Truss Me On This

 

English has an endless capacity to keep expanding its already stupendous vocabulary. Sometimes current events or historical developments supply new words, often based on the names of people, such as boycott, diesel, and mesmerize.

English speakers will undoubtedly tap into the misfortune of the UK’s shortest serving prime minister, Liz Truss. Gone after 45 days, the shortest tenure of any British PM, Truss’s name is bound to enter our language.

It may show up as a short measure of time, like a moment or jiffy, as in:

“Are you coming, dear?”

“Yes, I’ll be there in a truss.”

            Or it may take on the character of rare words that have opposite meanings, like cleave (to split or to hold together). Hence truss, defined by Merriam-Webster as “to secure tightly.” But its new additional meaning will be, “truss: to fall apart, collapse.” Example: “His poor planning meant his business trussed within months.”
            Some may turn to distorting the word slightly, giving it the ironic usage of “Hey, just truss me on this.” Similarly, drawing from those team-building exercises you may have had to endure at summer camp, there’s a trust fall. By contrast, an invitation to a truss fall foretells unmitigated failure.

Then there’s Wiktionary’s definition of truss as a verb: “To tie up a bird before cooking it”—surely a fitting (albeit sexist) description of the doomed PM’s fate.

Who knows, just as many of the nursery rhymes we learned as children had historical roots, maybe our great-great-grandchildren’s repertoire will incorporate what we are living through now:

Hickory dickory dock.

Poor Liz ran out the clock.

The clock struck one

And she was gone.

Hickory dickory dock.

And your great-great-granddaughter will ask, “Daddy, who was Liz?” He will reply, “I don’t know. Let’s ask Alexa—it’ll take just a truss.”

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The Words of Others

 

I set out writing this blog by promising you three hundred words every two weeks. However, I didn’t say they would always be my own words. So today I’m sharing with you some quotations that have been especially meaningful to me.

 Many of you know that I’ve long had a love affair with the wisdom and wit I’ve encountered in others. As a result, I have published eight anthologies of quotations, on topics as diverse as travel and leadership, and the media and paradoxes. The most recent is a brief selection on grief, Grace for the Grieving: Words of Comfort in Times of Loss. (Available on Amazon.)

 Now, in alphabetical order by author, here we have:

 Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

                        – Philo Judaeus

 There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to an ordinary mortal…  It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors…  Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

                        – C. S. Lewis

 I’m continually asking myself, “What is the best use of my time right now?”

                        – Alan Lakein

 Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.

                        – Dag Hammarskjöld

 When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can.

                        – Matthew Henry

 A wise man cares not for what he cannot have.

– George Herbert

 If not you, who? If not now, when?

– Rabbi Hillel

 Have thy tools ready. God will find thee work.

                        – Charles Kingsley

 Wisdom is merely knowing what to do next.

                        – Unknown

 At the end of my life, God will not ask me, “Why were you not Moses?”  God will ask instead, “Why were you not Zusya?”

                        – Rabbi Zusya

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Thanks Be To Spotters

 

I was out of town when a friend’s email alerted me to a church reader-board sign I might want to photograph. Fortunately, when I got back to Spokane it was still there. Naively, or boldly, it invited all those passing by to “Expose Yourself to Jesus.” Quite apart from the profound theological issues the sign raised, I immediately captured it on film (well, digitally).

I’ve since added it to my slide presentation of unusual signs, and “Expose Yourself to Jesus” got its first public viewing at a Rotary club lunch in Spokane last Thursday. I think the audience received it with a mix of amusement and disbelief: amusement at this message’s double entendre, disbelief that anyone could be that unaware of how passers by might interpret the message. Just as astonishing is the fact that it was left up for public viewing for at least two weeks. Maybe the church has subsequently changed it, perhaps after someone stopped by the church office and said, “Um… about your reader-board: have you considered the possibility….?”

This posting serves as a thank-you to friends like John, who steered me toward this gem. Other examples in my collection come from alert spotters aware of my delight in photographing unusual signs. Someone told me about another Spokane reader-board, which proclaimed: “Do It Yourself—We Can Help.” And a friend near Washington DC introduced me to “No Parking On Railroad Tracks Except When Train Is Coming.” Yes, you read that correctly; no, I won’t tell you the context.

Another example, spotted by one of my students, was at a small cemetery. It read, with charming brevity, “Cemetery: No Dumping.”

The moral of the story? Every communication, especially easily misunderstood signs, requires careful checking before you go public. Lest you, er…, expose yourself to my always-alert spotters.

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About What is This Blog Post?

In the early 1990s I had the opportunity to study Spanish as part of a Whitworth University program. I could never get a handle on the difference between para and por, prepositions each meaning “for” but with subtle differences in usage.

My quandary made me think of non-native English speakers trying to figure out English prepositions. Other parts of speech, like nouns and verbs, are generally easily understood. But prepositions…. They are shaped more by idiomatic usage rather than rules.

Making things worse are those pedants who insist that one should not end a sentence with a preposition. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is credited with responding to some clumsy English by saying this was something “up with which I will not put.” Or so the story goes. Like several quotes attributed to Churchill, however, this anecdote had its origins elsewhere.

