The MBT Ponderers

Writing is painting with words

2019-05-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

In Amsterdam's Rikstad Museum, a friend pointed out one special touch that made Rembrandt an outstanding master. His subject’s eye color was not simply solid brown or blue, but was highlighted with a single speck of white or pearl color, like light hitting and refracting from the eye, making it more life-like. Gaze in the eyes of a close friend or family member. Check their eye color, and you’ll see what I mean. Greatness comes from such detail.

Well-chosen details in writing help our characters stand out from one another. Or describe a landscape in such specific detail we know what mood or emotion will follow. Shakespeare mastered that skill. Dickens brought it to perfection. His sunlit landscapes with balmy skies prepare us for happiness. Storms, with thunder and lightning rolling for light and sound effects, set the stage for brooding disaster. We feel shuddering terror in his Great Expectations graveyard scene just before the terrible Magwitch rises from behind a tombstone and demands food. The spider-web garlanded home of aged spinster, Miss Havisham, including her intact rotted wedding cake, shows as much information as the dialogue tells--and we nearly need to hold our hankies to our noses.

Choose a favorite book or scene that stays with you, utilizing a skill you’d love to use in your own writing or conversations. Kipling’s Jungle Books includes this northern India panorama scene, inviting our eyes to take the journey, too. In my mind’s eye, I have repeated this journey more times that I can count: “Looking across the valley, the eye was deceived by the size of things, and could not at first realize that what seemed to be low scrub, on the opposite mountain-flank, was in truth a forest of hundred-foot pines. Purun Bhagat saw an eagle swoop across the gigantic hollow, but the great bird dwindled to a dot ere it was half-way over.”

Now please name a favorite book or scene and share what you love most about it.

Will the real Wonder Woman please stand up

2019-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff
Wonder Woman is the 2017 American movie based on a DC Comics character for the first time starring a female as a superhero. Diana, princess of the Amazons, was raised on a sheltered island and equipped with superpowers to become an unbeatable warrior. When she hears that massive conflict endangers the world, she leaves her home to fight the threat to end the war to end all wars and save the world from evil.

Our living female population is grateful a female finally made the cut to superpower, but is the movie hero truly the first wonder woman ever? In my mind, many others in history can be nominated. What about Ruth, Esther, Jael, or Deborah, or Mary from the Bible? What about Joan of Arc? Florence Nightingale? Clara Barton? Marie Curie? Sacajawea? Or a special woman you suggest.

I just became aware of Gertrude Caroline Ederle, an American competitive swimmer and Olympic champion who became the first woman to swim the 21-mile English Channel in 1926. I’m quite well read. Why did it take me this many years to learn of her accomplishment?

What about mothers who are there for us almost every day of their lives but are often unsung heroes? We’ve just celebrated Mother’s Day maybe with chocolates, roses, cards, and/or a meal out to show our thanks.

Whether you favor Hollywood’s version or someone from the Bible, history, favorite literature, or your own family, share your vote to name your candidate for the true wonder woman award. Or if you prefer, train and swim any body of water to surpass past achievements and become a record-holding Wonder Woman in that or any other field yourself.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Humor wins battles

2019-04-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Roman military general, Julius Caesar, didn’t become emperor overnight or with military skills alone. He was also a top-level public relations expert whose skills could turn Madison Avenue advertising execs green with envy. He included hilarious reports of his troops’ victories across Gaul (France) in his rollicking account, The Gallic Wars. Ever since Carthage’s General, Hannibal, terrorized Italy by invading from over the Alps with elephants, Rome’s citizens feared the massive beasts. Caesar wrote a tall tale of outsmarting the elephants who slept standing upright leaning against trees. He said his men simply sawed through the trees the elephants leaned against by pulling crosscut saws back and forth to the rhythm of the elephants’ snores until the beasts fell down to be captured or killed.

Caesar sent generous gifts and cash home to Rome’s citizens for distributed to make his name and exploits great. He also named them in his will to receive pocket cash and have much of his land made into public parks.

My favorite of his public relations schemes involves how he raised the morale of his troops. Before starting each battle, he gathered his men on a high hill or mountain top. His officers delivered well-planned strategy moves, but his crowning touch happened last. Caesar hired master joke writers and personally selected the funniest story. After everything else was done, Caesar had the day’s funniest side-splitting story told just before tipping lances to send his troops hurtling downhill roaring with laughter toward enemies waiting in the valley or on opposite hills. It was just plain demoralizing. History tells us that over half of his enemies fled before ever engaging Rome’s soldiers in battle. They turned tail and ran away, unnerved by military men so confident they ran forward guffawing.

Scripture says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” Psalm 59 adds, “But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.” Caesar did have the heathen in derision.

Good humor makes any day better. Whether we are telling or hearing a joke, getting its punch line right with perfect time is a valuable skill using the beginning, middle, end formula of any story writing.

What is your favorite joke? Mine starts with the Polish man who sure his wife wanted to kill him because she kept “Polish Remover” in the medicine cabinet—and it gets worse from there. Share your favorite joke and send us rollicking into whatever we face today.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Roget’s Thesaurus - The power of the right word

2019-04-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

When it’s time to paint a room in your home, you try to choose the right color paint and the perfect specific shade of that color. That often involves going to your favorite hardware or paint store to collect folders holding hundreds of paint chip color samples.

On fresh spring days, I’ve looked outside and counted a thousand shades of green. Paint stores prove I’m right. There are that many shades of green, and also equal variations of yellows, blues, whites, reds, and everything in between—so many they boggle the mind.

