ON VACATION ~~ SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

WORD|of the day

[furor] noun; an angry or maniacal fit; a fashionable craze; furious or hectic activity

QUOTE|of the day

[Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.]

Jane Austen

WORD|of the day

[abyssal] adjective; unfathomable; of or relating to the bottom waters of the ocean depths

QUOTE|of the day

[There is a theory that states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[elucidate] intransitive verb; to give a clarifying explanation

QUOTE|of the day

[Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.]

David T. Wolf

WORD|of the day

[transmogrify] transitive verb; to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect

QUOTE|of the day

[In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.]

Nicholas Chamfort

WORD|of the day

[velocipede] noun; a lightweight wheeled vehicle propelled by the rider

QUOTE|of the day

[Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own special laws.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[ardent] adjective; characterized by warmth of feeling typically expressed in eager zealous support or activity; shining, glowing; fiery, hot

QUOTE|of the day

[Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.]

Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

WORD|of the day

[copacetic] adjective; very satisfactory

QUOTE|of the day

[To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.]

Jane Austen

WORD|of the day

[elide] transitive verb; to omit; to strike out (as a written word)

QUOTE|of the day

[He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[phytivorous] adjective; pertaining to vegetable-eating

QUOTE|of the day

[Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.]

Albert Einstein

WORD|of the day

[loupe] noun; the small magnifying glass used by jewelers

QUOTE|of the day

[Would those of you in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.]

John Lennon

WORD|of the day

[fremescent] adjective; becoming murmurous, roaring

QUOTE|of the day

[If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.]

Anatole France

WORD|of the day

[logomaniac] noun; a person obsessed with words

QUOTE|of the day

[Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.]

Ralph Waldo Emerson

WORD|of the day

[festinate] verb; hasten, walk fast, or move rapidly

QUOTE|of the day

[You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.]

John Carroll

WORD|of the day

[labrose] adjective; having large or thick lips

QUOTE|of the day

[A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.]

Ingrid Bergman

WORD|of the day

[pecunious] adjective; abounding in money, wealthy, rich

QUOTE|of the day

[Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.]

Dorothy Parker

WORD|of the day

[eximious] adjective; choice, select, or excellent

QUOTE|of the day

[To love and be loved--this on earth is the highest bliss.]

Heinrich Heine

WORD|of the day

[patavinity] noun; the use of local slang or expressions in writing

QUOTE|of the day

[Sloppy, raggedy-assed old life. I love it. I never want to die.]

Dennis Trudell

WORD|of the day

[hoxter] noun; the inside pocket on a suit or coat

QUOTE|of the day

[No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.]

Sir Frederick G. Banting

WORD|of the day

[pandiculation] noun; stretching or yawning before going to bed or after waking up

QUOTE|of the day

[Blessings on him who first invented sleep.]

Miguel de Cervantes

WORD|of the day

[wimple] noun; the traditional headdress of nuns

QUOTE|of the day

[With or without religion you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.]

Steven Weinberg

WORD|of the day

[sunder] transitive verb; to break apart or in two

QUOTE|of the day

[Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!]

H.D. Thoreau

WORD|of the day

[palliate] transitive verb; to cover by excuses or apologies; to moderate the intensity of

QUOTE|of the day

[Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.]

W. Somerset Maugham

WORD|of the day

[confabulate] intransitive verb; to talk informally; to hold a discussion; to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication

QUOTE|of the day

[I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.]

Emo Phillips

WORD|of the day

[aggrandize] transitive verb; to make great or greater; to increase or enlarge

QUOTE|of the day

[Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies.]

Dalton Camp

WORD|of the day

[begird] transitive verb; to surround, encompass

QUOTE|of the day

[Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[dissimulate] verb; to hide under a false pretense

QUOTE|of the day

[A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.]

Victor Hugo

WORD|of the day

[susurration] noun; a whisper or murmer

QUOTE|of the day

[In the absolute hush, I could hear plainly its thin murmurs of life.]

Charlotte Brönte (Jane Eyre)

WORD|of the day

[warison] noun; a musical note used to signal the start of an attack

QUOTE|of the day

[No opera plot can be sensible, for in sensible situations people do not sing.]

W.H. Auden

WORD|of the day

[jentacular] adjective; pertaining to breakfast

QUOTE|of the day

[Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.]

Oscar Wilde

WORD|of the day

[waggoner] noun; a collection or book of nautical maps

QUOTE|of the day

[All in the golden afternoon

Full leisurely we glide;

For both our oars, with little skill,

By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretense

Our wanderings to guide.]

Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

WORD|of the day

[eroteme] noun; a mark denoting a question or interrogation, i.e. a question mark

QUOTE|of the day

[What is the use of a use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?]

H.D. Thoreau

WORD|of the day

[divagate] intransitive verb; to wander or stray from a course or subject

QUOTE|of the day

[I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[defenestrate] transitive verb; to throw a person or thing out of a window; to swiftly dismiss or expel (as from a political party or office)

QUOTE|of the day

[Never fight an inanimate object.]

