The host of the Scattered Life Collective, Cynthia, is taking a break for the month of August, but I plan to keep up with Friday Footnotes during her hiatus. Current time: 8:00 a.m. Out the window: Thunder and lightning. I love a good daytime storm, and we really need the rain. On the menu: The year's first crop of homegrown tomatoes and beans. But they're actually from my parents' garden - I don't have a yard. My dad has a green thumb, and I can't wait to sample the fruits (and vegetables) of his labour. Reading: I'm a fan of crime fiction and I'm always on the lookout for new-to-me writers. I love it when I try out the first book of a series and enjoy it and then know that I have more to look forward to. That happened this week. I follow the English mystery writer Ann Cleeves on Twitter, and when she recommended author Martin Edwards to someone I took her advice and checked out one of his books from the library. (Always the safer bet when you're testing out a new writer.) I've started with The Coffin Trail, the first in a series set in the Lake District of England, and I'm liking it very much. There are a lot of characters involved, and since you never know who might be important to the plot, I decided to write them down to keep them all straight. I do that frequently with mysteries, and the weird thing is, once I've written the list, I often don't need to consult it - it's as if the act of writing it imprints in on my brain. Funny, that. Watching: Oh, I do love Shakespeare, so I was thrilled to discover a series on Netflix called Shakespeare Uncovered. Each of six documentary-style episodes features a famous actor exploring the history of one of Shakespeare's plays and how it has helped shaped modern theatre - Macbeth with Ethan Hawke, the Comedies with Joely Richardson, Richard II with Derek Jacobi, Henry IV and V with Jeremy Irons, Hamlet with David Tennant, and The Tempest with Trevor Nunn. I started with the Comedies episode, and to my delight, discovered that it includes Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, who is one of my all-time faves. Both Richardson and Redgrave have voices that make me swoon, so for me this was an hour of pure delight. Listening: Brand New Day, by Austin blues singer Ruthie Foster.
Learning: This week's Words of the Day:
Out and About:
That's all for this week. Sarah It's official. Around here, Wednesdays aren't just Wednesdays any more. They're Words Days. My Wednesday posts are now devoted to all things wordy - grammar, etymology, writing, the works. If it involves language, I'll be talking about it here. ***** EXTRAORDINARY WORDS #1 - THE UNTRANSLATABLES In addition to being smitten with the English language and all of its quirks, I'm always curious to learn more about other languages, too. My current fixation is on foreign words that have no English equivalent, or what I like to call "the untranslatables." There's no better place to start researching this topic than with Adam Jacot de Boinod's book The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World. Whereas my interest in these words might be considered a passing fancy, de Boinod's could be labeled an obsession. De Boinod says that his interest in foreign words was first triggered when he was working as a researcher for the BBC program QI. He consulted an Albanian dictionary and discovered no fewer than 27 words for types of eyebrow and the same number for mustache styles. His curiosity was piqued, and after years of exhaustive research, he has now published three books on the subject of words. So what is the meaning of tingo? Apparently it's a Pascuense word from Easter Island that means "to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them."
And now for a sampling of some of my favourite words from The Meaning of Tingo:
How about you? Do you speak any foreign languages? Are you a fan of the untranslatables? Do let me know in the comments. *** * The illustration above is by Anjana Iyer, who designed a series for the 100 Days Project based on untranslatable words. You can view more of the illustrations here. I'm a bit discombobulated this morning. I tried a new hair stylist yesterday and I am not pleased with the result. I know that in the grand scheme of things this is but a minor inconvenience, but right now it's disconcerting. I want to wear a sign around my neck saying "I didn't intend to look like this!" Oh well, on with this week's contribution to The Scattered Life Collective. Current time: 8:08 a.m. Out the window: Perfect summer weather, which we deserve, after the winter we had. On the menu: Watermelon, in all of its sweet and slurpy goodness Reading: The fourth instalment in the Flavia de Luce series, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows. I've talked about this series before, and my fondness for it continues. Flavia, an 11-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a bike named Gladys, is one of my favourite protagonists. "Feely was pretending to be preoccupied, but I could tell by the rising color of her throat that she was listening. My sister Ophelia is like one of those exotic frogs whose skin changes colour involuntarily as a warning. In the frog, it's trying to make you think it's poisonous. It's much the same with Feely." Watching: I found a new show on Netflix this week called The Writer's Room. It's hosted by screenwriter/actor Jim Rash and features roundtable interviews with the writing staffs of various popular TV shows. A TV show about TV show writing? Are you kidding me? I'm in heaven. Rash is a great host - he's best known for his role as the dean on Community, but I just discovered that he also won an Academy Award in 2012 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants. The first season profiles Breaking Bad, Parks and Recreation, Dexter, New Girl, Game of Thrones and American Horror Story. Listening: I don't really care for Weird Al - he's just too... shlocky. But, when he dedicates an entire song to grammar? I can't help but listen. Here is Word Crimes, set to the music of Blurred Lines. I'll admit it's clever.