On a missions trip to the Philippines, I bought a freshwater pearl necklace that was such a warm blend of peach, yellow, and cream, I desired to paint my living room that color. By spending much time in my local paint store, I finally matched the color chip and am surrounded by a beautiful living memory.

· Similarly in writing we want to create the perfect moods, sensations, and expressions. We want to express things more evocative than that our hero or heroine walked beneath a blue sky. If that sky is an especially descriptive blue, it helps us more easily experience the scene and mood. Here are some word choices available through the fabulous writing tool created almost two centuries ago by Peter Mark Roget, a British physician, natural theologian, and lexicographer. In the impressive compilation of descriptive words he named a Thesaurus, his options for blue include aquamarine, azure, beryl, cerulean, cobalt, indigo, navy, royal, sapphire, teal, turquoise, sapphire, and ultramarine, and more.

His tool provides rich, textured word choices for colors, actions, and practically any item or phenomenon in this world. It permits us to write with a full color palette. His work is an alphabetized catalog of related word options. When he released it in 1852, he described his first Thesaurus this way. “It is now nearly fifty years since I first projected a system of verbal classification. Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my own deficiencies, I had, in the year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus now published.

His original 1852 Thesaurus contained 15,000 words. Since then each edition has been larger. Jane Weber, my amazing 9^thgrade creative writing teacher in Vancouver, Washington, gave each of her fifteen students a paperback Thesaurus. That is just one of many ways she inspired and changed our lives. I personally love to roam the descriptive lists of color choices that to me are more delicious than the flavors available at our local Baskin Robbins.

When did you first see or use a Thesaurus?

How often do you use one? What are some of your favorite word finds there?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

How long does it take to influence a life?

2019-04-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

When I was age 7, Marilyn Witt, a high school senior who lived nearby, babysat my little sister and me one evening. I don't recall her coming any other time, but she arrived carrying an intriguing heavy black box with a handle. Marilyn said it held a typewriter to fill out her college applications after my little sister went to sleep. Once I heard that, there was no chance I would fall asleep. She had brought me two new words—typewriter and college.

When she took the typewriter out of its case and set it up, she explained how it worked. Then she sat me on her lap to peck a few keys that then struck black printed letters on the clean piece of paper she had rolled into the cylinder. I was fascinated with the possibilities.

Next, as she spread out her application forms, she told me about college. “It’s a place where you go to learn and have a better life,” she said. That sounded wonderful, too. No one in our family had been, but I never forgot and started saving for it that summer as I picked strawberries for Birdseye Frozen Foods—but that’s another story.

Marilyn brought me two new words that night—typewriter, and college. Both have been happy additions to my life. College teachers use typewriters and later computers lots. Then I became a writer, and writers use them even more.

That babysitting evening long ago triggered interests that established major directions for my life. I don’t recall Marilyn babysitting us more than that one evening, but it was enough. I will never forget both new concepts she taught me, and I am very thankful!

March 8th is National Proofreading Day

2019-03-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Another comment for the preceding is, "Use a comma, fight cannibalism." This event hasn’t been around long, but here’s how it is described in our nation's calendar: “National Proofreading Day is observed each year on March 8th. This day was created to bring awareness to the importance of proofreading. National Proofreading Day promotes mistake-free writing. Carefully review all your letters and documents to make a positive and professional impression.

In 2011, Judy Beaver created Proofreading Day in remembrance of her mother, Flo. On her website (nationalproofreadingday.com) Judy relates that her mother loved to correct people. Judy thought by creating the day on Flo’s birthday, it would be a fun way to remember her and remind people to take more time to proofread their work.

During the Reagan administration, all of the posters and brochures had been printed and distributed nationwide honoring National Secretary Day before it was discovered Secretary was misspelled.

Once when touring an advertising agency, thanks to many college English classes, I was the one in the group who noticed that the rough draft of a very expensive glossy Oscar Meyer ad, misspelled wieners. Horrors! Thankfully, we corrected it in time.

Autocorrect introduces a greater need than ever for diligent proofreading. Dedicated vigilance is required to avoid some of the worst errors possible. I won’t list some blush-worthy bloopers here, but we’ve all had them.

Therefore, on each March 8^th, and on every day between, let’s thank editors everywhere, as well as our friends and family, unofficial editors, who also do so much to help us write beautifully and correctly to produce our very best.

Learn more about this yearly event at http://nationalproofreadingday.com/

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Jingles - Words and/or tunes that stick in the brain

2019-02-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

jingle is the lively, cheery sound of a bell when rung or jostled. Today, it also defines a tune and words used in advertising, podcasts, or other commercial purposes that are used for sound branding. They contain hooks specifically promoting a product or service, usually by including advertising slogans in radio and/or t.v. commercials. Many jingles are based on changing the lyrics of popular songs. They create words and tune associations so strong and unforgettable that we automatically, unconsciously, reach for the product. The more they boost sales, the more we hear them.

At age five, my older son cried when I wouldn’t buy Wonder Bread "that builds strong bodies eight ways!” I explained that I had baked nutritious fresh bread and cinnamon rolls at home, but he worried they might not help him grow as well. (I should have advertised.)

Timeless examples are, “N-e-s-t-l-e-s = Nestles makes the very best, chocolate!” KFC’s “finger lickin’ good”, and Rice Krispies “Snap, crackle, pop”.

In his wonderful story spoof, “Punch, Brothers, Punch”, Mark Twain describes contracting a virus-like jingle that took over his brain for days until he managed to infect someone else with it, removing the jingle from his own mind. If only it were that easy . . .

The longest running jingles is for McCormick Foods' Aeroplane Jelly. Composed in Australia before 1943, it was used into the 21st century. During the 1940s, it was played more than 100 times a day on some stations. Can anyone say “brainwashing”?

