OX, and Happy Chinese New Year

Happy New Year of the Ox.

Took Speedy to the vet Saturday for his annual immunizations. He took it pretty well, but he does not like to take the heartworm medicine. It probably isn't necessary for Speedy to take the heartworm medicine year-round. Still, it's easier for me to remember to give it to him once a month without trying to remember if this is a month he doesn't need to take it. Besides, the medication keeps him from picking up other parasites as well. The flea and tick medicine is a liquid that absorbs through the skin. He's not so unhappy to get that, except he knows that he gets it the same time as he has to take the pill for the heartworm.

My quarterly physical is Thursday. I'm hoping that I will also get a clean bill of health. Then Lloyd and I have the dentist next month, and Lloyd to the podiatrist the month after. It's a never ending round. Not quite as cheerful as the monthly holidays we used to have at school. January was New Years; February, Valentine's and Presidents' Days; March, St. Patrick's Day; April, Spring and Easter; May, Mothers' Day; June, Graduation. As July was outside the school year, we didn't get Independence Day, but we celebrated all the same. August got no holiday, but is often depicted as a day on the seashore. September was Back to School; October, Halloween; November, Thanksgiving; December, Christmas (now the p.c. Winter Holidays). Now the greeting card companies are inventing holidays, and Congress keeps declaring this week as Pickle Week or National Internal Combustion Machine Day. The disadvantages of having so many celebrations is that they get lumped together like St. Ursula's 1100 virgins.

Practicing Hindus have so many gods to choose from, they apparently have the same trouble with holy days. I keep sending the fellows from InfoSys (who are from India and mostly nominal Hindus) holiday greetings for whatever pops up in BeliefNet. One of them wrote back to say that he never knows what holiday it is unless he happens to be off that day anyway.

The word of the day for January 26, 2009 is "ox" — Pronunciation: \'äks\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ox·en \'äk-sən\ also ox
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English oxa; akin to Old High German ohso ox, Sanskrit ukṣā bull, and perhaps to Sanskrit ukṣati he moistens, Greek hygros wet — more at humor
Date: before 12th century
1: a domestic bovine mammal (Bos taurus) ; broadly : a bovine mammal. 2: an adult castrated male domestic ox.

Our quote for the day is from Jon Cleary, author, b: 22 November 1917, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, High Road to China:

The ox is slow, but the earth is patient.

;^)

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COHERENCE

Wonderful things are brought to light when one is looking for something else. While digging out all the books in the house to catalog in LibraryThing, I have found the Eighth Grade grammar book I had thought lost forever. Plain English Handbook by J. Martyn and Anna Kathleen Walsh guided us lost and wistful, nearly-adult hopefuls through grammar and usage of the English language. With this book, if you write a coherent sentence, I can diagram it, and anyone with the least comprehension can understand what your sentence means. The collary to that is that if your sentence cannot be diagrammed, it is not coherent by definition.

Mrs. Deutsch taught us English with strict attention to composition and spelling. There were no exceptions to her rules. One did not chew gum, not even out in the hallway. She would collar you and drag you into her room to spit out the offending wad into the waste basket. As I have mentioned before, she would sing "Sixteen Tons" as she ambled up and down the aisles between desks during tests.

The word of the day for January 25, 2009 is "coherence" — Pronunciation: \kō-'hir-ən(t)s, -'her-\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1580
1: the quality or state of cohering: as a: systematic or logical connection or consistency. b: integration of diverse elements, relationships, or values. 2: the property of being coherent [a plan that lacks coherence].

Our quotation is from Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), French essayist. “Of Friendship,” The Essays (Les Essais), bk. I, ch. 28, Simon Millanges, Bordeaux, first edition (1580):

What are these essays but grotesque and monstrous bodies, pieced together of different members, without any definite shape, without any order, coherence, or proportion, except they be accidental?

;^)

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FASHIONISTA

Not that it's really any of my business, but what did Michelle Obama's Inauguration ballgown rejects look like? The one she wore is a lovely dress. Still, Mrs. O seemingly had a difficult time moving the train from under her feet. It didn't hamper her moves for long, though. It looked like she and President Obama enjoyed all the dancing and parties.

There will be many who deride Mrs. O for her fashion sense. Hey, we all can't be Jackie Kennedy, and thank goodness. From the many photos of Mrs. O taken during the campaign, she has solid middle-class sense of fashion. She probably heard my mother's fashion advice: Wear clothes tight enough to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady. Horizontal stripes will make anyone look fat. More than one pattern or texture look busy and detract from the wearer. Wear colors that minimize either a sallow or ruddy complexion.

The last time I dressed up for an event was Cybil and Ryan's wedding, a year ago October. The dressy pantsuit that I wore was comfortable, but the pretty shoes were not. I haven't worn heels higher than 1" since about 1990. It's suprising how much difference a half-inch makes.

The word of the day for January 22, 2009 is "fashionista" Pronunciation:
\,fa-shə-'nēs-tə\
Function: noun
Etymology: 1
fashion + -ista (as in Sandinista)
Date: 1993
: a designer, promoter, or follower of the latest fashions.

Our quote for the day is from Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989):

I base my fashion taste on what doesn't itch.

;^)

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