WORD for Wednesday

Word for Wednesday: NONPLUSSED

It seems like such a simple word,
one that we have doubtless heard.
But, can you bring its meaning to mind?
Do you know..., is it to be rude or kind?

The diction is easy to assume,
but pondering can cause utter gloom,
for those of us who like to think
we wield words, and we shouldn't have to check a link
for a simple term we find in cyber space.
So take a guess - come on - be brave. Join this race...

(I'll post the answer later today along with another FUN post "What Happened the Year You Were Born". Let's celebrate the New Year - check back around 3:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time PST)

THE LACE READER - A Book Breakdown for all You Readers Out There

I'm in a book club at my office. We just finished The Lace Reader by Brunoni Barry.

This is the story of Towner Whitney or Sophya and the women in her family: Great-Aunt Eva, Emma and May - and we can't forget her twin sister Lyndley or Lyndsey - or can we?...

Brunoni Barry decided to self-publish her first novel and it took off like a rocket, which created a bidding war. Learn more about it here. You can listen to the podcast at Prosecast, it's an interview by Cathi Bond.

I love the line in the beginning: "...in the space between what is real and what is only imagined." This speaks to all things unknown and sets the stage for a mystery filled with suspense. What I didn't realize, in the beginning, is that it actually explains the entire book.

The Lace Reader is another story set in witch haven: Salem, Mass. But don't be fooled. This story has a different type of backdrop. It's not your typical Salem witch story. There is an interesting mystery to this story - or maybe a few of them.

One of the new twists to this tale, is the use of Ipswich Lace. The women in Towner's family can read the future - in lace. All they have to do is hold a piece of lace up in front of a person's face, and the reader can see the future.

This was a very creative device to the story and I only wish this aspect would have been developed more because it was fascinating, like phrenology. And I loved the snippets of history delicately woven, like a thin thread, throughout the story.

The mystery starts when Towner's or Sophya's Great Aunt Eva is thought to be missing. Sophya feels duty-bound to travel across the country, to return home, and find out what is going on.

But, immediately, Sophya is caught up in something. We just have no way of knowing what it is:

1) Is it a ghost story?
2) Is her Great-Aunt Eva really at home, sneaking around but healthy and happy?
3) Is everyone crazy?
4) Has anyone searched Aunt Eva's house?

But it doesn't help solve the mystery when they find her. There are still a lot of questions to be answered.

SPOILER ALERT:

Don't read on if you haven't read the story yet and don't want any info about the story leaked out.

SPOILERS:

One question is why did Eva leave everything to Sophya and not her own daughter, Emma? There are so many more questions. Like, what really happened to Lyndley or Lindsey? And why did she kill herself so suddenly?

It makes for a page-turner.

BUT, then, I got to the end. And, I felt "slightly" cheated. Kind of like when Dorothy woke up back home in Kansas with all her friends from Oz surrounding her. Nothing was real.

The same is true here: Towner really was crazy.

And I have more questions now than I had in my head at the half-way marker, in the middle of the book:

1) Did Towner have a split personality or can everything simply be explained away by hysteria and hallucinations?
2) If it was a split personality, did the alter ego surface because she was s. abused by Cal?
3) Was any of the abuse real or was that another part of her hysteria?
4) Was Sophya crazy from birth or did that develop because of her father's s. abuse?

I don't want to ruin it for everyone and it was an interesting story but, like I said, I felt a little cheated at the end. But, if Brunonia Barry decided to write a sequel that answered all my questions...

Well then, the Lace Reader would be a great book.

The Absurdities of the English Language

Words that are spelled similarly should (maybe) sound the same, but:

"I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?"
Quoted by Vivian Cook and Melvin Bragg 2004,
by Richard Krogh, in D Bolinger & D A Sears, Aspects of Language, 1981,


MacKenzie was telling me about the difficulty people have learning the English language. She has taken a bit of French and German.

She pointed me to a couple fun websites that prove her point. If you want to look at a few poems that point out the oddities found in our spelling, look here.

