Thank you for steering me toward Ramona, that was fun! We used to play what we called the"dictionary game" when I was a kid. One of us would grab the Larousse dictionary from the bookshelf, open it at random and start reading the definition. First one to guess the word, gets a point. Yes, we were cheap! No need to buy board games, lol.
Dictionaries are a great way to expand vocabulary in any language. There's so much serendipity. I see many younger journalists misuse words which I suspect comes from 1) only reading online or on screens and 2) more of #1. :-)
I'm willing to guess a lot of writers have faced teachers who found them intimidating and did their best to thwart their growth by exuding disdain. Sad, but here we are anyway. My parents never refused me any book in their library and only later asked how I liked it. I spent wonderful days paging through books way above my age and reading level, stretching myself.
I read him, Heinlein, Pol Anderson (sp?) and all the greats devotedly and especially enjoyed the a short story anthologies that came out yearly, I guess. But I never tried writing sci-fi, except in second grade. :-)
I was never good enough at science to think about writing it, but yes, Heinlein, Clarke, etc, shaped my childhood in huge ways. (Tempted to make a joke about Childhood's End, but I wont.)
Funny you mention Poul Anderson. I just read Starfarers by him, and, oh, boy, did that book need some editing...
Thank you for introducing me to a new vocabulary item: termagant. Wow! And as I read your article, I recalled some word-play we had back in the good ole days: "Les dents de la dinde ..." Remember that?
I think that gray hair is quite lovely, when it’s not being hauled around by the sort of “harsh, overbearing” woman Lev had to deal with. I had teachers like that too. These termagants make us forget how beautiful gray hair can be when a beautiful person has some.
Love this, Lev! And thanks so much for the plug. That was fun, wasn't it?
But of course you had to put me to work here. I mean, “Cueillez les roses de la vie”? I had to look up the translation, but I won't ask you to explain the pun. It'll no longer be punny if you have to do that. 😏
I adore puns and always try to keep an opun mine to lode up on whirredd and mike all my frenz laugh their esses oof. When I worked fore the Deportment of Corrections at Northampton High School for twenty years, I bestowed "punpoints on students in my English and Creative Writing c lsses. You make a pun, you get your name on the "white"board. I had my three classes compete . WORD, adding punjokes and punjaabs wheneve the Uppertunity stuck.
Thus they could punder about language in a different ways that were not the lip service of the various TV aw naught TV dronedrown pundits
When I was 9, I saw the Brooklyn version of Hamlet in the amazing basement of Martin's Diner on the northwest corner of The Avenue W and Nostrand Avenue in a Twilight Zonish part of Brooklyn that some claimed to be a waiting-to-be-named Brooklyn neighborhood (there are twenty to thirty depending who you talk to and where you talk to them).Other claim it to be the northern most reaches of Sheepshead Bay or call it Marine Park West.
But any ways, the Brooklyn version of Hamlet features one the world literature's greatest and most intellectually questions about identity and location/ddislocation ever written, and I print here for all who remember it, those who have" never hoid of it", and those who reply "You gotta crack your eggs if you wanna make yourself an Omlet."
Thus, with further a dew here are the immortal lines: " TO BE OR NOT TO BE? IS THIS MY APARTMENT?" to becontinued fassure (probably in stages)
Thank you for steering me toward Ramona, that was fun! We used to play what we called the"dictionary game" when I was a kid. One of us would grab the Larousse dictionary from the bookshelf, open it at random and start reading the definition. First one to guess the word, gets a point. Yes, we were cheap! No need to buy board games, lol.
Dictionaries are a great way to expand vocabulary in any language. There's so much serendipity. I see many younger journalists misuse words which I suspect comes from 1) only reading online or on screens and 2) more of #1. :-)
Hi, Martine, I've just subscribed to your newsletter. Happy to have found you! Lev is now a matchmaker.
He is! I can hear him singing right now :) ! Thank you for subscribing, I hope you enjoy it.
