Living In the World, Not on It

Fashions come and go. One year it's bell-bottoms that are cool, another time it might be torn jeans. What is hip for one age is passé for another. The same goes for words. Yesterday's street slang becomes respectable today, suitable for office memos and academic theses. Words once in everyday use may be labeled archaic a few hundred years later. As I see it, there's no reason to despatch any word to the attic of time. Each word on our verbal palette -- whether new or old -- helps us bring outa nuance in conversation and in writing. The words featured here this week are considered archaic but are still in good shape. They're old but have not yet retired from the language. They still faithfully report for duty, as shown by some of the examples from newspapers. garboil (GAHR-boil) noun Confusion; turmoil. [Via French and Italian from Latin bullire (to boil).] point-device (point di-VYS) adverb Completely; perfectly adjective Perfect; precise; meticulous [From the phrase ...

It's always easier to post on the day of the events, but sometimes that just isn't possible. Vacations definitely make that harder. I did log in a few times, but never was able to really collect my thoughts and put them down - it was late at night and I was too tired. The days were packed and we had a great time. Who wants to blog with all of that going on? We are back now, and that in itself was an adventure, but I am getting ahead of myself. Always better to begin with the first part. We got to the airport after a rocky start with the driver and traffic. The driver talked too much, which was a little annoying, and the traffic on Route 24 East at 1630 was hideous - normal rush hour traffic combined with a zillion people getting an early start to their long weekend. We would have sat in it but the driver knew what to do to get around the mess. We made it to the airport at 1715 and checked our bags in, did the security, and then got onto the Terminal C concourse. We had a bite t...

Federal Legislative Alert!On Wednesday, May 21, President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The new law, which has been called “the first civil rights law of the 21st Century,” would prohibit discrimination against individuals on the basis of their genetic information in both employment and health care. The employment provisions of GINA become effective in November 2009, or 18 months after the President signed the bill, and the provisions pertaining to group health plans become effective in May 2009, or one year after the date of enactment. To watch the signing ceremony in the Oval Office, click http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080521-7.wm.v.html > here: Relevant to HR professionals, the legislation contains the following provisions: State Genetic law Preemption – GINA will allow state laws that are more stringent in the requirements, standards, or implementations than those contained in GINA to supersede the new federal ...

And I want a Harley! More will follow after tomorrow's flight home!

cicerone (sis-uh-RO-nee) noun A tour guide. [After Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), the Roman statesman, orator,and writer, who was known for his knowledge and eloquence. He's one of the rare people who have given two eponyms to the English language. Another word coined after his name is ciceronian, meaning marked by ornate language, expansive flow, and forcefulness of expression.] "Proper names that have become improper and uncommonly common" is how Willard R. Espy described eponyms, and that is the theme for this week's words in AWAD: words coined after someone's name. In our quest for eponyms, we are going to visit ancient Greece and Rome, 17th and 19th century Paris, and even go back to biblical times. Over the years we have featured hundreds of eponyms, but this week, as in any week, we'll review only five. If you want to have your fill of eponyms check out this eponym-infested story: http://newstatesman.com/200603200056 svengali (sven-GAH-lee) noun A ...

I'd been thinking about this since Saturday night, but of course I'm just posting about it now. While doing the standby at the Parsippany Carnival, I ran into an old friend. He's not old, about 35 or so, but one of the few people I've known since I was a teenager. That is something for me. I left school feeling very distanced from the others I went there with and did not feel nostalgic about being a kid. I still don't. Getting through school was torturous. It turns out that this person I met from hanging out with someone else in school, but he did not go to school with me. I think we met in a bowling alley... of course, this was about 25 years ago... so I could very easily be mistaken - my memory being what it isn't. Brian did not at all like me at first - he was very jealous that I was taking his friend Kip away. Kip was a misfit in school, as was I. But in my junoir year I met Holly, and we became friends. She introduced me to Kip, who introduced me to Andy an...

Can you believe it? It is mid-May and this is posting #200 - rather prolific, isn't it? This year I need not worry about managing to get to 365 - well, 366 - postings by 31 December. It seems as though there is always fresh fodder for blogging - home, work, riding, musings on life in general. Some people live on the world, I live in it. I would not have it any other way. Hold on, I need to change the DVD... Three days until our trip to Houston - talk about fodder for writing! This should provide a ton of material for me, for my mind, for this. And photos, of course. I'll take a zillion images. As always. I don't know what we will do there... but there is something I want to check. OK, no active Renassaince Faires at this time but check this out: Everything you've always wanted to know about Houston Houston, at approximately 596 square miles, is the fourth largest city in America. It is the largest city in Texas with a population approaching three million. County seat of...

