"Numinous"

       The word "numinous" is a lovely word.  Of course it's just a word, a word like any other word.  You want a dictionary definition, you can get it.  And then...there's what it refers to.

       The O.E.D. says "Divine, spiritual:  revealing or indicating the presence of a divinity; awe-inspiring.   Also, aesthetically appealing, uplifting."  Merriam-Webster says "1:  Supernatural, mysterious  2: filled with a sense of the presence of divinity:  holy  3:  appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense:  spiritual."

       But the root goes to Latin nuere, "nod" and Greek neuein, "to incline the head."  That which is numinous is that which has been given the "divine nod."

Yiddish in His Own Mind

         Word a day keeps the doctor away.  No, that's an apple.  But "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," my Grandma said.  (I thought it was a Jewish expression for that reason, but I'm afraid it's more universal than that.)  I also thought "spatula" must be Yiddish because it sounded so funny and foreign to my American-born ears.  Actually, it's Late Latin in origin with the same or related root as "spade" for turning over soil as "spatula" turns over pancakes.  And that's ... all the Jewish expressions I have for you today--none.

Cartoonist Plays with Words (& Letters)

 

Tide of Revolt Sweeps Mid...

        Rebellion and fighting in Mali, Algerians and Mauritanians involved, Syria (egad!), and what's happening in Egypt (which many, many Egyptians are asking more than I am).

        Tide of revolt sweeps Mideast

        This exact headline appeared 2 1/2 years ago.  What was a transplanted Californian who grew up in Minnesota to make of such makeovers as were going on in the Mideast?  In fact,  Connie and I, native Minneapolitan and St. Paulite, respectively, both read that headline when it appeared  Tide of revolt sweeps Midwest.  We're not used to seeing that shortened-from-the-Middle-East form for anything but our native Midwest.  It was shocking to think of the Midwest in a tide of revolt, even if only momentarily! 

       But as it's going, the same headline could be broken out again. 

Pronouncing Foreign Names

       A major tennis tournament is ending today in Australia.  Many more countries send competitors than in former years; what a challenge it is for those not from the player’s country to pronounce the names.  At a recent tournament I jotted these notes:
 
    Today Jankovich played Palyuchenkova.  That second name has six syllables, PAL-ee-you-CHENGK-o-vuh.
    I always get mixed up between Cilic and Lubicic, pronounced CHILL-itch and L’YOU-bih-chitch.  Federer finally beat Cilic today in a hard-fought match, and only after it was over did I realize I’d been thinking Cilic was Lubicic.
    Tipsarevic won a match I didn’t see.  His name is pronounced tip-SAHR-uh-vitch or tip-suh-RAY-vitch--I don’t know which.

"Nostalgia"

       I was reminded today that the word "nostalgia" is at least half "pain"; that's the "algia" part of it.  It can be sentimental longing for what's past, and therefore approaching the maudlin, but it needn't be.

       Anticipating a final chance to study ancient Jewish texts with our senior rabbi who is retiring to live in Israel, I recalled the numerous classes we had together poring over texts for what they could teach us at present, with liveliness and humor and open discussion...for the last approximately twenty years.  There was a joy in learning and in the sharing.  The pain came in suddenly foreseeing the absence.

         Nostos, Greek, means "returning home."  The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it all best and most succinctly: "acute longing for [the] familiar..."  That "acute" carries the pain.    

      

Just So the Neon Doesn't Run Out of Gas

       Connie and I are always amused at the bright red neon sign above a store in a mini mall not too far from us.  The sign reads

                 SALVATION ARMY THRIFT STORE AND BOUTIQUE 

I think it’s the “boutique” that gets us most, plus the surprisingly fancy and colorful sign. 

       Only thing is, frequently some of the letters are broken or out of commission.  Especially when you go by at night, as we did recently after a movie, the sign is prominent, but the unlighted letters are invisible.  If it were your first time going by, what would you make of a sign that read

                                ION AR                           TORE AND BOU

But we should stop by and find out just how "boutique" a Salvation Army store can be.

Is the Creator's Gender in Question?

       Novelist Meg Waite Clayton in an L.A. Times op-ed piece yesterday not only thanked the president for supporting equality for women in his inaugural address, but noted that female pronouns outnumbered male pronouns five to two in the address, "a high point in...inaugural speeches."

       Clayton, therefore, like me, found it jarring to hear "God bless you.  And may He forever bless these United States of America."  Another hurdle?  To degenderize God?  One solution here, simply retain "God" a second time in place of "He."

