A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1216

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AWADmail Issue 1216

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language

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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the Net

The Autocrat of English Usage
The New Yorker
Permalink

The Suffix That Tells Us to Ruthlessly Optimize Everything
The New York Times
Permalink

From: John Shorb (johnrshorb gmail.com)
Subject: Lace-curtain

While lace-curtain is applied to upwardly mobile, typically Irish, middle-class folk, Irish lace can refer to cobwebs. Not exactly a complimentary phrase. But there is real Irish lace which is beautiful, complicated, and expensive.

John Shorb, Morro Bay, California

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy One Up! -- Playing mind games is wicked fun.

From: Mary Feeney (MMFeeney aol.com)
Subject: lace-curtain

My Irish grandparents had their own definition of lace-curtainism: folks who had “fruit in the house when nobody’s sick.”

Mary Feeney, Prior Lake, Minnesota

From: Richard Martin (info tellatale.eu)
Subject: Stile

In your painting of a lady being helped over a stile, the man has turned his back on her. However, rather than any discourtesy, this simply shows he is a “gentleman”. A young lady in the Victorian era was aware of the need to protect her modesty at all times. Should a man inadvertently catch a glimpse of ankle, it would be embarrassing. Hence a true gentleman would turn his back whenever such an occasion arose.

Thank you for doing all you can to maintain contemporary standards of public decency!

Richard Martin, Darmstadt, Germany

From: Carol P. Freeman (cfreeman96 triad.rr.com)
Subject: Stile

This word brought back pleasant memories of my grandmother reading me nursery rhymes. What I remembered was “The pig won’t jump over the stile, and I shan’t get home tonight!”

According to Wikipedia, this is a tale from oral lore first published around 1800. There is a version at Gutenberg.org entitled
The Remarkable Adventures of the Old Woman and her Pig
An Ancient Tale in a Modern Dress

Thanks for this! It’s wonderful to read something that isn’t “fresh hell”! All your Thoughts for the Day are thought-provoking as well.

Carol Freeman, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

From: Fran Gillespie (frandavidgill outlook.com)
Subject: stile

I recall a little rhyme I learnt as a child, one verse of which went:

Do the job that’s nearest,
Though it’s dull at whiles,
Helping, when you meet them,
Lame dogs over stiles.

I have never yet had the opportunity to help a lame dog over a stile, and indeed at an arthritic 82 now it is I who have to be helped over stiles. Still, one lives in hope.

Fran Gillespie, Fortingall, Scotland

From: Dominic Warren (dominic rawspace.co.uk)
Subject: Stile

A panelled door is made of vertical stiles, horizontal rails, and panels in between.

Dominic Warren, London, UK

From: Janine Harris-Wheatley (janinehw20 gmail.com)
Subject: Moral compass

There have always been psychopaths but what adds to the mayhem now is that there seem to be more people who know good from bad, but deliberately choose bad. Does that make them psychopaths or sociopaths or do we need a whole new category?

Studies of American soldiers from WWII showed that a high percentage in combat were shooting without aiming. They were deliberately not killing. The army re-envisioned its future training to break that inhibition in soldiers so they would shoot to kill. It makes me wonder when I see video of National Guard troops. How many of them, absorbed their training, will fire on command without questioning whether any of the people they are shooting at are friends or family, children or grandmothers?

I was in university in 1970 when I heard that the Ohio National Guard had shot into a crowd of Kent State students peacefully protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine. Some of them were not even part of the protest. They were just students walking to class. I hope the soldiers now on our streets find their moral compasses and remember who it is they are supposed to be serving and protecting and who it is they may be aiming at.

Janine Harris-Wheatley, Tottenham, Canada

From: David Rubenstein (bulkmail thoughtful-action.com)
Subject: Moral compass

Today’s meme-illustration is telling: “Sometimes I feel that my moral compass is not driven by an internal sense of right and wrong but by what others will think of me.”

Our moral compass is almost entirely calibrated to what our peers believe is right and wrong. Bertrand Russell, as documented in an AWAD Thought for Today, said “Sin is Geographical.”

My conclusion is that our DNA was formed under evolutionary pressure to get along in groups, and morality stems from the genetic drive to not be shunned.

David Rubenstein, Washington, DC

From: Janis Walworth (janis.walworth gmail.com)
Subject: Moral Compass

Just a few days ago I discovered a distillery in the rural area near me called Probably Shouldn’t, a name inspired by people who told the owners that they “probably shouldn’t” do a variety of things, including opening a distillery. During the pandemic, they produced a hand sanitizer called Definitely Should.