Americans often add needless prepositions to phrases like get off of my cloud or head up a committee. One can turn this into a game: try stringing together as many prepositions as possible. Think of the boy sent to bed when Mom promised she would come upstairs and read him a story. The book she chose wasn’t his favorite so he asked her, “What did you bring the book I didn’t want to be read to out of up for?”

Then there’s what is supposedly the world record for the most prepositions ending a sentence: “What did you turn your socks from inside in to inside out instead of from outside out to inside in for?”

But back to the matter of dealing with pompous wanna-be grammarians who delight in pointing out that you have ended a sentence with a preposition. Feign ignorance and ask, “What are you talking about?” Or say, “Too late. The rot has set in.”

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Bless

 

When our children were young we’d tuck them in at bedtime, read them a Bible story, and say a prayer we had improvised for them: “God bless Sarah, and keep her safe and well and happy.” And “God bless Matthew and keep him safe and well and happy.”

At the time, I now realize, I gave little thought to what lay behind our simple “God bless” prayers. . . .

That’s from the introduction to my new book, The God Who Blesses, fifty reflections intended to answer the broader question, “What exactly do we mean by bless?” One could say that every non-fiction book project arises from a question the writer wants answered. Until now, though, I‘ve never had a single word inspire any of my books. But bless, along with its cognates of blessing and blessedness, became a thought-trigger that prompted me to explore a concept that is paradoxically familiar yet also little understood. Surprisingly little is written about bless and blessing; I found only scholarly material on the topic and as a result I wanted to write something accessible to non-theologians like myself.

Bless has a wide range of meanings. It’s most often used in the sense of wishing people well, as for example with the blessing of dismissal at the end of a church service. The word also serves as a “thank you.” Elsewhere, we read in the Psalms, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” revealing that the word can also mean “praise.” And we’re all familiar with the casual uses of the word, as in saying “Bless my heart!” or “Bless you” after someone sneezes.

Sound interesting? If so, let me invite you to look at The God Who Blesses, which probes the ins and outs of a single word that I found worthy of exploration.

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PS: As those of you getting reminders about new blog postings already know, the publisher has as a promotion made the book available as a free Kindle download from Amazon, until August 31. Here’s the link” https://www.amazon.com/d/B0BBRNC642/

And you’d be doing me a great favor if you’d forward this link to friends and family whom you think might enjoy The God Who Blesses.

 

 

Lost and Found

 

I lost a word recently. Well, misplaced it. We were talking about my 2-week-old granddaughter, Hazel,. One of us commented on the indentation between her nose and her lip. What’s that called? I knew there was a word for it but I couldn’t think of it. The next day it came to me: Philtrum.

But what if it had been lost? If I hadn’t recalled the word, I would have consulted my collection of unfamiliar words. For several years I’ve kept a Word document (that’s appropriate) listing such words. I may have included it there. (I had.) The words range from aburidashi – a Japanese form of writing in invisible ink, to zarf, an Arabic word to use next time you’re ordering your venti non-fat triple-shot decaf persimmon-flavored coffee. The word means “sleeve.” It’s that thin cardboard insulation they put over the cup.

I also keep a list of foreign expressions, like the French saying that translates as “the good old days when we were so unhappy.”

Then there are the truly lost words, which aren’t in my list because I foolishly didn’t make a note of them when I first heard them. One describes languages like Italian, most of whose words end with a vowel. Despite a Google search, I’ve not been able to find the term. Another lost word is from the legal field. It’s the offence of avoiding a delay at a red traffic light by cutting through a gas station or other business premises.

Think of the “lost and found” collection at your local supermarket. (Disregard for the moment the paradox of something being simultaneously both lost and found.) Wouldn’t it be helpful to have a comparable service for lost words? “Ah, yes, I think I found it: philtrum; is that what you were looking for, sir?”

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Names

 

Let me introduce you to Hazel and Sophie. They’re Sue’s and my granddaughters, who arrived last Thursday morning, July 28.

Our daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Mike, settled on these names earlier but kept them secret until the twins arrived. But now, for the rest of their lives, everywhere that Hazel and Sophie go, those two appellations—Hazel and Sophie—will go with them. For our names are the most important words that we learn, and which accompany us on our life’s journeys.

For now, Hazel and Sophie have all the challenges of infancy to master, one of which will be to learn the sound of their own names, or whatever nicknames their parents may give them. But then they will round about the age of 2 begin to acquire other words. Having earlier picked up mama or dada, or other simple words, the girls’ vocabulary will suddenly explode in a verbal torrent and they’ll start saying things like porcupine, cabbage and mattress.

Sometimes parents engage in odd, sad or downright bizarre naming behaviors. We know of a Spokane family who named their child Snake. Then there’s the example from New Zealand, reported by the BBC in 2008. A judge considered the case of a nine-year-old girl, who was made a ward of the court so that she could legally change her given name: Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. The girl’s new name was not made known.

The BBC invited responses to its article, one of which came from a Londoner named Ftango Molasses. Someone else wrote, “No-one ever considered that the child might like the quirkiness of their name. Nothing has ever held back my development or progress….. Everyone calls me Eggy. I don’t see the problem.” His name? Egnorwiddle Waldstrom.

Frankly, I much prefer Hazel and Sophie.

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