Wordplay Wednesday™ September 23, 2015 – HALLOWMAS Saints-Spirits

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Week #1

“Christmas” is preceded by “Hallowmas”?

HALLOWMAS (halʹō mɘs, -masʹ) n. former name for All Saints’ Day. [Think celebrating sainted spirits …if you lived through the night before hell.]

Painting by Guido di Pietro, 15^th century.

How former, you ask? It reaches back to somewhere between 731-741. And of course, All Saints’ Day is November 1, to honor … well … all saints. [Clever.]

Want to get in the mood? Melanie Rigney’s new book, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from the Stories of the Women Saints is especially appropriate; religious or not, Catholic or not, there is excellent life advice to be gleaned from it.

How does Hallowmas make the Weird Halloween Words list? It’s preceded by All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) on October 31, a night on which the veil between us and the afterlife is particularly thin.

 

Of course, we don masks so the menacing souls on “the other side,” won’t recognize us, as we feast in preparation for the next two celebratory days. Seriously – they won’t know it’s you under that Star Wars: the Force Awakens Kylo Ren helmet-head, or traditionally sexy Bat Girl mask. And then what happens ...?   

Wordplay Wednesday™ September 16, 2015 – Manitou Halloween

From ancient Indians, Celts, and Christians – Boo! 

Six Weeks of Weird Halloween Words ~ Introduction

Painting by Richard Hook

Halloween’s witching season is just around the next dark corner, as we peruse the discounted, mondo bags of candy in the stores, trying to ignore their enchanting aroma.

Much of Halloween’s mystique is fueled by folklore – which brings me to one of my Words With Friends entries to lead off the ghostly season.

MANITOU (manʹɘ tōōʹ; also manitu or manito): n. Folklore among the Algonquin Indians, any of various spirits or supernatural forces variously conceived of as nature spirits of both good and evil influence.

Spirits have influenced our cultures since the beginning of societies. The advent of storytelling fueled mesmerizing tales of life after death and exploration of the supernatural – and we still don’t know what, if any, is “real.” What should we believe?

Wordplay Wednesday™ September 9, 2015 – Stupid is

Stupid is as stupid does …

Forrest Gump (movie); image credit

For the next time you want to call someone stupid without them catching on (right away):

INJUDICIOUS (inʹjöö dishʹɘs) – adj. showing poor judgement; not discreet or wise. [You’re welcome.]

Not an oft-heard word in casual conversation, injudicious is elite enough to pass over many heads – like our government’s collective policy makers.

After dealing with the SSA this week, I graciously call them injudicious. Do you know that your SSA benefits account is inaccessible at the “2^nd-level” verification stage, if EXPERIAN has incorrect information about you?! INJUDICIOUS. There must be a better way.

The whole world knows, credit reporting companies are notoriously erroneous and nearly impossible to correct. THIS is what our retirement benefits agency relies on for verification?!

“Among all of the companies generating CFPB complaints in North Carolina so far this year, credit bureaus are at the top of the list. Equifax is No. 1, followed by Experian.”* Charlotte Observer, 08/31/15.

Methinks the SSA misinterpreted this policy …

No wonder we have so much identity theft – it’s eating us up like we're a box of chocolates. And our government not only allows it, they feed it!

Any suggestions as to how this policy can be changed? 

'Til next time ... have a "wordful" week!

                                                                  

@PenchantForPen

@Irishwriter

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*In the Charlotte Observer quote, the bold on Experian and the link on CFPB are my additions.

 

Fox News dumb and dumber

Fox News doesn’t give authorship credit to this article – I can see why.

The first sentence, when applied to the second – Candice Bergen’s quote – proves our world of literacy is under attack.

Candice Bergen says she's fat and lives to eat

“Candice Bergen is svelte and she’s happy with it.

‘Let me just come right out and say it: I am fat,’ the ‘Murphy Brown’ star announces in her new memoir, ‘A Fine Romance,’ reports Rob Shuter of naughtygossip.” [*Sic. And there’s more …] (Fox News, March 22, 2015.)

If the preeminent news sources don’t know that “svelte” is not a synonym of “fat” – literacy is doomed.

While Ms. Bergen was for many years svelte – meaning slender, slim, graceful, lithe – and she is still an elegant lady, in her own words, she is the opposite of svelte. C’mon Fox, you’re setting a bad example.

Side note: Ms. Bergen is right about the issues of women’s weight and beauty attitudes as we age. After

forty-plus years of maintaining (or vainly attempting) a standard that is inherently irrational, many are simply opting to live the rest of their lives actually enjoying it. Consider the profound “end of life” question: quality or quantity? Depends on the quality of the chocolate!

*Back to Fox’s literary ineptitude … let’s take a look at their treatment of titles. Although a minor grievance compared to definition idiocy, the last I checked The Chicago Manual (which BTW, was yesterday) – the venerable bible of writing – still states that television show titles and book titles should be italicized, not enclosed in quotation marks.

Mistakes happen. Editors cringe when errors and typos escape their scrutiny and land indelicately in print. But opening line mistakes and breaking rules learned in elementary school – is simply lazy writing and editing.

Today's apathetic attitude toward our English language is a disappointing example of our dumb and dumber attitude, which is mangling guidelines and principles throughout society. Remember the fall of the Roman Empire?

Writing right … righting write.