What jingles have you enjoyed the most?

Which have been the hardest to erase from your mind?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Where were you the severe winter of 2019?

2019-02-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

Hopefully, you’ve survived what recent terms describe as Snowmageddon, Snownado, Polar Vortex 2019, and more.

This winter I dodged the brunt of it by enjoying time in NE Mississippi, but I feel for friends and loved ones experiencing this winter’s brutal cold. It meant 2-3 day school suspensions and even U.S. mail not being delivered for the first time in history in parts of seven states. However, I’ve paid my dues in many past winters in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area and later further north along Northern British Columbia’s beautiful Alaska Hwy.

When my two sons and I lived near Edmonton, we ice skated outside on a sunny day with no wind at -20F and soon removed our coats and felt comfortable in only sweaters.

Later, 500 miles further north, we didn’t have clothes dryers so hung wet laundry outside. I remember removing freeze-dried clothes from the line at -30 F, and when I tugged on a flannel nightgown folded over the wire, stared as it came off in my hands in two stiff halves.

Another cold day, the car I was driving on the Alaska Hwy. broke down between Mile 147 and Mile 109 with the daytime high temperature only reached -30F. My two U.S. city resident passengers were terrified. What to do? Afternoon light was fading, which brought increasing cold, and we were outside of cell phone range. I tucked my one blanket around my friends, prayed, and stuck out my thumb to hitchhike to friends I knew would help—if I could reach them. Several cars passed, and then a Montana-licensed pickup hit the brakes. Sure enough, the driver was a handsome, courteous, Marlboro-smoking, fringe leather-jacket, and coybot hat cowboy who drove me to my friends and stayed long enough to be sure they could solve my situation. A friend asked if he was an angel in disguise. I hadn’t pictured angels smoking Marlboros, but he met the other qualifications.

At -60 F on another sunny day without wind, I stood outside making sure our caged rabbits had food and water. I was bundled up, feeling no cold, until I removed my mitts and glove to open the wire hatch at the the cage front to reach inside. My fingers stuck to that wire like kids had fingers or tongues stick to the small ice box portions of old refrigerators long ago I tugged, lost a little skin, but pulled free, and after putting food and water inside, went back inside.

Similes try to make dangerously intense cold bearable by adding humor. I like these: It’s as cold as a murderer’s heart. As cold as a polar bear’s toenails. Colder than a banker’s heart on foreclosure day at the widows’ and orphans’ home. Colder than a metal toilet seat in an Alaskan outhouse . .

Please share your favorite—or your memory of this barely bearable winter, and have fun! This severe winter is as cold as . . .?

P.S. It’s true that throwing boiling water into temperatures of -33 F and lower produces instant snow with rocket sounds. We’ve done it often. Enjoy this link https://www.wired.com/story/the-very-vortex-y-science-of-making-snow-from-boiling-water/

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

The Stories Nature Writes - 2

2019-01-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff - The Grand Canyon of the Colorado

Last Dec. 23rd, my older son and his two youngest kids arranged their school vacation to show me the Grand Canyon. I’ve visited interesting places in other lands, but I had missed this American treasure, and my family wanted me to see it. They were right. It was awe-inspiring, and I agree with a friend who says everyone should see the Grand Canyon.

Native Americans have always known it was there. They called it “mountains lying down.” In September, 1540, thirteen Spanish soldiers from Coronado’s army were the first Europeans to see it while searching for seven rumored Cities of Gold. Six million visitors a year from all over the world suggest that the canyon is better than gold.

Considered one of the greatest natural wonders on earth, it is visible from outer space. Geologists say that ancient seas accumulated layers of sand as they eroded surrounding material. They believe the canyon formed as the Colorado River carved a path through the Colorado Plateau as it flowed down and out from the Rocky Mountains after their uplift. The canyon is 277 miles long at its greatest point, 18 miles wide, and over a mile deep.

Seeing such beauty and immense proportions impressed us. The sum total was greater than its individual parts of colorful rocks and cliffs with steep slopes and a rushing river at the bottom. We kept repeating terms like massive, spectacular, breathtaking, and divine design with awe in our voices. We spent less than one full day there, but we’ll never forget it.

Along with my photos of multi-colored canyon walls and cliffs, I remember the expressions on my grandchildren’s faces as they first saw each thing. Our new shared experience tied us more closely together and we still talk about it in phone calls since then.

Where have you traveled and what have you seen that has impacted you and/or your family greatly?

What favorite place do you visit that always makes you want to come back?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

The Stories Nature Writes - 1

2019-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff - Treasured Rocks

For Christmas 2018, my older son and his two youngest added an item to my bucket list AND helped me accomplish it. I’ve traveled to several continents, not all, but had not seen America’s Grand Canyon. My family wasn’t having it. Instead of coming to NE Mississippi where I now winter as they did last Christmas, they bought air tickets from Minneapolis to Phoenix and insisted I do the same from Memphis. We happily rendezvoused there and spent 36 hours in Scottsdale in a friend’s home before heading north to gain altitude. During our quiet day in Scottsdale, I asked if we could hike somewhere before the sun went down.

There were hiking trails nearby, some leading to mining activity. In one hour, we didn't cover much distance, but the many varied rocks we examined made this a special memory.

Nature’s rocks tell a story all their own. I’ve loved rocks since I was a four-year-old following my rock hound grandfather as he let me tag along while he sorted, washed, and sliced agates, thunder eggs, petrified wood, or other samples, and taught me to read the stories of rocks. In university, I took two college-level geology courses that were simply a continuation of the foundations my grandfather laid.