       Various religious denominations are meeting this challenge, my own Reform Judaism included, and avoiding "Lord" as equivalent to God due to masculine associations, hence  "Sovereign," "Eternal," and so on.  I think it's a worthy project today to not bias the Creator as one sex and not the other.

 

Tongue-tied Tattlers

Calvin Trillin, "Deadline Poet" in The Nation, wrote

                         The Nomination of Chuck Hagel for 
                        Secretary of Defense

                        Opponents think that Hagel should
                        Be more respectful of Likud.
                        And on Iran, whose nuke we're battling,
                        He's shown no zest for saber rattling.
                         The first fight for this loyal lieutenant
                         Won't be abroad but in the Senate.

which (with Obama's speech in mind) prompted my response to Trillin

                        I'd like to praise you for your rhyme;
                        It's almost always on the dime.
                         And Barack Obama would agree,
                         Especially on couplet three:
                         The man who pronounces "tenet" "tenant"
                         Would figure "senate" sounds like "lieutenant." 


                            

            

Car Wash Dialogue

“Whose car is the white one?” 
        “Mine.” 
“You know you have a hole...?”
        “In the windshield.  Yes, been there a dozen years.  No, I don’t want it fixed.”

              Silence.  We watched the car getting sealer waxed.
 
“You gonna keep it?”  
        “Whadaya mean?”  
“Interested in selling it?” 
       “That car goes.  As long as I’m still going, it goes with me!     

             He backed off, smiled, disappeared.

             How many insults can a man endure in one car wash?

Richard Blanco, "One Today"

       A poet doesn't get something approaching a million pairs of ears for his or her poem very often.  Richard Blanco did today at Barack Obama's second inauguration.  The poem was titled "One Today."

       Most of all, I admired the ambition of the poem.  I heard in it the minority voice trying to speak for all of us, seeking to become all of us.  It had the sweep and empathy and joy of the multiplicity of America in it.  I heard Norman Corwin's voice among others calling out the particularity of our differences and the expanse of our commonality, willing us to the unity which honors in our hearts that full-throated America.

                                                                         

Maybe He Suddenly Recalled His 1st Stint as Guv

       Jerry Brown is cocky and confident as governor now with his Prop. 30 having passed to up taxes and help save California's neck.  But two years ago at his inauguration it wasn't the same.  Wonderful how a slight pause in speech can totally subvert your verbal message.

      The chief Justice of the California Supreme Court did the honors.

 Jerry Brown:   I take this obligation freely.
 Chief Justice:  Without any mental reservation?
 Jerry Brown:   Without any…mental reservation.  (Audience laughter)
 Chief Justice:   Or...?
 Jerry Brown:   Really!  No mental reservation.  (Louder laughter)

       

      
      

"Browse"

       Amazing the common soil in which words grow.

       We have "browsers" for the Internet, but it's warming to know that this high tech tool is associated with the lowly cow grazing in the field.

       Whether browsing in a bookstore (if you can find one) or browsing the World Wide Web, we are back with the animals slowly tasting of the new sprouts.  This is what "browse" comes from.  It is probably a modification of the Middle French brouts.

        I am personally glad to chew my cud over this one.

        

       

"%&*#," He Said Inscrutably

       The "99 cents only" store advertises a 24 inch Beach Ball.
                                               
                                      “Those %&*# Beach Balls!”

the ad exclaims, you know, because people get both exasperated and intrigued by beach balls sailing near them at baseball games.

       We recognize those typed symbols as signifying swearing.  But what if we really said them aloud--

          "Those percentage ampersand asterisk pound Beach Balls!"

I think they could be almost as expressive as the language they're intended to substitute for, don’t you?

"Legacy Competing with Lame Duckery"

       I heard that risible but thought-provoking characterization today of President Obama's situation for the remainder of his presidency.

       Obama will be focused on what he most wants to achieve and be remembered by before his second term ends; opponents will hone in on defeating and delaying, knowing the president cannot be re-elected.

       "Two powerful forces," says diplomat Aaron David Miller, "legacy competing with lame duckery." 

"Lethality"

       One word keeps going over in my head these last few days, and it's "lethality."  I learned from the "gun talk" on the air waves that that is a chief criterion of interest and prestige amongst gun owners.  It is a high order value for desirousness and...decision to purchase.

      The aridness of that word, the abstraction from reality of the very sound of it must be a way to keep one from thinking about other things like "death" or "blood" or "mayhem" or " conscience." 

"And the Winner Is...."

