Oh, to gaze out my window over the rolling hills of the Palouse. Gorgeous! It’s a winter wonderland out there. Even as I sit here writing next to my cozy fire, I can’t help but turn my imagination loose, letting it run wild down into those secretive valleys where thick pine groves harbor their sylvan secrets…
Did you catch it? The fancy word I’ve found for this week’s entry is one I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life without: sylvan.
SWIVET: Something a swimming frog says? New handy-dandy carpentry tool for DIY homeowners? Swiffer attachment that swivels? Sniveling swine? Tearful sentiment? Amount of air sniffed up when sniffing? Petite snifter for women who drink whiskey?
Love, love, love SAYING this word … in addition to the fact that it fits certain behaviors. (You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. Hmmmm, there’s skulduggery in the world?) Skulduggery. A type of crime? Or maybe a ship from The Pirates of the Caribbean? The kids in The Goonies sure get into some skulduggery on their way to finding buried treasures.
The Goonies movie poster, by Drew Struzanl. Courtesy of Wikipedia. Klow
Say it with me: Skulduggery \skəl-ˈdə-g(ə-)rē\ noun. Underhanded or unscrupulous behavior.
Those kids were up to nothing but skulduggery. (I’m sure you have at least once instance of skulduggery you can cite.)
So one review of The Book of Awesome and many gleaming words later, I stumbled upon a website that is also awesome, but with their vocabulary! The website called randomlyawesomewords.com is dedicated to complex phrases you might hear during a game of Balderdash, and these stumpers are sure to have you scratching your head.
Crux. Crutch? Crunchy cereal? Or it is that black hole where all of the things you lose end up? Doesn’t that just drive you wild? You set your keys down right there, you swear you did! The cat must have hidden them, they must have “disaparated” (along with Harry Potter) … or most likely they slipped out of your pocket and are under the chair, carpet, or that shirt that was hastily tossed on the floor in your rush to make it out of the house. Let’s hope we can get to the crux of this problem.
Say it with me: Crux \ˈkru̇ks\ noun An essential point requiring resolution or resolving an outcome.
We are down now to the crux of the problem.
Ahh yes, the keys were in my pocket the whole time. I need a better system. Or … go back in time before locks were invented.
Flibbertigibbet. Flipper? Flubber? Chicken giblets? Flibbets from Banjo Kazooie? We may find it a funny sounding word now, but Shakespeare thought it deft enough for the play King Lear.
The History of King Lear. Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Jim62sch
Fine. Excellent. Well done. Going just right. Swell. *Snore.*
How wistfully do we tread through life, looking for better adjectives to battle-harden our vocabulary, and how often do we …
Sitting down to read my November issue of More Magazine, the title below caught my eye and in particular a word on page 78 as I read A DATE WITH THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY.
*This is the issue I’m featured in, page 148, for my work with Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made). Make sure you pick up a copy, on newsstands now!
Do you ever just lay back, stare at the clouds … and take a moment out of the day? I did, and I wondered where this cloud wandered whilst it was whispering its whimsical story …
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