On the hiking trail, I was ecstatic to read many stories in the stacks of rocks we passed and sometimes stumbled over. They came in all colors, mostly fire-born igneous, and some with signs and colors that might indicate trace elements of copper, silver, or gold.

I got excited. My grandkids got excited. I hardly ever take trips anywhere without bringing a few rocks home to display fondly like photos of friends and family. I can usually tell guests where I got the samples and how they were formed.

During that one hour walk, we saw various samples (photo above). I also saw my love for rocks and their stories get transferred to my 13-year-old six-foot tall grandson. We didn’t carry collection bags but he had pockets in his Bermuda shorts. The further we walked, the fuller his pockets got and the more his shorts drooped. He nearly lost them twice, but that didn’t stop him from adding still more samples and holding up his sagging shorts by a firm hand on his waistband.

One single large colorful rock is my favorite. My grandson says he found it (I thought I did) but he allowed me to bring to Mississippi to remember our time.

That rock is a survivor. It has endured much but its experiences produced beauty. Its white quartz bands are a hardness of 7 out of 10 on the mineral hardness scale, showing it may include small deposits of silver, gold, or other precious metals. It has suffered great pressure and fire, even intrusion, but been made stronger by each of them.

If TSA searched my suitcase as I flew back across country, they may have scratched their heads to see this in my luggage, but they let me bring it bring home.

We saw the Grand Canyon, too, and read its story, as well as other marvels. Those may be future stories. But it is this character-filled well-formed rock that became my favorite and sits on my bookcase now.

What items do you carry home from trips?

What are your favorite stories that nature writes?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Goals for a New Year

2019-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

As quoted in Forever, Erma, a collection of American humorist, Erma Bombeck’s best-known writings, she closed her March 10, 1987, column with these words that to me are a perfect guideline for anyone’s coming year:

“I always had a dream that when I am asked to give accounting of my life to a higher court, it will go like this: “So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven’t spread around?

And I will answer, “I’ve nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me. I’m as naked as the day I was born.”

I don’t think life's goals can be expressed any better than that. May we live and enjoy 2019 to the best of our ability by living it to the fullest and then emptying our pockets to give everything we have.

New and Old Christmas Carols

2018-12-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

When we think of traditional Christmas carols such as "Away in a Manger" or "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," we assume they have been with us through the ages. As with many assumptions about history, we're wrong.

There is no way to prove what the first Christmas song was, but Christmas music has been produced since the fourth century although until St. Francis of Assisi in the 12th century, it wasn't typically used in religious services. England’s Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, banned singing Christmas carols during his period as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth from 1653-1658.

The French version of “The Friendly Beasts” about animals surrounding Christ at the nativity traces back to the 12th century, making it one candidate for the oldest Christmas carol that we sing today.

Variations of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” go back to 1650. In 1739, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was published, and many other familiar carols followed soon after.

In fact, most of what the English-speaking world regards as traditional Christmas music is less than 200 years old. A few Christian standards are much younger. “The Little Drummer Boy” was written in 1941, Frosty the Snowman in 1950, and "Do You Hear What I Hear?" in 1962. Rolf Harris’s Six White Boomers about kangaroos helping Santa bring gifts to Australia was released in 1980. To my shock our family owned and sang from the song book pictured at the left in the photo above.

The truth is, beautiful and memorable or fun and catchy Christmas songs are still being written. If they are good enough, they’ll be cherished and added to the repertoire. There’s no reason someone can’t put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to write the next popular Christmas song. Do it now, and we all may be singing it by next December 25^th.

What is your all-time favorite Christmas Carol or song ever? Why? Have a Merry Christmas!

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

.Principles for Critiquing? Or Bone-crushing Reviews?

2018-12-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

On June 14, 1922, Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. President to have his voice transmitted by radio. This did not impress journalist H. L. Mencken, who said of Harding, "He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."

Mencken proved he could string words together, but what did he accomplish? We don’t find anything in them that is constructive or redemptive? Are they simply for pomp and show, like some kind of destructive political posturing?

Early Roman poet, Juvenal, is credited with developing Satire, but his was so darkly pessimistic and scathing, it is said that his own father-in-law killed himself after being criticized by Juvenal’s pen.

We don’t know the author of this rhyme, although Ruth Bell Graham is credited as often quoting it: “Be careful of the words you say, So keep them soft and sweet. You'll never know from day to day; Which ones you'll have to eat.”

An unwritten code should exist between all humans, not just writers, that our communication should support and build each other up, not tear down.

The refrain in U.S. Colonial History was, “No taxation without representation”. People with the freedom to think, write, and speak should be responsible to do so wisely. Whether we embrace the Golden Rule or not, its words apply in writing and in life, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

When I served as a school principal, I taught my teachers to write report cards to present the most serious problem in a positive and encouraging way so there was some chance for success. It certainly achieved better results than magnifying the problem.

Whether you’re in a critique group, a neighborhood committee, or other social platform, please share your best example of how wise and kind words made surviving a difficult situation possible.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Thanksgiving or Turkey Day?

2018-11-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

I was sad years back to find that numerous students even in Christian high schools and colleges do not know the origins behind American Thanksgiving and join many others in simply calling it Turkey Day. The busiest air traffic day of the year, the fourth Thursday in November is a heartwarming time to join family around a table featuring turkey, but it is also so much more.

After surviving their first year in the Mayflower Colony, during the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims invited ninety Wampanoag Indians from a nearby village to express thanks and share their harvest with them. Despite extreme hardships and losses, our forefathers thanked God for freedom and a fresh start in a new land.