P.J. O'Rourke

WORD|of the day

[aubade] noun; a love song that is sung at dawn

QUOTE|of the day

[Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.]

Kahlil Gibran

WORD|of the day

[autovoxiphillia] noun; love of one's own voice

QUOTE|of the day

[There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves.]

Albert Guinon

WORD|of the day

[edacious] adjective; voracious and devouring

QUOTE|of the day

[I want to remember every minute, always, always to the end of my days.]

"Brief Encounter" (1945)

WORD|of the day

[daedalian] adjective; ingenious and cunningly designed

QUOTE|of the day

[Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.]

Howard Aiken

WORD|of the day

[asthenic] adjective; being lean or frail

QUOTE|of the day

[Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.]

H.D. Thoreau

WORD|of the day

[chirotony] noun; an election by show of hands

QUOTE|of the day

[Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[arithmophobia] noun; a fear of numbers

QUOTE|of the day

[My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.]

P.J. Plauger

WORD|of the day

[eleemosynary] adjective; of, relating to, or supported by charity

QUOTE|of the day

[Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.]

Democritus

WORD|of the day

[baize] noun; the green cloth used on billiards tables or other gaming tables

QUOTE|of the day

[The problem with the universe is that everyone is a few drinks behind.]

Humphrey Bogart

WORD|of the day

[abderian] adjective; given to incessant or idiotic laughter

QUOTE|of the day

[Never play peekaboo with a child on a long plane trip. There's no end to the game. Finally, I grabbed him by the bib and said, "Look, it's always gonna be me!"]

Rita Rudner

WORD|of the day

[schwack] adjective; a large amount

QUOTE|of the day

[A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down.]

Robert Benchley

WORD|of the day

[euonym] noun; a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named

QUOTE|of the day

[Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.]

George Carlin

WORD|of the day

[logorrhea] noun; excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness

QUOTE|of the day

[Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.]

Alfred Hitchcock

WORD|of the day

[demarche] noun; a course of action or maneuver

QUOTE|of the day

[Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.]

Oscar Wilde

WORD|of the day

[guerdon] noun; something that one has earned or gained; a reward, recompense, requital

QUOTE|of the day

[Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.]

Ayn Rand

WORD|of the day

[gallimaufry] noun; hodgepodge

QUOTE|of the day

[Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says, "This is going to take more than one night."]

Charles Shulz

WORD|of the day

[peccant] adjective; guilty of a moral offense; violating a principle or rule

QUOTE|of the day

[Why do they always teach us that it's easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It's the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.]

Ayn Rand

WORD|of the day

[resplendent] adjective; shining brilliantly, characterized by a glowing splendor

QUOTE|of the day

[The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.]

Quentin Crisp

WORD|of the day

[terraqueous] adjective; consisting of land and water

QUOTE|of the day

[The ocean is a body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man--who has no gills.]

Ambrose Bierce

WORD|of the day

[reinscribe] transitive verb; to reestablish or rename in a new and especially stronger form or context

QUOTE|of the day

[Maybe this world is another planet's hell.]

Aldous Huxley

WORD|of the day

[prolix] adjective; unduly prolonged or drawn out, too long; marked by or using an excess of words

QUOTE|of the day

[A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

WORD|of the day

[increscent] adjective; becoming gradually greater; waxing

QUOTE|of the day

[At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations, which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.]

P.G. Wodehouse

WORD|of the day

[forfend] transitive verb; to ward off, prevent, protect, preserve

QUOTE|of the day

[It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.]

W. Somerset Maugham

WORD|of the day

[appurtenances] plural noun; accessory objects

QUOTE|of the day

[Every time you open your wardrobe, you look at your clothes and you wonder what you are going to wear. What you are really saying is, "Who am I going to be today?".]

Fay Weldon

WORD|of the day

[panoply] noun; a full suit of armor; ceremonial attire; something forming a protective covering; a magnificent or impressive array; a display of all appropriate appurtenances

QUOTE|of the day

[War does not determine who's right--only who's left.]

Bertrand Russell

WORD|of the day

[renitency] noun; resistance, opposition

QUOTE|of the day

[When one makes enemies, one knows that one's dangerous where it's necessary to be dangerous.]

Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

WORD|of the day

[dog days] plural noun; the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere; a period of stagnation or inactivity

QUOTE|of the day

[The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands up to his full stature.]

Arnold Bennett

WORD|of the day

[siege mentality] noun; a defensive or overly fearful attitude

QUOTE|of the day

[Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.]

Benjamin Franklin

WORD|of the day

[sylvan] adjective; living or located in the woods/forest; of, relating to, or characteristic of the woods/forest; abounding in woods, groves, trees—wooded

QUOTE|of the day

[Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.]

John Ruskin

WORD|of the day

[trenchant] adjective; keen, sharp, vigorously effective and articulate

QUOTE|of the day

[The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.]

Max Eastman

WORD|of the day

[vamoose] intransitive verb; to depart quickly

QUOTE|of the day

[I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.]

Blaise Pascal

WORD|of the day

[zeugma] noun; the use of a word to modify two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one

QUOTE|of the day

[Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.]

