Word Link For the Day

Here is a delightful link I recently came across:

18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style

Love them all, but I was particularly tickled by the mental picture I got of "groak" and the ideas of "tyromancy." And "Englishable." So good. I also geekily loved the names of the books they got these words from. I would totally be proud to be the author of a dialect and speech book.

One thing I thought was missing from this list, however, was sample sentences. But maybe that's what we're here for. I'll try a couple and then you join in, if you want.

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them 

As I wiped the ketchup from my mouth, I looked up to see her groaking at me with eyes as big as hamburger buns.

Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese 

A believer in tyromancy, the old crone considered the curdles, gasped, and then shrieked, "You are the harbinger of death!"

Now that's some good writing.

Harry Potter News: How did I miss this?

I don't know where I've been, but for all you Harry Potter fans, I'm sharing this lovely little link to an interview J.K. Rowling did a few years ago (that I only found out about recently) about what she thinks happened after the epilogue. So fun to see how she thought our old friends ended up.

Then I saw this link from NPR the other day about J.K. Rowling telling Harry Potter back stories — and that's when I knew I needed to post about Harry. There are more details when you click on the link above and when you click on "interactive project" below (which I confusingly got from the first link), but I loved these tidbits they included:

"An interactive project at The Guardian lets you scroll through the annotations online. Among other revelations, the notes on a first edition of Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneshow that the original Hufflepuff mascot was a bear, not a badger, and that Quidditch was invented 'in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend.'"

Also, p.s., I love Book News from NPR. The end.

Writing some new proverbs

I don't normally post about my daughter very much on this blog, but we had a recent occasion to do something somewhat literary, and I think it's worth mentioning. I gave Anna the first half of several proverbs and had her come up with her own endings, and it proved to be delightful. I posted about it on my other blog, so take a look if you wish.

Good Reads

I just got an email from Good Reads, so I decided to update my status a little bit . . . since the last time I had been on there was September of last year. And before that, I'm pretty sure my status showed that I was "currently reading" a book about parenting a toddler since 2009. And how many books do I have on my e-shelves? A piddly 14. So yeah. I'm not so good at keeping it current. I like the idea behind Good Reads (as far as I understand it), I just don't keep it updated all the time. Do you do Good Reads? Do you like it? What do you like about it? Let's discuss.

Also, as a tangential p.s., check out 32 photos that will make your stomach drop. I don't LOVE heights or doing anything hugely risky, but I can appreciate a picture of someone else's crazy feats—right here from the comfort of my chair that is sitting on even ground. These pictures are pretty cool and pretty crazy. But the cliff camping ones? Really? Is that the best idea or even necessary? I'm pretty sure you could just climb 20 more feet to get to the top of the ledge and to a flat area and put your tent there for the night.