Category Archives: Observation

Folktales

Recently, I started wondering whence those picturesque expressions we’ve all heard originated.

Well, of course, something like madder than a wet hen has to have country roots. We city dwellers wouldn’t know a wet hen from a dry one. We also wouldn’t have any idea how angry being wet would make her.

These little bits of the vernacular can make your speech more colorful and colorful language makes conversation more entertaining.

I have favorite colloquialisms, of course, but I’ll be gobsmacked if I understand where they came from.

Some are just cute as a button. Others are cumbersome. As? What? I don’t know a slangy comparison for that one.

Unwieldy as a tractor on a mountain top? Is a tractor that uncomfortable with heights?

Familiarity with animal husbandry or just animal psychology does enter into some of these choices. You’re as hungry as a bear. Then there’s “as cunning as a fox.” How about ‘as persnickety as a porcupine’?

The argument or assumption that this flavorful language has a Southern connection may stem from too many episodes of Designing Women. Idioms come from all over.

Sometimes, the really clever raconteur adds another component, doubling up on the metaphoric. The analogy can become more specific if s/he says, “as cunning as a fox with a PhD.”

Why can’t word-play be more urban than rural? “She’s as twisty as Columbus Circle” may not be sheer poetry, but it’s my start. “He’s tracking farther than the A train?”

“He wears so many hats that he’s Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday.”

I have to admit I am on the fence about most of the little similes I just built.

I wish I could say my linguistic alterations made me feel as cozy as two peas in a pod

Emotional expression

What are your favorite emojis?

Emojis are intrinsically confusing, at least once you are past a certain age.

I tend to use three “favorites” without a clear understanding of what it is they represent. 😕 😞 😌 Sigh 😕 😔 😪 😞 😑 😢 😕 [see what I mean. All this came up when I typed that one 4-letter word.

My preferred sign-off emojis are: 😇 🙃🧐

This’n and that’n

Things I learned from Nat Geo and CNN Science newsletters this week

Aging pandas

Talking plants

Yolk-based paints

Stressed lizards

Mexico is home to a 33-year-old panda named Xin-Xin, who was born by artificial insemination.

It appears that plants respond to life events by making sounds. There is no evidence that they have actually developed a language.

The egg yolk found in your da Vinci is not accidental. Painters seemed to have used it to “stretch” the life of expensive paints.

Living near a noisy military base has made these lizards nervous.

Passing on knowledge gives, I think information an added value!

Bot chat

While chat bots are unreliable, or potentially divisive, partners in conversation, A.I. technology can be very helpful for our physical well-being.

Apparently, there’s a “nanobot” that will clean plaque from your arteries. The quotes are in place because I am excited and ignorant of the “device” or assistance to which we refer.

My lack of knowledge about medical applications notwithstanding, clearly A.I. can find ways to improve our health outcomes.