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Channel: Eclectic – The Penultimate Word
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SOME CORRECTIONS AND COMMENTS TOO LIMITED FOR A WHOLE POST

I’ve been accumulating some brief quips and comments which I want to lay out there for you.  They are all too short to devote an entire post to them individually, so I’m combining them here. 1.  I...

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TIE A BOW ON THIS PIG: to make something good out of a bad situation

Anyone who was paying attention during the presidential election of 2008 will remember the numerous times the idiom, “like putting lipstick on a pig,” was employed.   The entire idiom continued, “It’s...

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CATHETERIZATION (kath-uh-tur-ih-ZAY-shun): a long thin tube called a catheter...

It turns out that most people associate the term catheterization with urinary procedures. But the catheterization which we are concerned with today is cardiac in nature, having to do with the...

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GIZMO: unspecified item, a “thing”

More often than not, the use of the word gizmo is the result of having stumbled across something for which there is no name, or something whose name you have forgotten.  How often, in the middle of a...

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PERENNIAL [puh-REN-ee-uh l] : lasting a long time, recurring each year

Ok, so here’s the drift: Something that you plant that only lives one blooming season is known as an ANNUAL. Something that you plant and it comes up every year thereafter is known as a PERENNIAL. I...

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CIRCUMSPECT [SUR-kuhm-spekt] : discreet, cautious, prudent

“Anything in excess can be a mistake.” Like all platitudes, this one hangs in there and pops into you head at awkward moments.  It’s probably something your grandparent said to you when you were a...

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POLYGLOT: able to speak or write several languages; multilingual.

My friend, Lefteris, is Greek.   He is a professor at an American university, so he also speaks English fluently.  I suspect he speaks other languages with varying degrees of success.   His son is...

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TIDDLYWINKS: an indoor game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small...

One reference says that Tiddlywinks is considered a simple-minded children’s game.   There are few rules, few objects of play, and few gifts needed to play it.  It does not require great intelligence....

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ERRANT: to wander; roam, stray

I believe the first time I ever heard the word “errant” was when we studied Cervantes’ book, Don Quixote, in high school.  It would come back to haunt me when I had to read it in Spanish in a college...

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GRASS IS GREENER

I suspect that most professionals stumble across an in-house conversation among colleagues which debates if it is all worth it to stay with the profession.   I well remember times when my colleagues...

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WHEELBARROW: a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel,...

Those who live in homes which require ground care can accumulate a very interesting shed full of instruments to make their job easier.   Everything from shovels, rakes, hoses, edgers, clippers, and...

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RACE: a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.

This has been a busy season for the issue of race relationships.  Recent events of shootings, police encounters, and now outright massacres of black worshipers in an AME church in South Carolina have...

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RETRO: : looking like or relating to styles or fashions from the past

        Maybe it’s just that I’m at an age where memory is such a vital factor in my life.  These days I remember events from the 1950’s almost as clearly as I do those from this morning…maybe even...

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ARNOLD PALMER: a non-alcoholic beverage

There are times when I really enjoy a cocktail before dinner.  I’ve been a Gibson fan for decades.  It regularly confuses the server, and I end up getting a giblet instead.  Since I don’t like lime...

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EARTH: the third planet from the Sun in this configuration of the Solar...

If you were to stand on a pedestal at the top of Mount Everest you might look around, 360 degrees, and think that you have surveyed the entire world.   In fact, you are at the highest point on this...

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HAT TRICK: the term used for an athlete scoring three goals in a single game

Hockey is one of the many sports in which the term hat trick is used to indicate that an individual player has scored his or her third goal in a single game.   But we Americans might be shocked to...

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PLUVIOPHILE [PLUHV-ee-oh-file]: a lover of rain

We have gone through an early Fall without any sign of rain.  That is, no rain until last Wednesday.   Then, as if to make up for lost time, we had a deluge.  The rain was really heavy, breaking...

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SOUTER [SOO tuh r] : a person who is skilled at building or repairing shoes

Retired Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, The Hon. David Souter, lives in New Hampshire in a lovely, but humble home.   He is a man well known in his community as being generous, friendly,...

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CANDOR [KAN-der]: the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in...

A very wise therapist was talking with me the other day and mentioned that he was watching the  movie series, Divergent. Having never heard of it, he went on to explain that it is a dark movie, one in...

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SCUTTLEBUTT: gossip, the latest word on something

When someone whispers in your ear that they have “the scuttlebutt” on someone or something…beware!  It is as if they had said to you, “I have the latest fabrication, lie, exaggeration, or rumor on a...

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