This was a good weekend! Yesterday I was up around 0630, really got out of bed closer to 0800, had breakfast, then got in the shower, dressed and picked up my mother around 1230 to visit Ray. I had his shirts and had stopped at the store to get him some crackers the previous night. We left ten minutes later and got to the rehab place around 1245. We took Ollie and went outside to a small area that they had for the "inmates", and Ma and I sat in the plastic chairs, and Ray sat on the wall. The chairs were too low - when one has hip surgery, one is supposed to sit higher than the level of their knees, but not lower. The chairs would be okay for someone 5'10" but not 6'4" with long legs, like Ray. He's not disproportionate like some men, with a long torso and not so long legs. Luis is a little more like that. Some guys have very long torsos, a look I don't like. Longer legs look better. Anyway, we had a nice time sitting outside and talking and then at ...

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS Smart man + smart woman = romance Smart man + dumb woman = affair Dumb man + smart woman = marriage Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy OFFICE ARITHMETIC Smart boss + smart employee = profit Smart boss + dumb employee = production Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime SHOPPING MATH A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs. A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item that she doesn't need. GENERAL EQUATIONS &STATISTICS A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. HAPPINESS To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all. LONGE...

Over the years we have featured weeks of words about words, we have had words about birds, and now it's time for, well, words about beards. Are bearded people irritating? While some find a beard on a man attractive, it repels others. Like barbed wire, literally speaking. The words barb, barber, rebarbative, and beard are derived from the same root: Latin barba (beard). And though many bards have beards, there is no connection between the two words. Though most men have only a fleeting interest in pogonotrophy (growing of abeard, from Greek pogon, beard + -trophy, nourishment or growth), growing it now, shaving it when the fancy strikes, for some, beards are a serious business. There's even a biannual championship event for the bearded: http://worldbeardchampionships.com/ This week we'll see five words having to do with facial hair. They are pure beard words as the week starts out, and like beards growing slender at the bottom, as the week ends the connection becomes slende...

Ray, my father, had his first of two hip surgeries on Monday, 5 May. I drove him to Hackensack Hospital at 0500, got there in time and he went in to surgery at 0720, or so. It took just under two hours for them to do the replacement! I could not believe it. It is staggering and amazing to me that such a huge surgery like that can only take a bit under two hours. They shaved the bone down, reshaped it and added a titanium part and a porcelain part, and got him all back together in that time. This is not a minor surgery. And yet, it seems too good to be true. The next day, the hospital staff had him up and walking around - ten feet out from the bed, ten feet back, sit in the chair for a bit and then back to bed. He was totally drained and exhausted after that, and he was happy to get back in bed. He was in some pain but at that time, he was on a morphine drip. (We have mostly found that my parents are not appropriately reactive to morphine. It works well with me, but not them.) The day a...

Some interesting tidbits found in The Institute for Bathroom Readers Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader : "1. American friends touch will each other in conversation about twice 2. British friends generally won't touch each other at all 3. By comparison, the French can't keep their hands off each other, they average 110 touches an hour 4. But Puerto Ricans were the most tactile in the study, with about 180 "touches" in the same period" This is something that I mention in orientation to my new hires: harassment is any percieved action considered to be unwelcome. One of those things is standing too close to another, but for each person and for each culture it is different. I've noticed that Greek and some Eastern Bloc nations denizens will stand very close and if you inch away, they'll follow you as you go. In their cultures, standing very close is percieved as showing an interest. OK... In our culture it is considered to be 18" that m...

I'm not stupid but I wondered about the line on some ebay sellers items that read smoke-free home or smoke-free environment. Now I know. I buy a lot of candles from one specific buyer. She's a wonderful seller, a great communicator and a very careful shipper - everything comes wrapped up and safely shipped without so much as a scratch. She's great. The funny thing is that the first several purchases were all perfect and then the last two or three came reeking of smoke. It was disgusting. Fortunately it was the packing peanuts that reeked and not the glass (although glass would not be porous enough to hold the smell) but it was overwhelming when I opened the box. And this woman is so nice that part of me wants to write to her via e-mail or ebay that smoking kills and she's too nice to die. However, smokers never seem to appreciate people telling them that, no more than I appreciate hearing that I spend my money stupidly. (However, I know that already.) A few of my Smurf...

