve all seen the reality: the pathetic, dust-covered biscuits yearning to breathe the caloric air of a real bakery, and a tourist attraction that turns out somewhat different than the brochure claimed. Your challenge this week, should you choose to accept it, is to take an object – real or imaginary – and write about it two ways: first, give us the advertising hype.  Then take

The first week of November 2010 has been declared National “Give Wildlife a Break Week” and also “Intimate Apparel Week.” In the interest of helping persons attempting full observance, please permit me to offer the following suggestions: 1.  Bears do not look good in negligees.  (Let’s be honest, they haven’t got the figures for it.) 2.  Attempting to put intimate apparel on wildlife normally results in intimate encounters of an unpleasant and scarifying nature.  (TL;DR: Not only do bears look bad in negligees, they don’t much like wearing them, either.) 3.  Underpants should be worn under fur coats, not on

Last night, my son (on the blog, we call him “Tesla” for his mad scientist propensities) handed out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters.  As always, he dressed up for the occasion, though this year’s costume surpassed all his previous attempts. He went as “Charlie Brown’s ghost costume.” I’ll take a minute to let that sink in.  As anyone who’s seen It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will remember, the Peanuts’ Halloween Special featured the Peanuts gang attending a Halloween party while Linus sat in the pumpkin patch, waiting for The Great Pumpkin.  Lucy van Pelt dressed up as a witch, but