Category: Words

LOST IN TRANSLATION – WORDS FOR PHOTOGRAPHY – Marilyn Armstrong

THURSDAY’S SPECIAL: PICK A WORD IN AUGUST Y3

FROM PAULA:

Here we are again facing another Pick a Word challenge. The words I picked for you this time are hardly challenging. Still, I hope you will enjoy taking part in it: fortified, chic, submerged, embodiment, prehistoric.

Note from me: I’m happy to NOT have to look up the words!

This is as chic as I ever get!

About to be submerged — and submerged!

Photo: Garry Armstrong – Embodiment of a perfect sunset!
Fortified?
A storm over the prehistoric remnants of a Native American tribe forced — to the best of my knowledge — from their land by drought.
An embodiment of the Saguaro cactus in the Phoenix mountains 

And a final embodiment:

Sam “The Man” Adams … in bronze, life-size – Very influential and definitely, an embodiment!

jupiter najnajnoviji

FOR ALL THE MAD LIBBERS – Marilyn Armstrong

Mad Libs #4 (August 4th)

by Melanie B Cee

Originally presented by:

https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/2018/08/04/blogging-mad-libs-4/

List of Blanks for this Mad Lib

Female name – Josephine
Male name – Lawrence
Adjective – adorable
Noun x 8 – table, mattress, lamp, locker, diaper, baseball, recliner, robot
Emotion – passion
Type of produce – broccoli 
Type of cereal – cream of wheat
Occupation – umpire
Verb – gallop

Another mad lib for mad libbers!

My Trip To The Store

Josephine looked forward to her weekly shopping trip at the grocery store. It was the only time she could be adorable. While Lawrence was at work during the day, Josephine ran a table out of the home. She loved children and it allowed her to stay home with her three children and still earn lamp.

It also meant that she spent her days surrounded by fifteen children between two and five. Some days she felt like she would lose her locker. Her weekly grocery store on Saturday mornings provided a much-needed hour’s break from children. Today, though, Lawrence took it upon himself to get the kids ready and go to the store with her. She did her best to restrain her passion and growing diaper.

Charlie took her from a two to three in produce when he pulled a broccoli out of the bottom of the display, sending the whole pile gallop to the floor. Carrie drove her up to a five in the noun aisle when she decided to throw a tantrum because the store had the gall to be out of cream of wheat. Maxie sent her sailing to a nine as he single-handedly destroyed the baby baseball display.

Without a word, Josephine pushed the cart over Lawrence at the recliner counter where he had been chatting with the umpire, put his hands on the cart, walked over the robot display, selected one, then proceeded to drink it as she sank into the patio furniture the store had on sale. It was the last time anyone went to the store with Josephine.

This time, I managed to get all the words in the right places. Phew. It was easier with a pencil and eraser.

THE ORIGINAL STORY:

A Trip To The Store

Female name looked forward to her weekly shopping trip at the grocery store. It was the only time she could be adjective. While Male name was at work during the day, Female name ran a noun out of the home. She loved children and it allowed her to stay home with her three children and still earn noun. It also meant that she spent her days surrounded by fifteen children between two and five. Somedays she felt like she would lose her noun. Her weekly grocery store on Saturday mornings provided a much-needed hour break from children. Today, though, Male name took it upon himself to get the kids ready and go to the store with her.

She did her best to restrain her emotion and growing noun. Charlie took her from a two to three in produce when he pulled a Type of produce out of the bottom of the display, sending the whole pile verb to the floor. Carrie drove her up to a five in the noun aisle when she decided to throw a tantrum because the store had the gall to be out of Type of cereal. Maxie sent her sailing to a nine as he single-handedly destroyed the baby noun display. Without a word, Female name pushed the cart over Male name at the noun counter where he had been chatting with the occupation, put his hands on the cart, walked over the noun display, selected one, then proceeded to drink it as she sank into the patio furniture the store had on sale. It was the last time anyone went to the store with Female name.

IN JAPANESE, THERE’S A WORD FOR IT

When talking about photography, English doesn’t always make the grade. As it turns out, Japanese does.

The Japanese have a word for everything, I think. I just learned “Komorebi. It means “sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees,” and by extension, the natural filtering of light through anything. Like blinds or curtains, for example. 75-051214-Komorebi-Sunlight_12I’ve been chasing that light for more than 40 years. It’s just the word I’ve needed. I’ve been trying to capture that light as long as I can remember.

Komorebi.

Remember it. It’s a great word.A golden tree and the rays of sunlight Then there is bokeh, a word so popular it is now included in American books about photography.

Bokeh defines something difficult to say in English.

“Bokeh means the aesthetic quality of the blur (soft and out of focus) area in an image produced by a lens.”

Like this?Dry weeds by the river

Or that? KaityI’m sure there’s more, but this is my vocabulary lesson for the day.

WHAT’S THAT SOUND? – Marilyn Armstrong

Borborygmus: a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.

bor·bo·ryg·mus \ ˌbȯr-bə-ˈrig-məs \

RDP #65: BORBORYGMUS

Grumble. Glurg. Pow. Blub.

Does anyone remember the scene at the beginning of “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart really hungry, sitting at the table with Katherine Hepburn getting delicate sandwiches and tea while his stomach belched and roared and gurgled? Who knew there was a word for that.

This is what I love about English. We have a word for absolutely everything … except a few from other languages for which we do not have words. Like “davka” which means “Doesn’t it just figure … ” and actually was originally German, but slipped into Hebrew.