All the Girls - My Siberian Husky and Sheba Inu

Sasha is only ten months old and a . . . handful...I meant puppy, honest I did. Kit is 15 and a little old lady. The two (almost) even each other out.

Kit is (shhhh - I don't want to hurt her feelings) a "little" chubby but she's a part of the family and of course she gets too many treats - just like me. But don't call us names . . . and I'm sure, especially with this post, you might be thinking of a few. But be nice.

Sasha is a Siberian Husky - with an eighth of German Shepard. Kit is a Sheba Inu. We got Kit from the Multnomah County Animal Control when she was four months old. Some people call it The Pound and then there is also the Humane Society, which are all great places to get a pet.

But volunteers make mistakes and Kit was labeled as a kitten so the kids wanted to name her Kitten. I compromised with Kit.

Sasha picked her own name and she is a husky so she can talk but that's an entirely different story for another post.

Celebrating Like It's 2009

We have had some great holiday celebrations. On New Year's Day we had a wonderful dinner with friends and family. Then we sang Happy Birthday to my brother Steve and my sister Tammy - no they aren't twins.

I don't know what it means - if anything - but it's an odd phenomena in our family. We have a lot of multiple birthdays without any twins. My oldest son (Jake) and my youngest daughter (Kara) have the same birthday too. And even my husband and I have the same birthday. On the bright side, it cuts down on the cakes I have to bake. :)

This is one cake I baked. We call it "lagekage" which is Danish and should be pronounced "Lauh Kay". And "lauh" is like "now".

Then we opened Christmas presents. My sister gave me this beautiful painting.



And I gave Serena a cute bracelet/necklace combo present.



Our extended family holiday celebrations were postponed due to weather. It was the worst snow storm in my lifetime (as far as I can remember) and it hit just before Christmas.

We didn't really mind because it was nice to stay home and have a quiet Christmas with the kids but we missed Steve and Tammy's birthday party. So, we had a little catching up to do.

Now we're all caught up and ready to move on - so we had to party like it was 2009. Oh . . ., wait, it is.

Time flies!

ANSWER TO THOUGHT FOR THURSDAY AND EARTH-FRIENDLY FRIDAY

ANSWER TO THOUGHT FOR THURSDAY: JOHN WAYNE


Earth-Friendly Friday: Here's a great website with lots of helpful information if you want to GO GREEN in 2009. You can click around the site and learn some helpful information but you can begin with their five initiatives listed below.

The five initiatives for the Go Green Project:

1. Generate compost. This is nature's way of recycling. Through basic and worm composting programs, children learn about ecology, biology and waste reduction.
2. Recycle everything that cannot be reused and purchase items that can be recycled. With fast shrinking landfill space and diminishing natural resources, recycling has never been more important. Recycling items such as paper, plastic, aluminum and ink cartridges reduces toxic greenhouse gas emissions and conserves energy. Manage E-waste by finding creative solutions to divert obsolete computer parts, cell phones and other such devices from the waste stream. Schools that recycle provide much-needed materials to manufacturers who produce recycled products.
3. Educate students, teachers and parents on environmentally-responsiblebehavior. When students, teachers and parents work together to make their schools environmentally friendly, they are more likely to take the same behaviors into their off campus lives. Our goal is to create environmentally-responsible school communities throughout the nation and across the globe.
4. Evaluate the environmental impact of every activity. Identify products and practices that could threaten the health of children and the world around them. Consider improving the campus environment with activities such as eliminating excessive energy consumption; evaluating the toxicity of pesticides used in classrooms and on playgrounds; improving outdoor air quality through increased carpooling efforts; and working to improve indoor air quality.
5. Nationalize the principles of responsible paper consumption. Consider purchasing post consumer recycled paper and office products. Use technology to communicate electronically as much as possible. Seek ways to provide Internet access to all school families.

2009 - HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009 is HERE! I can hardly believe another year has come and gone.


THOUGHT FOR THURSDAY: What was the stage name of Marion Michael Morrison?