From the category archives:

PERSONAL

OVERSTREET: a place where dreams were born

August 31, 2010

The village I grew up in was a small community in Upstate New York.  I didn’t know it was a small town when I was growing up.  I had to develop that perspective by leaving, first for college, then for good.  Several years ago I was in a conversation with someone who had worked at [...]

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GROUND ZERO: the point on the earth’s surface where an explosion occurs

August 17, 2010

Prior to 9/11/01 the term ground zero was a generic term, primarily military, which referred to any point on the earth’s surface beneath which a designated explosion took place.  It was first used, according to Wikipedia, to refer to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since 2001, however, the term has become synonymous with that area [...]

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BLOCKED: unable to put a pen to paper (so to speak)

August 7, 2010

This is one of those rare days when I can’t focus.  I’ve been sitting in front of the computer for over an hour now staring at my extensive list of words about which I’d like to comment.  There’s no energy for any of them today.   I have been going over the vast number of current [...]

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CENTURY MARK: celebrating a 100th birthday

July 24, 2010

Yesterday was the 100th birthday of my wife’s cousin.  We were privileged to be among the crowd of friends and relatives who gathered for a celebration of the century mark for this unbelievably chipper and bright woman who has been a major part of my wife’s life for nearly seven decades.  They are kindred spirits [...]

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DIXIE: that land south of the Mason-Dixon line

July 23, 2010

Today we crossed the Mason-Dixon line.  It was no big deal; in fact, it was somewhat underwhelming.  There were several tell-tale signs on businesses for the five miles before the line.  “Mason-Dixon Used Cars, Mason-Dixon Deli, Mason-Dixon Real Estate, and Mason-Dixon Tattoo Emporium.” And then, there it was:  a simple sign on metal legs, reading: [...]

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HUNKY-DORY: everything’s just fine!

July 22, 2010

I have no idea where it came from.  It’s been part of my vocabulary for years.  In fact, I haven’t even thought about it being there, in the sense of identifying it. It wasn’t until I was sending an email to my daughter, responding to a question she had for me.  I started to write [...]

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EDIT OUT: erase

July 16, 2010

Editing an article is usually a refreshing endeavor.  There’s something positive about discovering a typo, a bad construction, or a mis-spelled word and being able to correct it before clicking on  that “publish” key.  Knowing that I have avoided the embarrassment of a glaring error is not only a relief; it carries with it a [...]

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NOTA BENE: note well

July 15, 2010

My friend and mentor, Julie Roads, sent me the term nota bene a couple of weeks ago. It is Latin, and means “note well.” She suggested that it was a term worth noting (pun intended.) I’ve always thought of it as one of those foreign language terms that one might drop in an article to [...]

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SOLASTALGIA: Distress or melancholy caused by a significant change to one’s local environment.

June 24, 2010

You know the situation.  You have told your children or grandchildren about the house where you grew up.  They have never seen it, and you haven’t seen it in thirty years.  So on a vacation you take a side trip and run by the old hometown and the old house.  Can’t wait to show them [...]

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HEAD to CLEW: common terminology for the corner and edge of the sail

June 23, 2010

You do remember, don’t you, that I know next to nothing about sailing?  My experience on a sailboat is so limited as to be unmentionable.  But many of my friends are sailors, and I never tire of hearing them toss the sailing jargon around.
So when my friend Betty, author of Newport Betty, one of my [...]

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