The writers' strike has created an interesting issue. They strike, production stops, and we the viewers get the short end of the stick. The writers' strike ended in mid- to late February, production began again, but most shows did not air until the end of March or mid-April. That is about four months without new viewing except for those few shows willing to air then - maybe second stringers who did not make the cut for the last season initially. Eli Stone might be one of those shows. So now as we come into the mid-May time, season finales are beginning to air. Season finales? After leaving us high and dry from our favourite shows for three to four months they still get to go off the air in May? Oh, no, no, no, I don't agree with that at all. I think we are getting the shaft for something that is not our fault. How is that fair? It isn't. I'm re-watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation now from Thursday, and it's great! In the opening scene, Grissom and David ar...

I'm doing nothing today, nothing at all, in the hopes that I will feel better tomorrow when it is time to go in to work. I felt a little off yesterday morning when I woke up and thought it might be allergies, so I took an Allegra and headed off to the squadhouse for the drill. Yesterday afternoon I was crabby and tired and out of sorts, and then last night it was suddenly a full-blown cold, complete with a low-grade fever, cough, rapid-fire sneezing and a runny nose. What fun. To add to the thrill, the decongestant gives me terrible heartburn. Wahoo.

This morning was our first drill this year. I would say it was quite a success - we all worked on the different extrications, practiced with KEDding and rapid trauma takedowns, and in the process ripped to shreds an SUV that the Heavy Rescue guys got from the junk yard. The only downside was feeling a little out-of-sorts when I awoke, but I took an Allegra for allergies and ran across the street. I've been on plenty of these drills but they are valuable every time. They are educational, fun, work, everything you would want a drill to be. The first set up was a patient in the driver's side, ran into a (what did our Captain say? A water buffalo? I forget. Something outrageous like that). I got right in as I do on all of our Thursday night crew accidents and did head stabilization. I know that I can do that easily, without lifting strain and I know I'm good with patients. One of the Thursday night crew came up on the drivers side and one of the former Tuesday night crew came t...

Tips for the ladies in year 2008 1. Aspire to be Barbie - the bitch has everything 2. If the shoe fits - buy one in every colour 3. Take life with a pinch of salt... A wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila 4. In need of a support group? - Cocktail hour with the girls 5. Go on the 30 day diet. (I'm on it and so far I've lost 15 days) 6. When life gets you down - just put on your big girl panties and deal with it 7. Let your greatest fear be that there is no PMS and this is just your personality 8. I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here 9. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself 10. Don't get your knickers in a knot, it solves nothing; and makes you walk funny 11. When life gives you lemons in 2008 - turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka 12. Remember every good-looking, sweet, single male is someone else's ex-boyfriend!

of Baton Rouge! This one is my favourite!

Cyclone Nargis ( JTWC designation: 01B, also known as Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis) was a strong tropical cyclone that made landfall in Burma (also known as Myanmar) on May 2 , 2008 , causing catastrophic destruction and at least 22,980 fatalities with a further 42,119 people still missing, and estimates on the final total of fatalities ranging up to 100,000. However, the Labutta Township alone was reported to have 80,000 dead and some have estimated the death toll may be well over 100,000, with the highest estimates reaching over 600,000. It is the deadliest named cyclone in the North Indian Ocean Basin, as well as the second deadliest named cyclone of all time, behind Typhoon Nina . Including unnamed storms, Nargis is the 8th deadliest cyclone of all time. Nargis was the first tropical cyclone to strike the country since Cyclone Mala made landfall in 2006 . The first named storm of the 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season , Nargis developed on April 27 in the central Ba...

This will drive you nuts! Make sure you read under the illusion, too.... If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots will remain only one color, pink. However if you stare at the black "+" in the center, the moving dot turns to green. Now, concentrate on the black "+" in the center of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating. It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see!

A woman was leaving a 7-11 store with her morning coffee when she noticed amost unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery. A long black hearse was followed by a second long black hearse about 50 feet behind. Behind the second hearse was a solitary woman walking a pit bull on a leash. Behind her were 20 women walking single file. The woman couldn't stand the curiosity. She respectfully approached the woman walking the dog and said "I am so sorry for your loss and I know now is a bad time to disturb you, but I've never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?" The woman replied, "Well, that first hearse is for my husband." "What happened to him?" The woman replied "My dog attacked and killed him." She inquired further, "Well, who is in the second hearse?" The woman answered, "My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my husband when the dog turned on her." A poignant and thoughtful moment of silence...

by Stephen Gilliland (son of author & professional speaker Steve Gilliland) I remember growing up hearing my father say things like, "We are responsible for what happens to us, not anyone or anything else." I also have great memories of my father sitting on the deck in the early summer morning reading a book and me curious about what he was reading. The one thing I have never put out of my mind is the day he came home after hearing Charlie Tremendous Jones deliver a keynote speech at a meeting he attended. He was so excited that he showed me his notes and said, "Stephen, check this out!" "You are the same today that you are going to be in five years from now except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read." That was the first time, and not the last, I would hear my father repeat Mr. Jones' influential remarks. Years later I now marvel at my father's accomplishments, the books he has written, and the lives he has...

