Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 9, 2016 – Pule



‘Tis Better to Laugh than to Cry 

Trump Team: enjoy the moment and look to a brighter future. Clinton Camp: ‘tis better to laugh than to cry—besides, it runs the mascara.

Whoever was your candidate, today we must stand—together—as “we the people” and move forward to shake off the debilitating pall that has ruled us for the past decade-plus. Without whining 
PULE (pyōōl) vi. – to whimper or whine, as a sick or fretful child does. [WW #85]

Responding to the puling of talking bobbleheads, they clearly have “education,” but no educated connection with majority Americans: neither education nor race denotes intelligence. Common sense does.

Last night, common sense won the election. Governance as usual is not an option.

Good or bad, Trump will CHANGE politics in this country, and THAT is what we, the people voted to happen.

Never underestimate the power of closet voters.

Though the majority vote may belong to Clinton, Trump took the electoral votes that matter—and it was the closet voters who stunned the world and came out of the closet to create the closest presidential race in recent US history.

Today, let’s not pule, but strive to be what we declare “… one Nation, under God, indivisible …” 

A personal note to those unrealistic and ungrateful celebs who puled in recent weeks that they would leave this magnificent country with a Trump win: do let the door hit ya on the way out.

One man or woman does not a country make … go ahead … abandon this majestic Nation of people who put you in your lap of luxury. Makes more room for those who love the USA for all its riches, not just its money and opportunity to flaunt an inflated sense of importance.

Word Challenge: PULE. Whining and crying rarely evokes a positive result—for children or adults. Can you put on a happy face and fit pule into your week of purposeful writings?


                       


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Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ November 2, 2016 – Verism



Beautiful! Warts and All 

Ah, I found the perfect word for you this week, to follow the amusement and mystery of Halloween. Being the Scorpio I am, I identify most with the Halloween witch. Her familiar/muse is the sinuous black cat, and her striking, discreet beauty mark is a small, comely wart that lies aside her nose.

Beautiful, or hag? You decide …

VERISM  (virʹiz’ɘm) n. – realism or naturalism in the arts. [WW #84]

First found in Roman art during the latter part of the Roman Republic, verism goes beyond beautiful to form a more expressive realism in art; one might say, as “beauty in the eye of the beholder.”

There is no denying the considerable artistic talents of the Romans—and their realism period of verism waxed and waned over the centuries. By the late 1800s, it began to infiltrate Italy’s operatic productions that created a genre with such masters as Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini (Madame Butterfly).

I often go to Wiki for further explanation of a word or phrase; not as the definitive expert, but as an enhancement to my definitions. This time, the Wiki editor(s) made a notable observation: Verism, often described as "warts and all", shows the imperfections of the subject, such as warts, wrinkles and furrows. It should be absolutely noted that the term veristic in no way implies that these portraits are more "real". Rather, they too can be highly exaggerated or idealised, but within a different visual idiom, one which favours wrinkles, furrows, signs of age as indicators of gravity and authority.

So—applied to the 2016 presidential election, the “art of politics” today is a particular form of verism at its best … um, or worst.

Word Challenge: VERISM. More broadly applied—when our friends and family have warts, and we love them anyway. Can you fit verism into your week of beautiful writings?


               
        

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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Wordplay Wednesday™ April 20, 2016 – LAITY not dumb



You are a layperson in something …

Try as we might, we humans are not perfect nor expert in every subject or profession. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were?
 
We wouldn’t need to call the plumber, pay big bucks to the auto mechanic, or whine to our tech guy when the &*%$#! computer graces us with a blank screen.

Nope, we could do it all by ourselves if we were just that smart. However, we are not. Some geniuses get closer to perfection than most of us, but know-it-alls often can’t master a can opener.

That’s also how I feel when it comes to politics. Unless you’re firmly entrenched in its wretched depths, you are a used, abused, confused member of the laity … join the crowd.

LAITY (lāʹi tē) n.– 1) all the people not included among the clergy; laymen collectively; 2) all the people not belonging to a given profession. [WW #56]

Laity, once considered the “silent majority,were dealt with by those “in the know” as they would an ignorant child. Generally ignored and summarily dismissed with a wave of an arrogant hand.

This year, however, it is quite apparent that the silent majority is tired of standing in a corner, waiting for a few scraps of dignity to be thrown their way. The laity of American politics is silent no more. (But there is more ...)