Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Telic – Wordplay Wednesday™ 12/06/17



2018 is Nigh … Ready or Not!

Are you already preparing for 2018? Are you doing so with focused strides, or simply ambling through December 2017 to its fateful end?

There are benefits of both ways to a New Year transition. This week, let’s explore those with goals, if not firm resolutions, for a meaningful end to 2017 and the New Year’s beginning. You determined folks are …

TELIC (tēʹlik) adj. – directed toward an end, purposeful [WW #141]

Never leave anything to chance? Do you thrive on the details and envision your goals to their telic conclusion? Good luck with that. 

I’ve always tried to be detail-oriented and prefer to know the telic outcome of my plans. Ah, but as Robert Burns once opined in a poem,* “Best laid schemes of mice and men | Go often askew.” And I would add, telic women.

The Holidays are a telic person’s nightmare. They are fraught with interruptions, changes, and just plain hiccups of chance. Perhaps those who amble through life are more suited to Holidays. The rest of us should hibernate. 

Word Challenge: TELIC. Do your best during the Holidays to enjoy your moments of telic perfections, but be prepared with a Plan B,** as you fit telic into your week of resolute writing.

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

            


* Robert Burns’ 1785 poem, "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough,” as interpreted in modern English.
**For young’uns, LONG before there was a Plan B “emergency contraceptive,” we enjoyed the term for describing an alternate method of accomplishing something … rather counter-intuitive to the pill’s meaning … you might want to re-think what you’re doing that would require it. :-)

E-N-D


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Fug – Wordplay Wednesday™ 11/29/17



Your Nose Knows

From the scent of baking pies and boiling potatoes, to a roomful of people with floating aromas of lotions, potions, and potables—not to mention kids’ dirty didees—trust your nose to twitch with the …   

FUG (fug) n. –  the heavy air in a closed room, regarded as either oppressive and murky or warm and cozy (Chiefly British). [WW #140]

Have you ever suffered through a stuffy Holiday gathering with the fug of heavy kitchen aromas, blended with the heavier scent of Aunt Shirley’s perfume, and old Uncle Henry’s heavy sweat, swirling in a battle for your nose twitches?

May all your experiences with Holiday fug eschew the oppressive and bring peace, warmth, and the flow of cozy air to your soul.

Word Challenge: FUG. Good ventilation is the key to a Holiday without the stench of fug. Unless of course, it’s the warm fuzzy kind. Consider the source and the season as you fit fug into your week of aromatic writings.

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

                       


E-N-D

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Rillet – Wordplay Wednesday™ 11/22/17



Streaming … Time … Water … Life  

Some days stream along slowly and pleasantly, while others sweep you along on a torrent of flood waters … kinda like how time passes.

RILLET ( rilʹit) n. – a tiny rill; brooklet. [WW #139]

Uh-huh. So I sorta get “brooklet”—but what’s a “rill”? And what does a tiny one look like?

Well, isn’t just a stream—it’s a “small stream.”

The dictionary is full of definitions like this to confuse and compound the English language. Since rillet’s mommy-word is just two entries above, you’re not left scratching your head.  

Often however, looking up A word, you must waste your time rifling through the 1,000+ pages to a completely different letter section, for a definitive meaning, or decide not to bother. Do they know TIME is our most precious commodity?!

Timemay seem to trickle like a rillet while waiting for Happy Hour—but don’t look now—nearly a year’s worth of Happy Hours have gushed away, in a fleeting torrent.  

Beyond that, all I can say, is I hope the rillet of venom, hate, and vilification of human contact that is penetrating the news doesn’t turn in to a delusional flood that destroys human contact altogether. May as well turn the Earth over to the AIs at that point.

Word Challenge: RILLET. On a bright note … it takes a rillet to join a stream that fills a river on its way to the ocean. Start your week of writing with a noodling rillet.

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

                       




E-N-D