QuidNunc/QuidTunc?

How come mine doesn’t look like yours, Rach?
You’re <i>A Prayer for Owen Meany</i>!<br>
<font size=”4″>by John Irving</font><br>
<i><font size=”3″>Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS!

They just ask if you are loud or not, I just couldn’t get by with saying I wasn’t could I?

“Every waking moment”  is a bit of a stretch. Right now I am staring at the bottom of my coffee cup thinking “All Gone”.

….is literally a ‘herdsman’s meat’, but it can also mean a jumble. So when I start out with meat, onions, peppers and tomatoes, whatever the result is, it becomes ‘goulash’. Last night I had some zuchini I threw in and lots of cheese on top. Remember saying “Parmee’zan cheese, please!” Now we are too sophisticated. What would they do at the market if I pulled that one out? They’s probable say, “You’re not from around here are you?” Those people who say ‘yooz’ when they mean ‘you’. I think I am going to have a fried egg sandwich for supper, with a tomato,mmmmmm. Sometimes the plain thing is the best. Imagine me saying that? Am I feverish??? I would also like some chocolate or an apple pie. I had my first apple of the season today and it was delightful.

See yooz latuh.

p.s. I thought since Rach wrote about oatmeal that I’d write about goulash! :>)

I thought while I was writing with titles of 3 capital letters, I’d keep going. Joel and I went to our first American Sign language class on Tuesday evening. I was a little nervous because I am afraid of forgetting everything from week to week. The nice thing about this course is that we are taking it together , so we can practice on each other. But our teacher drooled over our name and I asked the obvious question, “Are you Italian?” And, of course, she is. Remember those personality tests? I thought I saw myself up there teaching the class! We were all there at the appointed time, 6:00. and she comes in about 6:05, thinking that it started at 6:30 and she was early and could get her breath before it started! Then she is looking for all her things and another lady is running for all the things that she needs……. I have done it all, esp. the “Oh good, I am early” part, only to discover that I am late and not ready. It is a betraying feeling. But she gathered  herself quickly and started with aplomb in true ‘Melinda style’! Anyway, she starts by signing everything she says. I thought, ” I can’t remember everything, but I can remember a few.” So every now and then I would do the sign under the table so I would remember. Then about half way through class she told us to write down signs/words  that we learned in class. I grab my paper and start writing and others are sitting there in shock. It is really fun for me to watch another teacher teach a language and to be the responder.

I didn’t write this. Merriam Webster did as their Word of the Day. Am I with it or what???? I hope you read it!

The Word of the Day for September 20 is: quidnunc \KWID-nunk\ noun : a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip : busybody Example sentence: Those who criticize Joanne for being a quidnunc are usually the first to go to her when they want to know the latest gossip. Did you know? “What’s new?” That’s a question every busybody wants answered. Latin-speaking Nosey Parkers might have used some version of the expression “quid nunc,” literally “what now,” to ask the same question. Appropriately, the earliest documented English use of “quidnunc” to refer to a gossiper appeared in 1709 in Sir Richard Steele’s famous periodical, The Tatler. Steele is far from the only writer to ply “quidnunc” in his prose, however. You also can find the word among the pages of works by such writers as Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne. But don’t think the term is old news — it sees some use in current publications, too.

About life’s little luxuries??? Well, one time I applied the ‘Mom” formula for finding a book at the library. First, you pray, then head for the biograpy section. Only on the way to our dinky small town library, I heard an interview on the radio (good ol’ NPR) of an author and his book. The author was James McBride and the book is The Color of Water. It is about a man whose mother is Jewish and his father was black, and he grew up in a huge family like the 8th of 13 kids, getting ‘lost in the sauce’, as he put it. Well, I walked into our dinky, smalltown library and picked it right off the shelf in about 2 minutes and had a great read. Later, I thought it was the kind of book I’d like to keep and so I bought another, but I gave it away to a bi-racial student of mine. The author turned out to be a jazz musician and you can look him up, but while I was sitting here at the computer with my radio going on, I hear that he is giving a freee concert at Millersville University tonight and I got to hear him!!!! So did Joel, because he was with me! :>) He plays the saxophone, but he has a band. It was really good. I liked him, and actually, I had never heard his music, but I knew it had to be good.hmmmm, my birthday is coming up soon! In his book he tells how in NYC, there was open enrollment in alll the schools for a certain period of time, like January or something. His mother would find the best schools for each of her children and they were taking public buses all over the city to get there, and that is how he got his start musically.

That’s all for now , folks. I don’t want to correct any more typos!

I said I was going to do it and so I am. Please feel free to add your own two bits!

Today’s luxury is the radio. I know sometimes we wish we didn’t have to deal with everpresent sound in the grocery store or pumping the gas, but wheto turn on the radio. Sometimes I hear things familiar, sometimes boring, and sometimes something fresh that astounds me. Yes, I am addicted to sound, but I figure that is the way I am wired! :>)  When we lived in Iowa and there were some really windy days , I could drown out the howl with the radio and sympathize with pioneer women who probably didn’t have much to listen to but bickering children ,and going nutso! I do like the sound of wind, don’t get me wrong, But when it went on long and loud, it was a luxury to have a reprieve.

Which is Latin for “whatever”

My little old laptop blew up and so now I have to see if I can be comfy and write here, too. There is something about a laptop that entices you to write.

August was an extremely busy month. One morning I said to Joel” You know what day it is? August 30th!” It just went whizzing by ,leaving me feeling kind of exhausted. I re-wrote the 5th grade curriculum for the new Latin teacher and it was fun, but, as usual, I was pushing the clock to get it done! Lots of rain and garden work .

Joel’s boss asked me if I was interested in teaching English to some of the employees, so we shall see what materialises as far as interest. I have some ideas that I am working on. This is really the sort of thing I would like to do if it will grow to be enough.

We have had butterflies! Usually there are several just flying around, but they are thick in our pine grove. Last evening we took some friends out there to see to before it got too dark. The butterflies had gone to bed, lined up on a branch! It was pretty cool looking. I was struggling with camera batteries , so maybe I will try again tonight.

Joel and I signed up for sign language classes that start in 2 weeks. I got these children’s books from the library  that have videos with them of someone signing the story . I can only keep it for a week and then I can’t renew it. I said to the librarian,’And how will I learn anything that way?”

Did you know that Luciano Pavarotti died today? or yesterday. Today it was in the news. Good-bye to a great man. I listened to my One CD of him on my drive home from Quarryville today.

Oh and I was going to make a blog called ‘Life’s little luxuries’, you know, the sort of thing that can’t be bought, at least with not very much money, but make you feel rich! Hmmmm… maybe I can come up with a couple before i sign my tired brain off.

1. having friends over for dinner (or going to their house!)

2. A perfectly made bed (yes, I do that once in a while! There is a made bed that is less than perfect)

We did have another perfect day at the beach on Monday and managed to not get scathed by the Labor Day traffic. We got ice cream cones on the way home, just like we did the first time we went down this summer! Now it’s time to go hiking at Bombay Hook!

Well, now you know I am still alive, and maybe when it cools down a little the writing juices will flow again.