Chamblee54

There is a post today about 10 beautiful english words. HT to the WordPress home page.
The words are:
1. adroit: dexterous, agile
2. adumbrate: to very gently suggest
3. aestivate: to summer, to spend the summer
4. ailurophile: a cat-lover
5. beatific: befitting an angel or saint
6. beleaguer: to exhaust with attacks
7. blandiloquent: beautiful & flattering
8. caliginous: dark & misty
9. champagne: an effervescent wine
10. chatoyant: like a cat’s eye
Adroit is also the first word on the list. When PG was young enough to think it was funny, he read MAD magazine. There was a poem once:
Tigers Tigers fighting bright/In the ballparks of the night /Your pitchings fair, your fields adroit/So why no pennant for Detroit.
A commenter at the original post begs to differ:
I take issue with the top word on your list. Adroit comes from the French word for “right”, as in “right handed”. It is the direct antonym of gauche, both in English and in its native French where it means “left”, as in “left handed”. As a non-right-hander I find both of these words to be handist and offensive.
The last time I checked, left handed was not a protected category, discrimination wise.( Oxymoron alert). The current resident of the White House is a lefty. On the minus side, fabled southpaw Sandy Koufax invested money with Bernie Madoff.
And so it goes. Two of the ten are related to cats. PG has the same attitude towards felines that cats display towards humans. PG is not dependent on Kitties for his meals.
PG would like to adumbrate that you know how to pronounce these words before using them in conversation. Mispronounced big words are not flattering to the user. Like Sheriff Taylor said about his deputy once, “Barney tries to put his best foot forward, and then trips over it”.
Spell Check Suggestions for this feature:
aestivate- activated, activate, captivate, festival, cultivate
ailurophile- audiophile, Anglophile, bibliophile, necrophilia,
blandiloquent- grandiloquent, magniloquent, blandishment
caliginous- vertiginous, cartilaginous, mucilaginous
chatoyant- clairvoyant, eschatology, flamboyant, Chattanooga
handist- handiest
Koufax- Bouffant

Lostmissing is a public art project. It is produced by Mattilda, a San Francisco based author. Here is letter 4.
Our last conversation, or not the last the second-to-last, right? The one when you got so enraged I thought you might hit me but even when I thought that I wanted to think I knew you wouldn’t but the truth is that you got so enraged I thought you might hit me. I started planning out what I would do, there wouldn’t be anything to do I mean I wouldn’t be able to fight you off. Later, when I told you that even though I knew you wouldn’t hit me I still felt that way, I mean I was scared and I was planning out what to do, no I didn’t say that part I just said even though I knew you wouldn’t hit me I still felt that way and you said I would never hit you, I’ve never hit anyone, you know that. And I said I know. Except maybe I don’t know. Last night I had this scary dream, really scary you were about to attack me. Then when I woke up I wondered whether a nightmare was better sleep than no sleep, but then I fell into something much calmer, it was such a relief when you asked me about these posters I said I thought I might never speak to you again and you were listening. When I started thinking about this project, it was a series of letters to you, letters that would be on the outside of the envelope so that even if you were going to throw them out then you might read something. Now I don’t know if I want you to be a part of this project at all, I mean yes I still feel silenced and I want to make you hear me but maybe in this public expression of grief and longing and love you don’t matter and that means more.

There is a man on the WordPress home page almost every day. He has a walrus mustache and talks about climate change.
PG is neutral about climate change. He hears the wind blowing from the Gory alarmists, and the hears the whirlwind from the subsidized poopooers. He sees things to admire on both sides.
There is a lot of talk about prove. PG suspects that when people say prove, they mean indicate. There is a difference between prove and indicate. Yes, this and that are happening, but does anything really prove anything? Maybe there is another reason for it.
One manifestation of excess CO2 is changing with the ph balance of the oceans. It seems like the waters are absorbing the CO2, and the alkalinity of the water is changing. What effect this has on marine life is, at this point, unknown. Global warming may turn out to be the least of our problems.
It is clear that there are those who have a financial interest in not enacting climate control regulations. These people find it a good investment to hire their own scientists, to put out statements “disproving” global warming. Many journalists and radio whiners are probably on the take as well.
The ecosystem of earth supports a wide variety of life. This mix of elements has evolved over billions of years. In the last two hundred years, we have tampered with this balance. The effects of this tampering are unknown, and may indeed be beneficial. It is a chance we are taking, and we do not know the results.