Janis Walworth, Bellingham, Washington

From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com)
Subject: lightning rod and moral compass

Trump is a lightning rod for criticism, all well deserved. But here, I’ve focused on three of his most vocal apologists... bombastic podcaster/conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, conservative political influencer Laura “The Lip” Loomer and former Trump political advisor/strategist and QAnon advocate Steve Bannon... all surefire lightning rods in their own right.

It’s highly unlikely that egomaniacal Putin would ever subject himself to psychoanalysis, but here, he is facing a therapist’s damning diagnosis. Putin, who has ruled Russia with an iron fist for decades, is in denial. Does Putin even have a moral compass?

Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California

Anagrams


	This week’s theme: Idioms & metaphors Lace-curtain Stile Millstone Lightning rod Moral compass	=	Mime, game uprightness Steps on a wall Shackle, doom Inherited criticism & trolls (main lot) Ethos
			-Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com)
=	Thus more esteemed social rank Steps Mills will grind, hmm limitation Scapegoat Ethics, honor	=	Home glamour when poor Tall step design (no animals) Dilemma Hot criticism risk Let’s set ethics!
	-Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz)		-Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com)

Make your own anagrams and animations.

Limericks

lace-curtain

Mama told me to watch out for folk
Who talk of champagne, but buy Coke.
“Lace-curtain,” she sneers,
Which means, to my ears,
You’re gettin’ a pig in a poke!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

“We’re royal, not merely lace-curtain,
And soulmates, Liz!” said Richard Burton.
She answered, “So twice
We’ll have friends throwing rice!
Other girls, though, you’d better quit squirtin’!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

stile

For hikers traversing a fence,
A stile’s a step that makes sense.
In Brighton or Dover,
Just climb up and over --
It’s handy for ladies and gents.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

OMG! There’s a broken-down stile!
Which means we’ll be gone for a while.
Gotta fix that darn thing,
But now lassos we’ll bring,
For those pigs run a pretty fast mile!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

The fox was well known for his guile.
And though it did take quite awhile,
His feat was immense,
To climb the high fence,
By using the farmer’s own stile.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“You’re so hot, and my number one stile;
With no basis, indictments you file!”
Said Donald. “Wow, Pam!
You’re the best at flimflam,
Bringing all my opponents to trial!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

millstone

“Young masseuses your ‘muscle’ will tone,”
Said the man who is Donald’s millstone.
Yet we’re stuck in Trump hell,
For to Exxon he’s swell --
All Alaska he’s made their drill zone.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

lightning rod

For behavior quite bad she gained fame.
I am sure that you’ve all heard her name.
That woman was mean,
And she made a scene,
So a lightning rod Karen became.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

“If today there are no biting cod,
Please don’t make me the trip’s lightning rod,”
Said the priest. “When you fish,
And no catch is His wish,
That’s His will; there’s no use fighting God.”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

moral compass

It’s my old moral compass, I’d say,
That makes me behave in a way
That is deemed “out of date”.
But I think it’s too late
To adopt the loose ways of today.
-Rudy Landesman, New York, New York (ydur36 hotmail.com)

If your main motivation is greed,
You’ve a flawed moral compass indeed!
I think, oh dear reader,
When we choose a leader,
Perhaps one with a conscience we need.
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

We raise our kids hoping that they
Have a good moral compass, but, hey --
“Monkey see, monkey do!”
Who’s their role model? You!
Set the standard, and they’re on their way!
-Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com)

“On Jan 6 I’ll incite a big rumpus
By supporters with no moral compass,”
Said Donald. “The fault
Lies with those they’ll assault!
From the White House the Dems will not bump us!”
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Puns

“Any p-lace-curtain-s are left open is where you’ll find me,” said the peeping Tom.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“P-lace curtain inside bathtub when you shower,” read the sign in the motel bathroom.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

Poodle skirts, bobby socks, and saddle shoes were in stile during the fifties.
-Janice Power, Cleveland, Ohio (powerjanice782 gmail.com)

“Thi-stile will be Justinian’s nose,” explained the Byzantine mosaic artist.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

The chairman of General Millstone was clear. Their cereal was good for the whole family.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

“Hey, you Millstone it down,” said the brothers’ neighbor, annoyed by their singing.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“An assistant would be helpful in lightning Rod’s load,” The Twilight Zone star’s agent requested of the producers.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

“If you find a moral compass it up here,” said the leader of the mushroom hunting expedition.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

If you believe the movie’s moral compass-ion and forgiveness will win out over revenge.
-Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com)

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Life is mostly froth and bubble, / Two things stand like stone, / Kindness in another’s trouble, / Courage in your own. -Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (19 Oct 1833-1870)

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