Category Archives: Uncategorized

Lots of Good Fun That Is Funny

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Kathy

Amid my interesting reading lately, I enjoyed revisiting a classic yesterday. Twice. The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day. The opening pages of Dr. … Continue reading →

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More Nonsense Words

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Kathy

Writing last week about YouTuber Dana K. White’s dololly and other weird words, I intended to move on to whomper-jawed, Dana’s adjective for a rickety bookshelf she was getting rid of. But I forgot and moved on instead to thingamajigs … Continue reading →

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Prose and Poetry

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Kathy

I let a few weeks pass after finishing Mozart: The Reign of Love before tackling American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, another massive tome. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2006 biography served as a source … Continue reading →

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An Absolute Pleasure

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Kathy

The Latin verb solvere, like English’s to put or to take lends itself to multitudinous idioms. It can mean “to untie,” “to release,” “to unbind,” “to loosen what restricts,” “to throw off,” “to pay,” and on and on. The word’s … Continue reading →

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No Trouble in Bubbleland

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Kathy

Here’s a writer you’ll not only probably enjoy but who will make you feel a little bit better. I learned of R. Eric Thomas through our mutual friend (just kidding) Ann Patchett, the novelist, who featured his new book in … Continue reading →

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A Scottish Play on Words

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Kathy

As the credits rolled, I leaned toward my companion. “Is the Maltese falcon a MacGuffin?” I asked. “Um,” he replied, “I always sort of forget what a MacGuffin is.” That evening, referring the question to Mr. Wikipedia, we learned that … Continue reading →

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A Christmas Carol in January

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Kathy

It’s no longer the holiday season, but, because I’d been thinking for a while about rereading Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, I finally did it today. Like (I imagine) many people, I supposed I knew the story. I recalled the … Continue reading →

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Thrown a Curve

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Kathy

Lots of delightful reading the past few weeks, and some interesting turns of phrase therein. The Uncommon Reader (2007), an entertaining novel by Alan Bennett, is veddy, veddy English, concerning, as it does, the Queen herself. An expression struck me … Continue reading →

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Combo (Words and Music)

Posted on December 2, 2023 by Kathy

My friend Leanne sent me an article about frisson as the word applies to musical enjoyment. In French, it means “shiver,” and its Latin root, frigere, means “to become cold,” as in the food in your Frigidaire. Every now and … Continue reading →

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From Me to You

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Kathy

I didn’t write about books over the weekend, because I’m still reading the Mozart biography and don’t have much to add to what I’ve said. Only about 200 pages to go. The best thing about the experience is pausing now … Continue reading →

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