I'm sure I will.
I'm willing to guess a lot of writers have faced teachers who found them intimidating and did their best to thwart their growth by exuding disdain. Sad, but here we are anyway. My parents never refused me any book in their library and only later asked how I liked it. I spent wonderful days paging through books way above my age and reading level, stretching myself.
Bravo to your parents! And to us for not being stymied by people trying to roadblock us.
Have you read the Brooklyn version of Hamlet?
TO BE OR NOT TO BE? IS THIS MY APARTMENT?aa
I can only afford to look at Brooklyn apartments on the NYT weekly real estate section. :-)
I remember, I, Robot. Had a huge impact on me and Asimov became one of my favorite authors in my early teens.
I read him, Heinlein, Pol Anderson (sp?) and all the greats devotedly and especially enjoyed the a short story anthologies that came out yearly, I guess. But I never tried writing sci-fi, except in second grade. :-)
I was never good enough at science to think about writing it, but yes, Heinlein, Clarke, etc, shaped my childhood in huge ways. (Tempted to make a joke about Childhood's End, but I wont.)
Funny you mention Poul Anderson. I just read Starfarers by him, and, oh, boy, did that book need some editing...
Thank you for introducing me to a new vocabulary item: termagant. Wow! And as I read your article, I recalled some word-play we had back in the good ole days: "Les dents de la dinde ..." Remember that?
Les dents dans les dindons dont je parle……
Too damn many of these gray-haired termagants running around, it seems to me.
She was an amazon, truly scary.
Wait, what's that about gray-haired (hang on, I have to look this up) termagants?
I think I might know one of them. Intimately...
I think that gray hair is quite lovely, when it’s not being hauled around by the sort of “harsh, overbearing” woman Lev had to deal with. I had teachers like that too. These termagants make us forget how beautiful gray hair can be when a beautiful person has some.
Hers was pulled back into a rebarbative bun.
:-)
I’m familiar with those rebarbative buns. Not good.
Oh, for pete's sake...
You two!
I’m very glad to live in a world where I’m not the only person who says “for Pete’s sake”
Well, my hair is silver, so...
There you go.
Love this, Lev! And thanks so much for the plug. That was fun, wasn't it?
But of course you had to put me to work here. I mean, “Cueillez les roses de la vie”? I had to look up the translation, but I won't ask you to explain the pun. It'll no longer be punny if you have to do that. 😏
It's aural: roses pronounced in French is close to Rolls.....
Oh. Okay... 🤣
Think of it as a slant rhyme too....
I adore puns and always try to keep an opun mine to lode up on whirredd and mike all my frenz laugh their esses oof. When I worked fore the Deportment of Corrections at Northampton High School for twenty years, I bestowed "punpoints on students in my English and Creative Writing c lsses. You make a pun, you get your name on the "white"board. I had my three classes compete . WORD, adding punjokes and punjaabs wheneve the Uppertunity stuck.
Thus they could punder about language in a different ways that were not the lip service of the various TV aw naught TV dronedrown pundits
When I was 9, I saw the Brooklyn version of Hamlet in the amazing basement of Martin's Diner on the northwest corner of The Avenue W and Nostrand Avenue in a Twilight Zonish part of Brooklyn that some claimed to be a waiting-to-be-named Brooklyn neighborhood (there are twenty to thirty depending who you talk to and where you talk to them).Other claim it to be the northern most reaches of Sheepshead Bay or call it Marine Park West.
But any ways, the Brooklyn version of Hamlet features one the world literature's greatest and most intellectually questions about identity and location/ddislocation ever written, and I print here for all who remember it, those who have" never hoid of it", and those who reply "You gotta crack your eggs if you wanna make yourself an Omlet."
Thus, with further a dew here are the immortal lines: " TO BE OR NOT TO BE? IS THIS MY APARTMENT?" to becontinued fassure (probably in stages)
Ah, yes! How could I forget those turkey teeth!!