Have you ever read a novel so well-written that the characters came alive? This week's words are about those fictional men and women who have walked off the pages of their books and entered the dictionary. Perhaps it's a testament to the genius of the authors that their imaginary creations are now part of the living language. Let's meet five of these words, also known as eponyms, this week. lilliputian (lil-i-PYOO-shuhn) adjective Very small. noun A very small person. [After Lilliput, a fictional island nation in Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels. Everything was diminutive in Lilliput -- its inhabitants were six inches in height.] pantagruelian (pan-tuh-groo-EL-ee-uhn) adjective 1. Enormous 2. Displaying extravagant and coarse humor [After Pantagruel, a giant king with an enormous appetite, depicted in a series of novels by François Rabelais (c. 1490-1553).] Simon Legree (SY-muhn li-GREE) noun A harsh taskmaster [After Simon Legree, a brutal slave ...

Last night the bear got us. First call was at 1815; at 2155 we finished with our fourth call. Somewhere in between I ordered dinner, but it came while we were out on calls 3 & 4. All I can say is that it was totally madness. We went to Morristown twice, were presented with two different disgusting things in baggies (I cannot image what possesses people to do this...) and then on the fourth call I was the only one who could communicate at all with the patient. How amazing. No one at work calls on me for my Spanish skills! I'm always relying on others for this! Well, on our crew (and probably most) I have the best Spanish vocabulary. How funny is that? It was an interesting night!

I saw one today that had me laughing out loud: DON'T STEAL The government hates competition I love it! And it is so true. The government pays an outrageous sum of money for a screw driver, raises our taxes by whatever means necessary to pay for it, then doesn't pay the vendor appropriately. How is it that businesses shouldn't operate that way but the government can? It certainly does. I don't know... if I owned a business and ran it that way, I'd be poor and out on the street. How is it that the government isn't out of business? And it continues to operate this way and seems to hang in there.

Someone that I probably know sent this anonymously: "Many people miss him too, its a shame though, that now, many have something "nice" to say.. things that should have been said when the dead were living." I don't know if I had vented about the person who died, but I offered my kidney to him. I don't how much more I could've said to convey my feelings about him. But, this is food for thought. Ever notice that? Somehow, anytime someone dies, suddenly everyone says all kinds of wonderful things that clearly they did not feel while that party was alive. It is the most common thing and so weird. I see it at every wake and funeral I've been to. Honestly if I felt that way about someone, I would not go to the event - unless it's out of obligation to someone else (like Luis... amazing what we'll put up with for our mates). What makes us do that? Why is it we were okay if not outright wretched to someone when they're alive but they are dead and...

I'M ONE OF THE 55 ARE YOU? Don't even think about using spell check! fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod a s a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it. Hard to believe anyone had trouble reading it, myself included - your brain will work with you to make the words all legible, so to write. And I'm not sure that being in a group of 55 out of 100 is anything to write home about at all. If it were...

I was up right when the alarm went off. I was showered, shaved, dried and happily ready to go to work right at 0542. I had a perfect drive in this morning, had a nice start to the day; and it just kept getting better and better! I did the Orientation in 45 minutes, half the time I normally Manage it. However, I fumbled and stumbled my way through it instead of being my usual confident self. A little awkward, but still good. And then I set up a new employee and finished the Wachovia stuff and well... the day just kept getting better! I cam home on my perfect day, picked up some needed groceries across the street, put them away, and then sat in my swinging chair in my newly painted, newly decorated sunroom to finish reading The Clan of the Cave Bear . I wanted to begin reading The Valley of the Horses also by Jean M. Auel, but found only books 3 and 4 - The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage . Those books are no where near as well written as the first two. Once the main characte...

I have it but I still have trouble understanding the appeal of it. I have something like 20 friends. They are all people that I know, but I don't know if they are all friends the way I look at it. Maybe that is just me. I have some close friends, and many acquaintances, but I would not classify so many people as friends. Some are coworkers, some are from the same school (very few) and some are just people I know. But friends... well, that is different. Still, it is an interesting concept. I go on it but other than updating a few things and responding to a couple of e-mails, I don't spend much time on it and still don't really see the immediate value of it.

