“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower
–Photo by Renaschild
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m drawn to certain words. The attraction is often a word’s meaning or spelling, but sometimes I just like the way a word rolls off my tongue. Here are more of my favorites:
Codswallop
Doozy
Philatelist
Rigamarole
Selkie
Egads
Sassafras
Gallipoli
Shenanigans
Ephemeral
Sesquipedalian
Triskelion
Pamplemousse
Ganache
Spellbound
Gadzooks
Finagle
Adagio
Tchotchke
Debauchery
Haboob
Skedaddle
Thunderstruck
Lycanthrope
Archipelago
Hullabaloo
Virtuoso
Cattywampus
Discombobulate
Hoodwink
Malarky
Balderdash
What are some of yours?
–Photo by dubassy
Married couples inevitably create small traditions that when repeated year after year become part of their shared history. One of our favorite traditions is to buy a new ornament for the Christmas tree each year, a purchase we make in July.
Buying a Christmas ornament in the middle of the summer serves four purposes. One, ornaments tend to go on sale in July. And since we get ours personalized with the appropriate names/dates, I take advantage of these sales to save a little money.
Two, the simple practice of searching through ornament sites, finding the best options and sharing them with my husband reminds me that Christmas is coming. No matter how hot things are now or how much pressure the state of the world is placing on our heads, there is something joyful in our future.
Three, purchasing the annual ornament officially marks the start of my Christmas-buying season. That’s right; I’m one of those crazy folks who starts shopping for friends and family six months in advance. But doing so means I also have six months to pay off all those bills — and avoid the inevitable stress that comes from adding one more thing to my holiday “to do” list. Instead, by doing all of my shopping between now and November, I have the time to search for sales, find just the right gift (rather than settling for whatever is left on store shelves) and get it wrapped in time. Plus, with all of my shopping done, I can dedicate the month of December to baking, putting up the tree and stress-free revelry.
Lastly, buying our ornament each year reinforces my sense of optimism that we’ll still be together come Yuletide. You never know when illness or accident will strike, when economies will stumble or when Death will reap. But we bought the 2018 ornament so hopefully all will be well when we pull it out of storage in December and place it upon our tree — together.
In a world where authors are told to “write what you know,” it’s not surprising that so many novels feature characters who write for a living.
I sense these stories appeal to other writers or aspiring writers or bibliophiles. Since I am two of the three, I’m utterly drawn to such tales. Here are my 10 current favorites fictional authors:
* Joan Wilder, “Romancing the Stone”
* Karen Eiffel, “Stranger Than Fiction”
* Richard Castle, “Castle”
* Jack Torrence, “The Shining”
* Temperance Brennan, “Bones”
* Gil Pender, “Midnight in Paris”
* T.S. Garp, “The World According to Garp”
* Mike Noonan, “Bag of Bones”
* Jamie, “Love Actually”
* Paul Sheldon, “Misery”
