Lachrymose – Wordplay Wednesday™ 12/05/18

Yes, my one New Year's resolution is to post all of my articles on time in 2019 ... in the meantime, enjoy this week's Wordplay Wednesday, day late, and $$ short!
 
Grab Popcorn & Tissues for Holiday Tearjerkers 

During the Holiday Season, between charity fundraisers and classic seasonal TV movies, the tissue companies make a LOT of dough, and we’re not talkin’ cookies. 

This season, the television cable channels must have bought stock in the tissue companies. They appear to have launched a slew of new tearjerkers hoping to challenge the likes of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and A Christmas Story (1983; never lick a frozen pole!). Will this spawn a new awards show for …

 

LACHRYMOSE (lakʹri mōs’) adj. 1) inclined to shed many tears, tearful; 2) causing tears, sad. [WW #193]

The Hallmark Channel even has an app to track your list of watched vs. not watched lachrymose movie titles in their Countdown to Christmas presentation of premiered movies. Of course … there’s an app for everything.

While generally embodying the Christmas spirit, often combined with romance and a healthy dose of sentimentality, I haven’t yet seen a new lachrymose film that matches the staying power of the classics. Has anyone portrayed a more convincing Kris Kringle than Edmund Gwenn in 1947’s A Miracle on 34th Street?

And there isn’t a classier lachrymose Holiday classic than White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney (1954). It sends us reeling through the gamut from sweet to touchingly amusing to playful … and of course back to love found, love lost, and love rekindled. Sniffle, sniffle.

What is it about the lachrymose Holiday movies that we can’t seem to get enough of? Perhaps we’re so wrapped up in our own emotional lives the rest of the year that we don’t see others’ depth of emotional experiences. Until the Holidays. When giving, sharing, and loving are daily buzzwords, sprinkled with a little Christmas Magic. 

Grab a yummy eggnog and a fresh box of tissues. Enjoy.

 

Word Challenge: LACHRYMOSE. Count the times a movie, charity story or news event causes you to reach for a tissue, as you fit lachrymose into your week of sensitive writings.

Learning knows no prejudices or boundaries, and it isn’t fattening! Expanding your mind is a no-cost, simple joy. Do you feel that way too? What’s your inspiration? Share your creative genius and Wordplay Wednesday comments below.

Write first for yourself … only then can you write for others. (L.Rochelle) 

Cheers to learning a new word on Wordplay Wednesday!

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and an author by way of Rock & Roll. She has published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series about pioneering R&R Radio DJs. The true behind-the-mic tales make GREAT Holiday Gifts available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!

E-N-Dzzzzzzzz

Digraph – Wordplay Wednesday™ 11/28/18

New Word Game for your Holiday Party!

This week, wordsmiths, we’re featuring a school word! It’s likely you only heard it in school, and in my day (oh so long ago) only if you took English classes that dissected words and sentence structure to the nth degree. Ugh.

Has it been a while since you heard a school bell rudely awaken you from your desk-nap? Let me remind you … (really loud) brrrrrriinnnngggg!

DIGRAPH (dīʹgrafʹ) n. – a combination of two letters functioning as a unit to represent one sound (Ex.: read, bread, chin, graphic.) [WW #192] 

Sound boring? Let’s jazz it up. Are you hosting or attending any Holiday parties for family or friends? Introduce a new word game! Who can identify the most digraphs in a Holiday related paragraph, in record time? It isn’t as easy to spot them as you might think.

You’ll be surprised to notice that for a word we rarely use, there are numerous digraphs in just a few sentences. Make it more difficult—wait ‘til halfway through your party after everyone has enjoyed a few eggnogs!

Feel free to use the sample below or create your own, specific to your festive party goers. Ideas: compile a list of Holiday song titles or lyrics; winter theme words; or dream of summertime with beach words!

Sample paragraph with digraphs in italics: “The Holidays” hold different meaning for each of us. Bringing people of diverse backgrounds and unique mores together, offers a window into optional attitudes to explore new philosophies in a non-threatening setting. Cherish your family and friends, and urge them to enjoy and celebrate their differences. It’s what makes us human.

I counted eighteen. Did I miss any? The tricky part is there are two words—philosophies and Cherish—that are multiples. The former not only has three digraphs, but two of those are next to each other, and the latter has two. Have fun!

Word Challenge: DIGRAPH. Hum a happy Holiday tune, as you fit digraph into your week of festive writings.

Learning knows no prejudices or boundaries, and it isn’t fattening! Expanding your mind is a no-cost, simple joy. Do you feel that way too? What’s your inspiration? Share your creative genius and Wordplay Wednesday comments below.

Write first for yourself … only then can you write for others. (L.Rochelle) 

Cheers to learning a new word on Wordplay Wednesday!

                       

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and an author by way of Rock & Roll. She has published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series about pioneering R&R Radio DJs. The true behind-the-mic tales make GREAT Holiday Gifts available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!

E-N-Dzzzzzzzz