Lucy is my hair dresser/hair removal technician (how'd ya like that? Technician instead of hairdresser). I went there at 1100; she got to me at 1120. I sat in the usual chair; she began putting colour in - I asked for darker colour, but she put in a red colour (I like a darker look like burgundy, not red-red). Then she did the streaking and they are not as blonde as last time but they came out rather light. She did darken them. Good thing. It took a little getting used to the last time. I did not want to go through shock again. Lucy is not merely a hairdresser. She is a virtuoso and clearly loves what she does. She also is a unique person in that she lives a rich fantasy life. But ignoring that, she is fun, upbeat and definitely knows hair - not just cutting it, colouring it but how it functions, grows and the removal of the unwanted hair. So yesterday was the colouring of my head hair (which I should have had my eyebrows coloured as well... the red in my hair does not match my no...

One friend sent me this: "Beautiful!" Beloved Bean, thank you. That one word means more to me than all the others put together. I cried when I read that. One word reduced me to tears. One lovely word.

OK. I want to be more open-minded, I really do. I'd like to say that Christians are okay in my book. It seems that while there are many who are okay in my book, there are many - like this image evidences - that aren't. Not for nothing... but when is the last time you saw a bumper sticker raving about Judaism? How about a bumper sticker that boasts "my Allah is better than yours"? Wiccans, by way of contrast to other religions, but similar to Christians, have a multitude of bumper stickers. Wicca is the closest I get to being religious at all but the fact is that I'm never going to be permanently aligned to any religious group. I feel too strongly that people screw up the best part of religion and turn it into an agenda - for whatever reason. So this isn't me. And as much as I smile and am amused by Wiccan bumper stickers (my favourite is my other vehicle is a broom ) I suddenly find, thinking on it, that if Christian bumper stickers scare me, all religiously ...

I'm not entirely sold... I'm a little bit worried, but not unduly so, about Ray. I know that hip surgery is a very common procedure. I know that the hospital he is going to is one of the best around. I know they will make every effort. Any way you slice it, one of my best friends, and my father, is going in for major surgery. Harry is my father and I love him dearly. But Ray has been in my life for all of it, not just a part of my childhood and the last two years of my adult life. The relationship is different. It's deeper and we spend time together every weekend. We go out to eat together and we run our errands together. He is the only person who has ever gotten me to watch a televised sporting event. I hugged him today impulsively. I'll hug him again when I take him to Hackensack Hospital where I will be waiting for him get out of recovery and into his room. He can be a little flaky when he comes out of anethesia, so it may be weird; been there and done that. I must h...

This is a great song, and its mother language is German. But not to worry, I have the translation (as good or not as it may be) handy! And no, they are not singing about the season... not that it is anything to sing about now. Auf einer Brücke ziemlich hoch Hält ein Mann die Arme auf Da steht er nun und zögert noch Die Menschen strömen gleich zuhauf Auch ich lass mir das nicht entgehen Das will ich aus der Nähe sehen Ich stell mich in die erste Reihe und schreie Der Mann will von der Brücke steigen Die Menschen fangen an zu hassen Bilden einen dichten Reigen Und wollen ihn nicht nach unten lassen So steigt er noch mal nach oben Und der Mob fängt an zu toben Sie wollen seine Innereien Und schreien Spring Erlöse mich Spring Enttäusch mich nicht Spring für mich Spring ins Licht Spring Jetzt fängt der Mann zu weinen an Heimlich schiebt sich eine Wolke fragt sich Was hab ich getan vor die Sonne es wird kalt Ich wollte nur zur Aussicht gehen die Menschen laufen aus den Reihen und in den Aben...

So many mythological animals live on in literature, in our minds, and in our imagination, that they would fill a virtual zoo. Because these creatures are myths, they're not bound by biological rules. Sometimes they're part human, part animal. They could have a human head and an animal body, or vice versa. These permutations and combinations of body parts make it look as though the gods were playing a mix-n-match game of combining parts to make composites. At times, one of these mythical animals had more than a single head. Enjoy looking at the menagerie this week and feel free to use their attributes metaphorically in situations in your life. chimera (ki-MEER-uh, ky-) noun 1. A fanciful fabrication; illusion 2. An organism having genetically different tissues [After Chimera, a fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology who had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. From Greek khimaira (she-goat), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winte...