These days Googling Thanksgiving brings up a wide-range of articles including virtual turkeys with no calories and vegetarian recipes made up of gelatin or other substitutes.

Who doesn’t enjoy turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry and other salads, various pies and great-grandma’s specialty prune-spice or cheesecakes? Before we stuff ourselves and later relax with football or naps, begin the meal by singing the Doxology to thank God “from whom all blessings flow.” Look at each face around the table, and enjoy the conversations and reminisce along with the food, but pass on the best parts of this tradition. Resist the trend to take the Thanks out of Thanksgiving as well as the giving for that matter to preserve the true heritage.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

More Interesting Word Origins

2018-11-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Delores E. Topliff

I love tracking the origins of words because so there are often interesting stories behind them. Apparently knucklehead refers to someone with a brain the size of a knuckle. Samuel Johnson, the compiler of England's first dictionary, claims the word nincompoop comes from the Latin phrase non compos mentis (“not of right mind”), initially a legal term.

“I'll be a monkey's uncle,” does not connect to Darwinism as I imagined but expresses surprise, amazement or disbelief. That phrase first appeared in an Ohio newspaper February 8th, 1925, with the statement, “If that’s a joke, I’m a monkey’s uncle.”

In 1807, William Cobbett wrote about using red herrings to lay a false trail while training hunting dogs—apparently over-ripe fish confused the sensitive noses of skilled hunting canines.

The term “caught red handed” originated in Scotland in the 15th century. Based on how it appears in early references, it describes people caught with blood on their hands from murder or poaching.

Malaria comes from two medieval Italian words “mal” meaning “bad” and “aria” meaning “air” – so it literally means “bad air”. The term was used to describe the unpleasant air coming from the marshlands surrounding Rome, which was believed to cause the disease. We now know that it’s the mosquitoes breeding in those conditions that cause the disease, not the air itself.

The world’s favorite lunch item is named for England’s 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu. The story goes that 250 years ago, the 18th-century aristocrat requested that his valet bring him beef served between two slices of bread. He enjoyed eating this while playing card games as his hands wouldn’t get greasy and spoil the cards. Observing him, Montagu’s friends began asking for “the same as Sandwich”, and so the sandwich was born. Though people did eat bread with foods such as cheese and meat before this, those meals were known as “bread and cheese” or “bread and meat”. The sandwich is our ultimate convenience food.

Such findings make me want to discover more word origin stories. Please send your favorites.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Dated Words—Here today, gone tomorrow

2018-10-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

This blog highlights popular expressions made obsolete as technology marches forward. For example, I used to joke that I had a photographic memory that wasn’t developed (which worked fine in the camera film era but not in digital days). Some joke that it’s hard for any Clark Kent to change into Superman in this cell phone age when he can’t find a phone booth.

When a grandmother told her grandson she used to drive a Jalopy, he looked at her and asked, "What is a Jalopy?"

She said, “Heavens to Mergatroyd, you don’t know what a Jalopy is?”

He drew a blank again. Mergatroyd isn’t in Spellcheck. Google says the phrase is popularized by the cartoon character Snagglepuss on the Yogi Bear Show in the ‘60s but was used on the radio in 1944 by Bert Lahr, who played the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz. Mergatroyd was the family name of aristocrats living in Yorkshire, England in 1371, but no one knows how their name jumped to an American cartoon. Before Mergatroyd, it was “Heavens to Betsy!” or “Gee whillikers!” but I won’t go there.

Sometimes few years go by before such changes occur, but those unaware of earlier technologies look at us like we’re from a different planet. Other words or phrases becoming obsolete include, “Don’t touch that dial”, “You sound like a broken record”, or “You should be hung out to dry.” What?

It’s sad when familiar words enter archival museums to be replaced by space-age-and-beyond terms. To communicate with current and coming generations, we must bridge vocabulary gaps, or risk obsoletism like Gregg’s Shorthand (which I still enjoy), Cursive Writing, or Stick Shift cars which are endangered species. Thankfully our kids and grandkids can help us.

Language is alive and grows with the times. Perhaps we can part with outdated technology terms if we’re careful to embrace the new ones taking their place but still pay respectful homage to the past.

What little-known word or term do you most wish to hang onto?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

October 16 is National Dictionary Day

2018-10-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

October 16 is National Dictionary Day, an unofficial holiday celebrating the birthday of Noah Webster who published An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, the earliest version of the now famous, widely-used Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

A dictionary is a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online source containing the words of a language alphabetically and providing information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflections, and derived forms.

The best way to celebrate Dictionary Day is by expanding our vocabularies. Make sure to keep a modern dictionary in your home and that a site like Dictionary.com is tabbed as a favorite on your computer. You might enjoy the Reader’s Digest monthly feature, “How to Increase Your Word Power, or sign yourself up to a site like Grandiloquent Word Of The Day to expand your vocabulary daily.

In his book, Dead Poets Society, author N.H. Kleinbaum describes the purpose of dictionaries: “So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.”

People who love words usually enjoy puns and team up their dictionary with a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, so I’ll close with this quote that recently appeared on Facebook: “I swallowed a dictionary. It gave me thesaurus throat I’ve ever had.”

Groan, but only people skilled in dictionaries and vocabularies have that much fun with words.

What age were you when you began using a dictionary? Or, what is the most important thing you have learned from a dictionary?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Danger Zone or Unwise Questions

2018-09-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Who has not accidentally asked unwise awkward questions you immediately wished you could retract? We vocalize questions in light, rising tones, but if offensive, the answers may fly back in heavy, angry tones.