       Until a better expression of love comes along, I'm content to rest with the one Anne Hathaway made to her husbaand the other night at the end of her Golden Globe acceptance speech:

       "Honey, you make every day better than the last, and thanks for a whole string of yesterdays.  I love you."

A Twist of the Tongue

       The daily paper can turn up tongue twisters that defy utterance.  You don't need familiar ones like "toy boat."

       A newspaper afforded me this:  "Clooney's peace pleas."  Say it ten times fast without mistakes.  Good luck.  Whether you're successful or not, it will have given your "articulators" a good workout.

"The Times" Trying to Keep Up with the Times

       Every day I see a section of the L.A. Times headed

                                              LATEXTRA

The E serves two words, and the red letter better allows it to do that.  This section has news that’s later breaking than could make it into the front section; so the name is appropriate.

       The “LA” which begins the heading is right for the city and its abbreviated initials.  If your eye wants to see LA TEXT, it can do so; that and the no-space-between-words hints at the uptodateness and speed of computers, email, texting, and websites, trumpeting print papers’ effort to “stay in the game” with the latest technology.

       All in all, LATEXTRA is a slightly off-kilter heading that hits the mark!

"Gobsmacked"

        Didn't know this word till Stephen Sondheim used it in an interview:  Asked how he felt about having a theatre named after him, Sondheim said, "I was gobsmacked."

       "Gob" is a mouth, perhaps from Gaelic and Irish.

        Being gobsmacked signifies the gesture of clapping a hand over the mouth; flabbergasted, stunned into speechlessness with amazement.

      

How Cell Phones Have Improved Communication?

      

                                          (Click on comic to ENLARGE)
      

"Time Is Money" Is No Excuse

       "Market Place" is a pretty good daily public radio show, and I listen from time to time, but I have a  pet peeve.    Host Kai Ryssdal is amiable, easy to listen to, and a competent interviewer, I'd say.  But he always ends his interviews with "Thank you for your time."

       It probably bothers me because as a college prof, when a student once said to me at the end of an office hour visit, "Thank you for your time," I felt insulted.  If that's all I gave him during our visit, I must have failed.

       Kai, a "thanks" alone might be enough.  Maybe a "Thanks for that insight" or "Thanks for the benefit of your experience" or even "Thanks for your opinion" would suggest the value of the interview and express appreciation.  Presumably your guest is doing something more than just hanging out with you.

No, We're Not Far from the Apes

       Over a year ago, The Planet of the Apes was re-released from 43 years before.  I enjoyed it back then but had no hankering to see it OR to make the acquaintance of a "prequel" to the original story which was coming out at the same time.

        This week Connie did record that prequel from TV; I watched it with her, and we both enjoyed it quite a lot, which vindicates the review given the film when it came out.   Our fine L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan thought Rise of the Planet of the Apes one of the prize movies of the season.

       Probably best of all, though?   The critical "bon mot" of the season, which was part of Turan's review.  It  asserted the team who made the movie "earn an opposable thumbs up"!

      

        

Writing Endings Can be Difficult

       Many, many in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California will have read today's "Appreciation" in the L.A. Times of public television broadcaster, host, interviewer, Huell Howser who has died after decades of exploring the state's high roads, byroads, and lives of unique and average Californians.

       The wonderful tribute was written by Robert Lloyd whose empathic columns on television I have praised before through email comment to him.  This column was an especially fine and comprehensive appreciation of Huell's talents and contributions.  Find it here.

       I do recommend your reading the piece.  But I also have to wonder about something.  After a warm, sensitive, and intelligent column, it seemed to end rather unsatisfyingly for all that had gone before.

       Lloyd begins his conclusion by quoting something Howser had said to Lloyd in 2009 for an earlier article:  "You could tell me that I couldn't go outside of a five-mile radius from where we're having breakfast right now for stories and I wouldn't blink an eye.  There's enough right within five miles to keep me busy the rest of my life."

       This was terrific, but Lloyd then ends his piece with "The stories will have to get along without him now."

       I couldn't help feeling Lloyd had short-changed himself for what his own column had built up to, and I simply wrote a final paragraph I thought Lloyd's appreciation had earned, especially after the quote from Huell himself:

       "I don't know that there's anybody in California who would disagree with that assertion by Huell, least of all the hundreds and thousands of people, ordinary and not-so-ordinary, whose stories he helped bring to light."

AND, Poetry Is Medicine for the Soul!

       First time I've been asked to take a pill in the form of a "troche" (TRO-key).  The medicine is identified as "White, Round-shaped Tablet (Flat-faced)."  Shape and size of a dime, in fact.   The word comes ultimately from Greek trekhein=to run, which gave birth to trokhos, wheel, and thence trokhiskos, meaning little wheel, which fits the tablet I'm dissolving in my mouth five times daily for awhile.