Alexander Pope

Last line is an example of zeugma -- both a bubble and a world are described as having "burst."

WORD|of the day

[kibitzer] noun; one who looks on and offers unwanted advice or comment; broadly, one who offers opinions

QUOTE|of the day

[The covers of this book are too far apart.]

Ambrose Bierce

WORD|of the day

[proclivity] noun; an inclination or predisposition toward something

QUOTE|of the day

[What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.]

Dave Barry

WORD|of the day

[cloying] adjective; disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess; also, excessively sweet or sentimental

QUOTE|of the day

[Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.]

Evelyn Waugh

WORD|of the day

[periphrasis] noun; use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression

I often try to help clients cut down on the use of "periphrasis" if there is a more concise way to say something.

QUOTE|of the day

[I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.]

Beryl Pfizer

WORD|of the day

[corvine] adjective; of, or relating to, crows; resembling a crow

The seagulls here have a surprising "corvine" quality to their cries. You really don't expect a seagull to sound like that; maybe it's all the smog out here :-)

QUOTE|of the day

[Where there is no imagination there is no horror.]

Arthur Conan Doyle

Isn't this true? If you can't take your mind outside the ordinary, everyday to a scary place then you can't be frightened.

WORD|of the day

[cavalcade] noun; a procession of riders, carriages, vehicles, or ships; a dramatic sequence or procession/series

QUOTE|of the day

[The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.]

Mark Twain

WORD|of the day

[miff] verb; to put into an ill humor, offend

QUOTE|of the day

[In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.]

Douglas Adams

WORD|of the day

[foment] verb; to promote the growth or development of

QUOTE|of the day

[I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.]

Franklin P. Adams

WORD|of the day

[hysteroid] adjective; resembling or tending toward hysteria

QUOTE|of the day

[Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.]

Cynthia Nelms

WORD|of the day

[interdigitate] verb; to become interlocked like the fingers of a folded hand

QUOTE|of the day

[The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands.]

Alexandra Penney

WORD|of the day

[lustrum] plural noun; a period of five years (also refers to the Roman census, which was taken every five years)

QUOTE|of the day

[Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.]

Oscar Wilde

WORD|of the day

[desultory] adjective; marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, purpose; not connected with the main subject; disappointing in progress, performance, or quality

After I get my hands on a client's work, it will never be considered "desultory."

QUOTE|of the day

[What we need is to take the gas and hot air out of the real business of living and send it sizzling off in sky-rockets for the entertainment of our idle hours.]

Marjorie Barstow Greenbie

WORD|of the day

[ramose] adjective; consisting of or having branches

My hippy neighbor's dreadlocks give her head a "ramose" look. It's really quite unique.

QUOTE|of the day

[Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.]

Bill Vaughn

WORD|of the day

[solecism] noun; an ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence; a minor blunder in speech; something deviating from the normal/proper order; a breach of etiquette or decorum

As an editor I help people avoid "solecisms" in their writing.

QUOTE|of the day

[It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.]

Oscar Wilde

WORD|of the day

[conation] noun; an inclination to act purposefully; impulse

When my husband and I (and the dogs) made a trip to San Diego this past Christmas, we returned with an urgent "conation" to move here as soon as possible.

QUOTE|of the day

[The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.]

Oscar Wilde

WORD|of the day

[sedulous] adjective; involving or accomplished with careful perseverance; diligent in application or pursuit

I guess you could say my husband and I were quite "sedulous" in our quest to move across the country.

QUOTE|of the day

[If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.]

Henry David Thoreau

WORD|of the day

[conversant] adjective; having knowledge or experience

Although I feel like I am already fairly "conversant" in the editorial field, I am starting a copyediting class today so that I can continue to improve in this area.

QUOTE|of the day

[Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.]

Robert Frost

WORD|of the day

[vaticinate] verb; prophesy, predict

My husband always tries to "vaticinate" what is going to happen in a movie and he is almost always right!

QUOTE|of the day

[Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.]

Charles Schulz

WORD|of the day

[agog] adjective; full of intense interest/excitement; eager

I was "agog" at the number of people at the Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-off today on Newport Avenue. Check it out here.

QUOTE|of the day

[If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day.]

John A. Wheeler

WORD|of the day

[commove] trans. verb; to move violently, agitate; to rouse intense feeling in, excite to passion

QUOTE|of the day

[If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't a part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.]

Herman Hesse

WORD|of the day

[ascensive] adjective; rising or tending to rise

QUOTE|of the day

[Old age is like climbing a mountain. You climb from ledge to ledge. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your views become more extensive.]

Ingrid Bergman

WORD|of the day

[pococurante] adjective; indifferent, nonchalant

QUOTE|of the day

[When nothing seems worth the effort -- it's a screen to hide a wish that's worth too much.]

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

WORD|of the day

[retrorse] adjective; bent backward or downward

When practicing yoga a person is often in a "retrorse" position.

QUOTE|of the day

[Never confuse movement with action.]

Ernest Hemingway