Here are danger zone examples. Unless you’re sure someone is pregnant, a question to avoid if you see a friend gaining weight is, “When is your baby due?”

A risky parallel is, “What did you pay for that item of clothing?” (Your voice tone indicates how poor a choice you think it is).

Hair care and appearance present other minefields. A young woman styling my hair once commented, “You’ve got a really tight perm.” (My hair is naturally curly). Another woman cutting my curly hair asked, “Have you considered having your hair straightened?”

When one student showed up sporting a new and unusual hair style, a beloved teacher asked with a smile, “Who cut your hair? People can be sued for that.” (Because of his always-present smile, his comments were well-received.)

My sister six years younger than I enhances her hair color, but I do not. At her son’s wedding, a friend greeted her and welcomed me by saying, “How nice that your mother could be here with you.” My sister enjoyed that too much.

Now that my hair is gray, someone asked, “What color did your hair used to be?”

A student from long ago who is now in renewed contact asked, “How are you enjoying retirement? (I don’t feel that old, hope I don’t look my age, usually don’t act it, and still enjoy productive fulltime work).

Safe warning reminders might be, “Curiosity killed the cat”, or “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”.

I wish I could say I have never asked any of the above questions, but I’d be lying.

What war-zone question have you asked that landed you in trouble, and how did you (hopefully) recover the situation?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

"Lest We Forget"

2018-09-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

“Lest we forget” is a phrase often used in Remembrance Day services in English-speaking countries, but it also applies to other dates. September 11, 2001 is one such day the world remembers. Its events were four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States. It is believed that Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Mohammed Atef plotted them after a 1999 meeting and chose the date to match 911, the phone number used for U.S. emergencies.

Regarding that and other stand-out events, most of us know exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard major news. On 9/11, I taught college evenings but worked days in a Minneapolis hospital. That morning, I stepped into the basement employee elevator and heard co-workers discussing a plane that had crashed into the World Trade Center. After reaching my floor, I told my work supervisor, but he had his radio on and told me a second plane had struck the Twin Towers and brought that structure down with the greatest loss of American lives since Pearl Harbor. They were not accidental attacks. Strangers encouraged one another. Churches filled.

For Americans and the world, November 22, 1963, was another unforgettable day day when at 12:30 p.m. Texas time, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I had begun undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, Canada and was amazed at how many students knew I was American and went out of their way to express their condolences. I was more surprised at how many Canadian homes and offices managed to display U.S. flags in sympathy. On one of the saddest days in American life, my personal take-away remains gift-wrapped by so many warm expressions of support that I will never forget.

Major events stick in our minds and hearts to pinpoint such moments forever and make us lay hold again of the the things that strengthen us most.

What days in history live in your mind? Where were you and what were you doing? Recalling them makes time fall away as if we are there again with the events and players crystal clear. Hopefully, such specifics make the memories live to not be repeated—“Lest we forget”.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Onomatopoeia – sound effect words make storytelling live

2018-08-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Profound thanks to the Greeks for creating sound effect words. The term comes from two combined Greek words, onoma meaning “name” and poiein meaning “to make” or create words that sound like the action described. This post gleaned information from http://examples.yourdictionary.com/5-examples-of-onomatopoeia.html

Onomatopoeic words can be verbs or nouns. "Slap" is the sound heard when skin hits skin but also describes the action of hitting someone with an open hand. “Rustle” is the sound of dry things, like papers, brushing, but also describes the sound when they are moved around and brush each other.

Here are examples for you to see, hear, and sound out. These words sound like water or liquid: splash, spray, sprinkle, squirt, drip, and drizzle.

These describe vocal sounds made in the back of the throat or by air passing over or through the lips, tongue, and teeth: Giggle, growl, grunt, gurgle, mumble, murmur, and chatter.

More describe the sounds of two or more objects colliding: bump, bang, cling, clank, clunk, clang, chop, click, clip, thud, thump, and clap.

Others describe air blowing through things or rushing through the air: flutter, swish, swoosh, whoosh, whiff, whizz, or whisper.

Distinctive identifying animal sounds include bark, bray, buzz, chirp, hiss, moo, oink, purr, quack, tweet, and warble. However, they are described differently in various parts of the world. For example, chickens may cluck, bok, tok, or kot.

Chug, puff, ding, dong, and buzz, are action words. We all know Alka Seltzer's successful slogan, “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.” In the U.S. and Canada, Rice Krispies snap, crackle, and pop, but in Spanish-speaking countries they go pim, pum, pam.

The Greeks created this word category gift to express life and fun. Let’s clap our appreciation and invent more sound words to capture the woofs, bangs, toots, cracks, crashes, snaps, and sizzles, that express life.

Now, please share your favorite onomatopoeia word or create your own.

For more blog posts and news updates check my website, delorestopliff.com

Truisms - Pithy statements of obvious truth

2018-08-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Tru·ism - a statement that is obviously true but says nothing new or interesting. Synonyms for the term include platitude, cliché, banality. This post exists because I’ve thought up several lately, (guess how they occured): “You can hold a book in your hand but only read if your eyes are open.” “You can place a packet of vegetable seeds on garden soil but seeds only grow if they’re planted.”

