From the category archives:

ECLECTIC

DAPPLED: having spots on an otherwise neutral background

December 17, 2011

In a screenwriting course I once attended the professor taught us how to eavesdrop creatively in order to pick up the subtleties of dialogue.   It is one of those learned skills it is hard to forget, so I find myself letting my ears “roam” when in a crowd.  It paid off again in my most [...]

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SCOFFLAW: a person who regularly ignores the law and refuses to pay the fines imposed

December 6, 2011

He’s a jaywalker, choosing to cross a busy street in the middle of traffic and refusing to abide by the rules which say that he must use the crosswalk.  And, once there, he is supposed to cross only when the lights direct him to do so.  But he sees himself as above the laws, which [...]

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COPASETIC: okay, just right, all in order

November 27, 2011

My first “real job” was with Nabisco as a salesperson.   I was a disaster.  Instead of “selling” a store owner on purchased vast amounts of product, I would agree with them that business was slow and they probably didn’t need more boxes of cookies and crackers.  The company sent a man to “mentor” me on [...]

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PERSPECTIVE: a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance*

November 19, 2011

I’ve told you many times before that I go to theLaSalle Bakery for my daily coffee and New York Times.  It is a place where my “outside of the house” day can begin in the company of a team of mostly young people behind the counter who treat me like a respected elder.  The Sales [...]

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PROVERB: a short, pithy phrase which demonstrates a truth

November 18, 2011

For many centuries the use of proverbs to express a societal truth has been a common practice.  The attractive quality of a proverb is that it is brief, can easily be remembered and recited, and its truth/meaning is easily understood.   Proverbs need not be deep or highly intellectual.  To the contrary, the simpler the better. [...]

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LETTING GO: the act of releasing one’s self, whether by intention or by necessity

November 6, 2011

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning with an extra hour of sleep time.   I’ve been sitting at my computer writing for the past hour, occasionally stopping just to gaze at the beautiful sight outside our sun room windows.   Golden maples ablaze with autumn color, the sun shining through them to create the kind of scene a [...]

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OCTOBER RANDOM THOUGHTS: eclectic mind burps

October 29, 2011

It’s a cold-ish late October morning.  We’re headed off to a rugby game after breakfast.  I decided to be light-hearted today, so here are some reflections on a day when we are expecting our first significant snow of the year. My friend, Hetty the artist, made a great point in her FaceBook posting yesterday.  She [...]

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AFFINAGE: the craft of adding flavor to cheese

October 23, 2011

Cheese has always been a significant part of my diet.   My father introduced me to various forms of “bleu cheese,” allowing me to become a lover of strongly-flavored, smelly cheeses at an early age.   We sometimes took a “Sunday drive” to a place in the Mohawk Valley of NY State (a couple of hours away) [...]

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BLUE HAIR: a pejorative comment about an older woman

October 16, 2011

When I was a child my grandmother would send me to Grants Department Store to get a bottle of “bluing” rinse.   It was a rinse that grey- or white-haired women used to give a little color and life to their hair.   It was applied after washing the hair.  She would let it set in for [...]

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INSOMNIA: inability to get to sleep

October 15, 2011

Do you believe how dark it is in the middle of the night?   It’s a rainy night, so there are clouds covering the moon and the stars.  The remaining leaves on the trees block the city lights pretty much.   When I turn off the desk lamp and then the computer it is pitch black. How [...]

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