LACERATION

Here's a lesson for you. Don't change direction in the middle of a doorway—especially if the door is heavy and the latch plate is at elbow height. I was headed into the ladies' restroom at work when this happened. I don't normally make an abrupt u-turn at that point, but the floor was flooded, and I stepped right into the puddle. After managing a three-cornered tear in the elbow of my favorite dress and scraping a fair amount of skin from my forearm, I noticed that someone had put a sign on the door listing a trouble ticket number. The reason was not mentioned in the note. Before going back to my desk, I added "FLOOD" in large letters to the notice.

The fellow at the next desk wanted me to go to Medical. I refused. There's no way the company quack is getting his fingers on me for a minor scrape. Been there, done that, had the album signed. I've had to wait over half an hour to get blood and dirt cleaned out of scraped knees while they x-rayed my sprained foot. When I had my gall bladder attack, they called my husband to drive me to hospital. When I came back from my leave of absence after the last surgery, they assured me all the paperwork would be done without any more problems. They didn't mention that they had managed to terminate my employment while I was on leave of absence.

The word of the day for January 13, 2009 is "laceration" — Pronunciation: \ˌla-sə-ˈrā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 1597
1 : the act of lacerating. 2 : a torn and ragged wound.

Our quote for the day is from Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City Aphorisms, Fourteenth Selection, New York (1994):

Most self-laceration is more noisy than painful.

;^{

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NASCENT

I've been having a quiet day. I had a piece of chocolate cake with ice cream (yes, I know I said I was off chocolate this year, but it is my birthday, so sue me. I can be off chocolate again tomorrow) at lunch time. We'll have steak and potatoes for supper. Lloyd gave me some cash for a present, which I promptly blew on a couple of DVDs—The Storyteller starring John Hurt. I remember watching these on television and thinking that I ought to record them.

I've been trying to decide if I want to catalogue my tapes and DVDs on LibraryThing. Probably not, as I am already up to 550 books, only about ten percent of which actually belong to my sister, my husband or the kids. A couple of hundred years ago this would have amounted to an amazing treasure. Of course, they didn't have sound recordings then, either. They had to tell their own stories and make their own music—act out their own dramas, make up their own gossip. What a bunch of softies we are!

The word of the day for January 11, 2009 is "nascent" — Pronunciation: \ˈna-sənt, ˈnā-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin nascent-, nascens, present participle of nasci to be born — more at nation
Date: circa 1624
: coming or having recently come into existence [a nascent middle class] [her nascent singing career].

Our quote for the day is from Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924), French philosopher. repr. In The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979, rev. 1986). “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?” Critique, no. 419 (Paris, April 1982):

A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.

;^)

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SURVIVAL

One of my friends recently sent me a joke about a hypothetical "survivors" show. I've never been a fan of this sort of show. For one thing they aren't about real life at all. They have a camera crew with the participants who can help if any real trouble surfaces. The contestants invariably come off as greedy above all else. Filmed reality usually turns out to be stupider and meaner than anyone in their right mind would want to be. The only thing worse is the "Jerry Springer" type show where the participants have taken the fun out of dysfunctional by berating/assaulting/battering one another in public for problems that make no sense to non-participants, but the audience eggs them on to escalate the violence.

This reality show business all got started when writers got organized, asking to be better compensated for their work. Not that it's the writers' fault that the producers decided the television public doesn't tune in to well-scripted (not to mention witty) programs. It's apparently too much effort to produce a Carol Burnett Show or M*A*S*H or Maverick or even Mr. Ed. We do get a lot of police drama. In the evenings there's a CSI for everyone. But I still find myself looking at TVLAND and NICK AT NIGHT, because they show cogent, reasonably intelligent programs to which an old fogey like me can relate.

The irony of this dearth of script writers is that reality show participants are now hiring writers (at below union scale) to write "natural, witty" repartee that can be dropped into the participants on-air "conversations".

The word of the day for January 7, 2009 is "survival" - Pronunciation: \sər-'vī-vəl\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Date: 1598
1 a: the act or fact of living or continuing longer than another person or thing. b: the continuation of life or existence [problems of survival in arctic conditions]. 2: one that survives.

Our quote for the day is from Virginia Satir (20th century), U.S. family therapist and author. As quoted in The Winning Family, ch. 16, by Louise Hart (1987):

The recommended daily requirement for hugs is: four per day for survival, eight per day for maintenance, and twelve per day for growth.

;^)

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