A large number of truisms come from the Bible, Shakespeare, or politicians. Many are so well-known, people think they’re from the Bible when they are not. Common examples are, “You get what you pay for;” “Look before you leap”, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

This website provides 1001 truisms in alphabetical order. Find your favorites there. http://www.freewebs.com/1001truisms/truisms.htm

I’m not enclosing them in quote marks, but some easily recognized are: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies but one. A fool and his money are soon parted. A house divided against itself cannot stand. A job worth doing is worth doing well. Cross that bridge when you come to it. Dead men tell no tales. Birds of a feather flock together. Blood’s thicker than water. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All’s fair in love and war. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An army marches on its stomach. Beauty and brains don’t mix. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is only skin deep. Beggars can’t be choosers. Better late than never. Better safe than sorry. Charity begins at home. Cheaters never prosper. Children should be seen and not heard. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Don’t make a federal case out of it. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

The number is almost endless, and they do sum up obvious truth. Listen for them today. Tell us your all-time favorite, or, invent and share your own.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Books accomplish many important things . . .

2018-07-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Books accomplish many important things . . . They refresh and fill our minds, encourage our hearts, and rest our feet—sometimes literally.

At least that’s what I’m saying after taking my College English Comp. and Editing students on a library tour where I teach at the Univ. of Northwestern—St. Paul, MN. This picture of a perfect reading nook shows you why.

The good news is I had no idea the library was so up to date and with so much wide-ranging material available online from vast network options, greatly expanding our local holdings. With fast service, too, to receive even literal books to hold in our hands from surrounding libraries. Plus I’m told such improvements are generally true everywhere.

One of my students walked in unsure how to narrow a broad writing topic into a manageable one, and the library director’s informative slide show of in-house and online holdings took care of that in a heartbeat. It listed subjects and many detailed sub-categories that generated more than enough ideas for all of us. Later, touring literal attractive book stacks, titles practically shouted their names. I spotted a volume of an explorer’s century-old botanical survey of South America, including a jungle region where I once spent three and a half happy months helping teachers, schools, and school children. That book came home with me, and as a faculty member, I can keep it for four months. If I need to, I can even renew it longer.

Books, all kinds of them. On shelves, transmitted through the air, to fill our minds, encourage our hearts, and even rest our feet before taking more and better journeys through the wonderfully-expanded world they bring us.

It doesn’t get much better than that. Visit your local library in person or online, and happy reading!

Please tell us what book you’re reading now, or name a lifetime favorite. What has either meant to you?

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Improve your writing by joke-writing and -telling

2018-07-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

For those eager to write prizewinning stories, consider mastering the art of joke-writing. Jokes are miniature stories with a definite beginning, middle, and end. Get the sequence wrong, or leave out something essential, and it falls flat, giving you instant feedback.

Master comedian and joke-writer, Sid Caesar, once said, “A joke is a story with a curlicue.” A tale with an added twist.

Successful stand-up comedian, Jerry Corley offers an online joke-writing clinic and says, “We must first understand why people laugh. Fact: the number one element that triggers human laughter is SURPRISE. It’s like magic, only with words. A magician surprises the audience when he does his trick. If there is no surprise, there is no trick…. Without surprise, you’re gonna have a…boring act.”

Steven Wright was a successful early stand-up comedian in the 1980s. He often looked through newspapers for interesting words. “There was no joke, it was just a word, like…electrolysis—I wrote a whole joke on that. For the first six months, I would sit down and try to write jokes, but after that, I didn’t sit down anymore. My subconscious was scanning all the time the things that could be a joke. My mind was looking for stuff, and some of it would leap out as a joke. It was just like a factory in my head…. It never shut down, it never stopped. I don’t go, ‘I’m gonna write a joke.’ I just go through the world and see stuff. It’s like I exercised the part of my mind of noticing things to the point where I now notice without even trying to.”

That’s how writing is meant to be. Hear an interesting news item and tuck it away for a story possibility, or pass it on to an author friend. Look at life with awareness. Joke-writing offers miniature practice units that can build to longer pieces, or maybe even the long-awaited Great American Novel!

Sure enough, my favorite jokes feature word confusion, like the Polish man who told a lawyer his wife wanted to kill him because a bottle in the bathroom labeled “polish remover”. When asked if she had any grounds, the husband replied, “Ya, two and a half acres.”

“No, no, does she have any reasons?”

“Sure, in our cereal every morning.”

It gets crazier, and may not be funny to you, but I’m on the floor laughing.

Now share your favorite joke and identify the trigger that makes it happen. Better yet, practice writing one and telling it soon.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Who created these North American Flags?

2018-07-03T00:30:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

Until July 4^th approached, I didn’t know there were doubts that Betsy Ross created our first American flag. The Betsy Ross Facts website says, “Of all famous American Revolutionary women in history, the woman who stands out as an icon is Betsy Ross. Although there is no actual historical evidence, she is widely regarded as the person who sewed the very first American Flag. A patriotic symbol, such as a flag, was just what the American colonists needed as a symbol to help unite them during the War for Independence.”

What? Further research took me to a site stating, “The main reason historians and flag experts do not believe that Betsy Ross designed or sewed the first American flag is a lack of historical evidence and documentation…. No records show that the Continental Congress had a committee to design the national flag in the spring of 1776.”

For now, it seems the true creator of America’s first flag remains a mystery.

The person who designed our 50-star American flag is Robert G. Heft, age 17 in 1958 in Ohio when he created the design for a high school project and received a B−. (Some teachers grade hard.)

In 1927, Alaska held a flag design competition. The chosen winner to represent the future flag of the Territory of Alaska was Benny Benson, a 13-year-old Alaskan Native living in a children’s home in Seward. His eight gold stars on a field of blue showed the Big Dipper constellation lined up with the North Star overhead, representing the northernmost state. Until then, since its purchase from Russia in 1867, Alaska had flown only the U.S. flag.