       But why my slight unease still with "troche"?  Yes, it's that metrical foot in poetry too, spelled "trochee,"  a stressed and an unstressed syllable, the meter called "trochaic":   for example,  "Should you ask me / Whence these stories / Whence these Legends and traditions....." from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.   It must have been perceived as a rolling meter; hence the name "trochaic."

       A medicine and a poetic meter, both running on "little wheels."

Good Journalism, Worth Praising

       An L.A. Times article today wonders whether classical conductors appreciate pop and rock music.  Seems most do and even have favorites.

       But I was stopped by a certain word in this sentence:  "[F]or baby boom conductors such as [Marin] Alsop [Baltimore Symphony] and Fabio Luisi, principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, pop and rock was in the air during their formidable years."

       The author surely meant "formative."  I could write,  challenge; yet no editors caught it??

       But I'd rather compliment good writing.  I did recently in an email to Christopher Knight, Times Art Critic.  He had said about Alexander Calder's work:  "In a mobile, wire provides an elegant one-dimensional line for two-dimensional abstract shapes to be suspended in complex three-dimensional compositions that bring motion's invisible fourth dimension of time and space into view."

       "I've never seen a more perfect description of a mobile," I said, "Maybe it's not surprising no one's able to walk in Calder's footsteps."  Knight thanked me,  said he appreciated the feedback. 

If Every Note or Word's Important, None Are

       Today I saw on TV a video documentary on pianist, conductor, teacher...true musician...Murray Perahia.  It closes with some words from Perahia that strike me as not only about music, but other arts and professions, perhaps the conduct of our lives:

       "We live in a culture where foreground is more important than, let's say, middleground or background.  Everything is on the surface.  But there has to be a hierarchy in the end.  One has to know which are the most important notes; otherwise, every note gets played the same or gets thought of the same....And I think that's very destructive.  That either makes very boring playing, or falsely expressive playing, which is I think equally bad....Nothing goes deep."

"A Story in Every Seat"

       The Hollywood Bowl has a slogan that hits home:   "A story in every seat."

       This outdoor concert venue is not a great place to experience a concert but is a great place for memorable experiences.  Who were you with?  What location did you have--high up? down in the boxes?  What music?  Did you bring food, get a dinner there, buy or bring some wine, have a picnic outside before the concert?  Who was performing?  How was the sound, how was the look of the stage that year?

       For me, “a story in every seat” fits the Bowl to a T.

"Amapola" Returns, Summoned by a Rhythm

       What prompts you to remember a forgotten song?  It might be a word.  It might be just the rhythm of a word.

       Connie brought home an easy-to-make dinner called "Steak Gorgonzola."   I said it aloud with the 4-syllable rhythm (GOR-guhn-ZO-luh) and immediately began humming a tune from somewhere.  As I went on wordlessly, recalling the whole melody as I went, Connie asked, "What is it?"  "I don't know," I said.

       But I thought about it, and another word came to me, "Caledonia." It would fit the rhythm...but wasn't that another song?

       Finally it hit--"Amapola."  Wikipedia brought rest of the words, etc.; reached top of the charts in 1941; song began with the title name.  Many, many years since it had passed my ears, lips, or thoughts. 

       Oh heck, why don't I just sing it for you?

       

                            

By All Means, Banish "Fiscal Cliff"

       The "Overused Words List" is out from Michigan's Lake Superior State University, an annual New Year's event.  Among the popular nominations, with selected reasons:

       Fiscal Cliff--receiving the greatest number of complaints, one nominator having the most personal reason to decry the endless use of the term:  Barbara CLIFF, Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

       Kick the Can Down the Road--"I'm surprised it wasn't on your 2012 list--were you just kicking the, um, phrase down the road to 2013?"--T. Jones, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

        Double Down--a blackjack term; "Over-used within the last year or so in politics."--John Gates, Cumberland, Maine.

       Trending--"A trend is something temporary, thank goodness; however, it is not a verb, and I'm tired of news stations telling me what trite 'news' is 'trending.'"--Kyle Melton, White Lake, Michigan.

         

Peering Back on New Year's Day

       I know how far back a few relatives and friends go with me when they call me Donnie:  to my teens and early twenties.

       It's only those who see me intermittently, and it's kind of sweet, the diminutive, affectionate "ie" ending.

       They may glimpse me as I was then.  And with a pirate's spyglass, I almost do too.