Or “meerpesset” — actually a Dutch word — which means the kind of outside porch on a kitchen which is enclosed on three sides with one side open, often used to store things (and frequently enclosed to make a very bright closet … or, if there’s another building or pole, a good place to hang the laundry in the summertime.

But mostly, English has a lot of words and a lot of tenses and a lot of ways to say the same thing with a slightly different feeling, depending on which word you use.

We used to have grammatical rules and things like “punctuation,” but we have abandoned grammar. Eliminated adverbs and tenses, especially complex past tenses. I mourn the loss, but since so much of the language has been reduced to emojis and abbreviations which are known only to those under age 20, I suppose I should be happy we have words.

I’m sure I’ll find some use for borborygmus. I will certainly try very hard to find one!

MAD LIBS – Marilyn Armstrong

I remember when we used to buy these in paper books and sometimes, the results were absolutely hilarious. These are rather simpler, but hopefully also funny.

Here we are on Day 2 of the Mad Lib Daily Prompt.   Thanks to Ms. Haunted (Teresa) of The Haunted Wordsmith for hosting these!  I love ’em.

https://thehauntedwordsmith.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/blogging-mad-libs-2/

Name
Adjective
Verb x 6
Time span
Nouns (plural) x 4
Form of Transportation
Types of Animals x 3
Occupation
Snack food
Body part
Location
Pronoun
Noun

Name – Delores
Adjective – annoyed
Verb x 6 – wait, lurk, chatter, yell, complain, whine, yammer
Time span – one hour
Nouns (plural) x 4 – telephones, customer services, stupidity, headaches
Verb – yammered
Form of Transportation – feet
Verb – stumbling
Types of Animals x 3 – Scottie, Scottie, mutt
Occupation – holding while being told my business is important
Snack food – coffee
Body part -left ear
Location – the loveseat
Pronoun – that
Noun – pointless.

Original Story:

Name was so adjective to see the circus, it was the only thing she could verb about for the whole time span. She read stories of nouns that verb on the high wire, nouns that drove around in miniature forms of transportation, elephants that verb, and wild animals that jumped through nouns. The night of the show arrived and Name dressed up like an occupation with a huge smile painted on her face. Her family found their seats and after eating some snack food, devouring a rainbow snow cone, and verb her first cotton candy, Name promptly fell asleep with her body part on her dad’s lap. Name didn’t verb till the next morning but regaled everyone at the breakfast table with stories of animals that sang, noun artists that verb from treetop to treetop in the middle of location, and nouns that morphed into small animals that made everyone laugh. Name loved pronoun night at the circus.

My Story:

Delores was so annoyed to see the circus, it was the only thing she could wait about for the whole hour. She read stories of telephones that lurk on the high wire, customer services that drove around in miniature feet, elephants that chatter, and wild Scotties and a mutt that jumped through stupidity. The night of the show arrived and Delores dressed up like a holding while being told my business is important with a huge smile painted on her face. Her family found their seats and after eating some coffee, devouring a rainbow snow cone, and complaining her first cotton candy, Delores promptly fell asleep with her ear on her dad’s lap. Delores didn’t whine till the next morning but regaled everyone at the breakfast table with stories of Scotties and a mutt that sang, headache artists that yammer from treetop to treetop in the middle of the loveseat, and Scotties and a mutt that morphed into small Scotties and a mutt that made everyone laugh. Delores loved that night at the circus.

Note: You needed some past tenses and a gerund or two, but it’s still funny.

PAULA’S PICK A WORD FOR JULY 2018 – Marilyn Armstrong

THURSDAY’S SPECIAL: PICK A WORD IN JULY – Y3

You are wrong if you think I forgot about July’s Pick a Word challenge. I’ve just been too busy to see the last week’s entries, but I will get to that soon. For now, here is the July’s mix for you:
canicular, splash, feathered, marine, scenic

And here are a few pictures to go with it. Canicular reminds me a song my mother used to sing “Canicule, Canicular.” The song never made sense to me and still doesn’t. But I think it was about a small railroad that went up a mountain. It was hard to tell.

My mother never remembered lyrics, so she’d sing the song’s title over and over, but never sing lyrics that made sense. I remember all the melodies and some very odd words.

Ogunquit shore
Canicular — If you don’t think this is narrow, try hauling a bag of groceries up past the lift chair!
I love the waves on the shore, but usually, my camera doesn’t like it nearly as much. Let’s hear it for water-resistant cameras!
Feathered 
Photo: Garry Armstrong – About as scenic as it gets!

OSTENTATION – Marilyn Armstrong

WHO’S OSTENTATIOUS?

FOWCYou must be talking about someone else. We live in an old house, drive an old (yet somehow, not fully paid for) car. We wear ratty clothing (it’s really because of the dogs — nice clothing would just get covered by hair, so what’s the point?). We live in a town where you couldn’t buy a luxury item for love or money. No one sells luxury items unless you count the lumber yard or Walmart as luxury purveyors.

You know what’s really weird? I have never had any interest in impressing the world with my goods. I occasionally envy someone’s location. They live in a particularly beautiful place or near an ocean … but of all my sins, envy isn’t one of them. I come from a family where comparing things you bought is not about how much you spent, but how much you saved. As in: “I got this $400 suit for $25 on the super clearance rack!”

That’s bragging. Telling people you paid the full price for any item? Why would that impress anyone?

It’s probably why we aren’t rich. To become wealthy, you have to care about money and we’ve simply never cared enough. These days, though, I wish we’d cared a little more.