Since its confederation in 1867, Canada’s flag had resembled Britain’s Union Jack until their 1965 national competition selected the Maple Leaf suggested by University of Toronto student, George F. G. Stanley. However, see
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/16/canadian-flag-designs-photos_n_4109726.html for other great flag designs that got cut.

The coat of arms on Mexico’s flag represents an ancient legend for how the Aztecs chose the site to build their capital city, Tenochtitlan, (Mexico City today). The leader of the Aztecs, also known as the Mexica, had a dream with their god of war instructing them to settle in the place where they found an eagle on a cactus eating a serpent, and they did.

What does it take to create a flag, emblem, or motto, to successfully steer our ship of state by? Do you have a family flag or crest?

If you were to modify your nation’s flag, what change would you make? Why?

Meanwhile, enjoy a wonderful May 5th, July 1st, July 4th, and every day!

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Word Fruit Salad

2018-06-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

Delores E. Topliff

We’ve all done it, gotten our words fractured and said the wrong thing. English clergyman William Archibald Spooner became so famous for his accidental tongue twists with unintentional comic effect, we now call them Spoonerisms. Thanks to fun-with-words.com, the column on the left shows what his hearers heard, often in sermons, and the column on the right shows what the reverend intended to say. After reading these, I’d be a blithering idiot, if I knew how to blither. Now please share the worst word tangle you never hoped to say—and have a great week!

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

fighting a liar	lighting a fire
you hissed my mystery lecture	you missed my history lecture
cattle ships and bruisers	battle ships and cruisers
nosey little cook	cozy little nook
a blushing crow	a crushing blow
tons of soil	sons of toil
our queer old Dean	our dear old Queen
we'll have the hags flung out	we'll have the flags hung out
you've tasted two worms	you've wasted two terms
our shoving leopard	our loving shepherd
a half-warmed fish	a half-formed wish
is the bean dizzy?	is the Dean busy?
know your blows	blow your nose
go and shake a tower	go and take a shower
tease my ears	ease my tears
nicking your pose	picking your nose
you have very mad banners	you have very bad manners
lack of pies	pack of lies
it's roaring with pain	it's pouring with rain
sealing the hick	healing the sick
go help me sod	so help me God
pit nicking	nit picking
bowel feast	foul beast
I'm a damp stealer	I'm a stamp dealer
hypodemic nurdle	hypodermic needle
wave the sails	save the whales
chipping the flannel on TV	flipping the channel on TV
mad bunny	bad money
I'm shout of the hour	I'm out of the shower
lead of spite	speed of light
this is the pun fart	this is the fun part
I hit my bunny phone	I hit my funny bone
flutter by	butterfly
bedding wells	wedding bells
I must mend the sail	I must send the mail
cop porn	popcorn
it crawls through the fax	it falls through the cracks
my zips are lipped	my lips are zipped
bat flattery	flat battery
would you like a nasal hut?	would you like a hazel nut?
puke on	coupon
belly jeans	jelly beans
eye ball	bye all
fight in your race	right in your face
ready as a stock	steady as a rock
no tails	toe nails
hiss and lear	listen here
soul of ballad	bowl of salad

The MBT Ponderers

Writing is painting with words

Will the real Wonder Woman please stand up

Humor wins battles

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Roget’s Thesaurus - The power of the right word

How long does it take to influence a life?

March 8th is National Proofreading Day

Delores E. Topliff

During the Reagan administration, all of the posters and brochures had been printed and distributed nationwide honoring National Secretary Day before it was discovered Secretary was misspelled.

Once when touring an advertising agency, thanks to many college English classes, I was the one in the group who noticed that the rough draft of a very expensive glossy Oscar Meyer ad, misspelled wieners. Horrors! Thankfully, we corrected it in time.

Autocorrect introduces a greater need than ever for diligent proofreading. Dedicated vigilance is required to avoid some of the worst errors possible. I won’t list some blush-worthy bloopers here, but we’ve all had them.

Therefore, on each March 8th, and on every day between, let’s thank editors everywhere, as well as our friends and family, unofficial editors, who also do so much to help us write beautifully and correctly to produce our very best.

Learn more about this yearly event at http://nationalproofreadingday.com/

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Jingles - Words and/or tunes that stick in the brain

Where were you the severe winter of 2019?

The Stories Nature Writes - 2

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The Stories Nature Writes - 1

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Goals for a New Year

New and Old Christmas Carols

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.Principles for Critiquing? Or Bone-crushing Reviews?

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Thanksgiving or Turkey Day?

More Interesting Word Origins

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Dated Words—Here today, gone tomorrow

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October 16 is National Dictionary Day

A dictionary is a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online source containing the words of a language alphabetically and providing information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflections, and derived forms.

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Danger Zone or Unwise Questions

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

"Lest We Forget"

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Onomatopoeia – sound effect words make storytelling live

Truisms - Pithy statements of obvious truth

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Books accomplish many important things . . .

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Improve your writing by joke-writing and -telling

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Who created these North American Flags?

Delores E. Topliff

The person who designed our 50-star American flag is Robert G. Heft, age 17 in 1958 in Ohio when he created the design for a high school project and received a B−. (Some teachers grade hard.)

What does it take to create a flag, emblem, or motto, to successfully steer our ship of state by? Do you have a family flag or crest?

If you were to modify your nation’s flag, what change would you make? Why?

Meanwhile, enjoy a wonderful May 5th, July 1st, July 4th, and every day!

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Word Fruit Salad

Delores E. Topliff

For more blog posts and news updates, check my website, delorestopliff.com

Therefore, on each March 8^th, and on every day between, let’s thank editors everywhere, as well as our friends and family, unofficial editors, who also do so much to help us write beautifully and correctly to produce our very best.