Judy Hagey Editor
Write Justified
If you live in one of the early caucus or primary states, I’d wager you’re growing irritated with the number and tenor of the political ads. If you’re a political junkie, maybe you’re just annoyed by them. If you’ve begun muting them, they’ve clearly become an aggravation.
The Thanksgiving Day announcement that we are to become grandparents has me facing this new year with a mix of eagerness and anxiety I’ve not experienced since my own first pregnancy.
I took the challenge this year—the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I really had no idea how many books I realistically could or would read in a year. Fearful of failing, I set the bar low. I estimated I could do a bit better than a book a month and set a goal of reading 15 books for 2015. Somewhat to my surprise, I met that goal by the beginning of summer. I cautiously added another 10 to my challenge and as we near the end of the year Goodreads says I’ve exceeded my challenge by 24% having read more than 30 books. While that number includes one book listed twice, there are other books I’ve read that I’ve not bothered to post on Goodreads. So, all-in-all, I’ve more than achieved my goal.
This error threw me for a bit
. After all, I’ve never seen it on one of those “Top Ten Lists of Words Writers Confuse.” But something about this sentence felt off to me the first time I read it.
The headline was confusing to say the least.
While it’s still summer, let’s take some time to explore some of the fun and funnier words in our English language. You know those words that just tickle your tongue and make you wonder, where in the world did that originate? OK, maybe I’m the only one who asks that, but here goes with a starter list of words that bring a smile to my lips.
I wasn’t familiar with the expression jumping the shark when it showed up on my Word-a Day calendar recently. That despite watching the TV show that spawned it, Happy Days.
With midterm elections just around the corner, you can hardly get through a day without hearing charges of political corruption or wrong doing of some sort—cronyism, nepotism, or junketeering. Would it surprise you to learn that the original meaning of two of those three was positive and not the negative connotation associated with it today?
One of the fascinating aspects, and for wordsmiths advantages, of the English language are the multiple synonyms for some words. While they may not all have the same degree of meaning or intensity, they certainly give a writer some options.