What follows was originally posted at my original blog. I wrote in first person shamelessly.
The subject is timeless. In the fifteen months since I posted this, a Kansas/Kenya man with dark skin has been elected President. The playing field is having a fruit basket turnover. No one is really certain what is what anymore, except things are different.
The thing I would like to further comment on is the reality of black people using the N word. It is a word that degrades the person who uses it. For a person of color, it degrades them as the object, as well as the speaker.
I cannot help but wonder why a person would want to do that to themself,  their family, and their community.  Why should I have more respect for a person than he has for himself?
It is like smoking cigarettes. Yes, it is legal, and you have the right to pull toxic chemicals into your body. But why on earth would you want to?
Here is the original post.
The good thing about not having a big audience is the freedom to discuss touchy subjects. I can say more or less anything I want, and since very few are reading, there is no problem.
With that in mind, I approach the subject for today’s lesson…the “N word”. It doesn’t get much touchier.
Now, we all know what that word is. It has six letters, rhymes with trigger, and makes the brains of some people turn into jello. It is a derogatory phrase for people of African origin, and is familiar to a white southern person like myself.
I try to avoid using this term. There are four main reasons for this. If I ever get paid for doing this I will come up with a top ten list.
1- The N word hurts people’s feelings. I have known many fine Black people, and my life is much richer as a result. I do not want to say anything that will hurt these people. As for the not so fine Black People that I have known, they are G-d’s children just like me. My fellow human beings do not deserve to be insulted just for who they are.
2- Being heard saying the N word can cause all sorts of problems. This can include physical retribution, loss of employment, lawsuits, and having to listen to enough loud angry words to make you wish you had never learned how to talk.
3- It is not a fair fight. There is no equivalent phrase for a Black Person to say to a white person. I do not wish to give that power to another group of people… to turn me into a mass of incoherent rage, just for hearing a six letter word.
The closest thing to this is “Cracker”, which I only recently found out was an insult. This is odd, because when I was a boy, we had a minor league baseball team called the Atlanta Crackers. There was even a team in the Negro League called the Black Crackers.
4- The use of the N word demeans the user. When you say an insulting word about another human being, you make yourself look bad.
When you hate someone, you hate yourself worse than the person you hate. And frankly, a lot of these people are not worth it.
Now, if the N word demeans a paleface like myself, what does it say about a black person who uses it?

PG was doing pretty good at first. The fireworks on “Born to Run”…well, thats just show biz.
What does Bruce put on his hair? The man is 59 years old, and there is no way  that his hair is that dark on its own.
But when they went into the next song…something about dreams…and a robed choir appeared dancing…well, it was just a bit too much.
Despite Kurt Warner being an obnoxious Jesus Worshiper, there is a lot to like about Arizona. They just barely made the post season, then cranked up to win three games in a row. OK, so one was against the Falcons, and doesn’t really count.
So they had the ball at the three yard line with a few seconds to go in the half. What do they do but throw an interception that gets run back 100 yards for a touchdown.
Now it is the fourth quarter, and no one seems to want to win. Arizona got a stupid penalty, running into the holder on a field goal. Pittsburgh got a first down on the three yard line, and all they could do was kick a field goal. Now, Arizona is getting the ball back, with six minutes to go.
The game is over. Pittsburgh and Arizona swapped touchdowns, and Pittsburgh won. Football season is over.
Does anyone find it odd that the Arizona defense was so good for most of the game, then went to pieces in the final two minutes? It is almost as if someone was paying them to lose, but keep it under the point spread.