Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Oleander For 25 years my father lived on a street named Oleander. I spent some summers (mostly uncomfortable) in his house of cigarette smoke and loud talk radio. I always left the place teary-eyed and coughing. The walk from the house to the car offered a brief release from the smoke, but that ended when [...]
Friday, February 22, 2008
I knew an artist who groused that his life’s work could fit neatly onto a single compact disc. “My life’s work,” he said with a grim, cheesy smile, “fits onto one CD. One piece of plastic.” I later imagined him flicking that shiny CD into his kitchen sink with the dirty dishes. He had actually [...]
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I should be a farmer, because I love the smell of polecat. Better known as skunk, this “American musteline mammal” is said to eject an “intensely malodorous fluid when startled.” To me the smell of polecat is anything but malodorous. I find it bitter but rich. To me skunk is a savory aroma even as [...]
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The food service industry long ago co-opted the phrase “all the way” to mean “everything on it,” though I am not aware of any dictionary that defines the phrase in that way. “All the way” has a meaning similar to “supersize,” another fast food term now used to describe things that have nothing to do [...]
Monday, February 18, 2008
Friday it took several minutes of scrolling through the word swarm to find a word of any meaning to me. Today numerous words compete for my interest. I can’t decide among minaret, godspeed, wonder, and interdigitate. Hmm. I’ll go with “wonder” because, coincidentally, I have lately begun to question the meaning of that word as [...]
Friday, February 15, 2008
In my sophomore year of high school I impressed fellow members of my Latin class with my knowledge of the English word derived from the Latin lugubris. None present but I knew the English word lugubrious, and none but I knew that it meant “mournful” or “sad.” I learned the word “lugubrious” at Sewanee Summer [...]
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I fell in love with the Intracranial Cavity of Mary last year. When I found her high atop Section 2 at Old Calvary last summer I guessed she had stood there for well over 100 years, her skull cavity collecting earth and her quiet stare not flinching for longer than any of us has lived. [...]
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Drotchel, an obsolete term superseded by the equally obscure Drossel and Drazel, lead me to the word Dross. Dross is a word I’ve used in mumblings to self and inside my head, but nowhere else. It is a word I love but am shy to use. The closest I came to using this word was [...]
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
I have nothing to say about something once I’ve said it. A story told once is told for all time. I don’t know whose philosophy it might embody, but I believe that a story told is a story told, whether heard by one, by millions, or by no one at all (the story forgotten the [...]
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Banalize A transitive verb meaning to make banal, to insipidify, to make tritebear. Sitting among 9 or 10 people in the student lounge in college I, for some reason, got hung up on the word “banal.” The word came up in conversation, and I think my fixation on the word came in response to the [...]
