Maine in Summer, the Way Life Should Be

The weather is great, the house is full, the pond is warm, the garden is growing, and it's a little bit busy with visiting daughter, her husband and their two children.

Our house is now full to the brim

Time for writing is slim

As a grandparent must

I adapt and adjust

To meet a three year old’s whim.

Busy, but fun, the way life should be.

'Grampa says I can drive', says she

With an imp's little smile at me

‘Can I borrow the car?

I won’t go very far.’

After all she is only three.

Overboard?

Continuing last post’s theme, one of these is considered a real word by he website  Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org>

He survived all the Greek Gods devised

Although he did get calypsized

He was seriously aeleoused

While his young son telemachussed

And his faithful wife wove and penelopized.

I’ve tried at least three times or four

But my perseverance is poor

I’ll start once again

Will I e’er reach the end

Or will I penelopize some more?

penelopize

PRONUNCIATION:

(puh-NEL-uh-pyz) 

MEANING:

verb intr.: To delay or gain time to put off an undesired event.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus in Greek mythology. She waited 20 years for her husband’s return from the Trojan War (ten years of war, and ten years on his way home). She kept her many suitors at bay by telling them she would marry them when she had finished weaving her web, a shroud for her father-in-law. She wove the web during the day only to unravel it during the night. Earliest documented use: 1780. Her name has become a synonym for a faithful wife: penelope.

A Name to Remember

Last week the website  Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org> ran a series of words derived from people's names.  Monday's word was 

grimthorpe

PRONUNCIATION:

(GRIM-thorp) 

MEANING:

verb tr.: To restore or remodel something without paying attention to its original character, history, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe (1816-1905), an architect whose restoration of St. Albans Cathedral in England was criticized for radical changes made to the building. Earliest documented use: 1890.

Lord Grimthorpe, a British architect

Treated history with little respect

His name’s still in use

For visual abuse

And buildings whose appearance he wrecked.

His sense of esthetics was warped

The lessons of history unadsorped

And to this day

You may hear people say

That lovely old building got grimthorped.

If your named were verbed what would it mean?

Independence Day

July 4th is our big celebration

With hot dogs and tacos and bacon

With coleslaw and beer

And fireworks to cheer

With Democracy as our foundation.

Hot Dogs:  Germany - 17th Century

Tacos:  Mexico - Pre-Columbian

Bacon:  Cured pork belly was eaten in ancient China and the Roman Empire

Cole Slaw: The Netherlands - 18the Century

Beer:  Sumeria (now Iraq) - circa 2,000 B.C.

Fireworks:  China - 7th Century

Democracy:  Greece - 500 B.C.

E pluribus unum.  It was there long before ‘in God We Trust’

Out of many we can make One

It’s not always easy or fun

We may disagree

But Democracy

Needs compromise to get anything done.