Learning: This week's Words of the Day:
Out and About:
That's all for this week. Sarah It's official. Around here, Wednesdays aren't just Wednesdays any more. They're Words Days. My Wednesday posts are now devoted to all things wordy - grammar, etymology, writing, the works. If it involves language, I'll be talking about it here. ***** WRITING TIP #2: SAY IT OUT LOUD They say that one way to become a better writer is to read a lot. I like to take that one step further and say that one way to become a better writer is to read out loud a lot. I recommend reading everything out loud - not just your own writing, but also whatever you happen to be reading - books, newspapers, blog posts, poetry, magazines. I don't suggest reading out loud in public, however, unless you are okay with strangers staring at you. But in the comfort of your own home, I say go for it. I do it all the time and my cat thinks I'm only mildly crazy. Reading your own writing out loud helps you identify trouble spots where the words don't flow as they should, and allows you to get a sense of what your readers will be hearing when they first read your words. Reading other people's writing out loud provides an extra layer of comprehension and helps you to commit what you're reading to memory. Listen to other people reading whenever you can, too. Attend poetry readings and book signings, and listen to podcasts and radio programs. (For a laugh, I recommend CBC's Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids. ) The more you hear of other people's writing, the better you will understand different aspects of your own writing - listen to the style they employ and the words they choose, and pay attention to the structure and the flow.
It has been proven that reading aloud to children is beneficial for their development, and I say why stop there. I think people of all ages should read to one another. Teachers should read to their students, and bosses should read to their employees. Maybe the divorce rate wouldn't be so high if spouses took the time to read to one another. Okay, maybe that's pushing it, but you get my idea, right? Reading is one of the great joys in life, and sharing it with others only makes it better. A friend on Twitter pointed me in the direction of the tumblr site Goopy Bloopy Gastropods, and I am oh so glad she did. It's a site devoted to Oliver the snail and his friend Penelope. Here are a few of my favourite shots:
It's Friday once again, so you know what that means. Current time: 5:40 a.m. Out the window: Ants. And with any luck that's where they'll stay - OUTSIDE. They invaded my kitchen a while back and I was not impressed, but I tried a DIY ant killer and it worked like a charm - sugar, water and Borax. On the menu: Lots of blueberries and cherries. They're two of my favourite fruits, so I thrive when they're in season. Reading: I picked up B.J. Novak's One More Thing - Stories and Other Stories at the library this week, fully expecting that I would sing its praises here when I was done, but then, to my surprise, I found that I didn't really enjoy it. That might be because I was expecting laugh-out-loud humour and instead had to settle for the mildly amusing kind. Novak is best known for his work on The Office, as actor, writer, director, and executive producer, and he's also a Harvard grad. I think, as a result, my expectations were skewed - I set the bar too high. That's okay, though. Reading is always a crapshoot, and that's part of the fun of it. I'm sure that in no time at all I will discover a gem that I was expecting might be a stinker, and balance will be restored. Watching: White Collar - this was recommended to me on Netflix when I finished watching Burn Notice. (Those recommendations sometimes puzzle me, but this one made perfect sense.) Matt Bomer plays Neil Caffrey, a charming and sophisticated New York con artist. After escaping from prison - and getting caught by the man who put him there in the first place - Neal strikes a deal: in exchange for his freedom, he will help the FBI catch the most elusive white collar criminals in the country. There's a lot that I like about this show - the New York setting; the decor and architecture of Caffrey's haunts; Caffrey's sidekick Mozzie, played by one of my favourites - Willie Garson (Stanford from Sex and the City); the subtle humour, and maybe most of all, Caffrey's stance on guns - he doesn't like them. Listening: I owe a shoutout to Cynthia for this week's music choice. She included this song in her Scattered Life roundup a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't stopped listening since. Check out "Looking too Closely" by English artist Fink.
Learning: This week's Words of the Day:
Out and About:
That's all for this week. Sarah It's official. Around here, Wednesdays aren't just Wednesdays any more. They're Words Days. My Wednesday posts are now devoted to all things wordy - grammar, etymology, writing, the works. If it involves language, I'll be talking about it here. ***** WRITING TIP #1: THE BROADFOOT PRINCIPLE Right after I finished university, I worked for a company that was headquartered here in Winnipeg and had regional offices across Western Canada. At that time all of the company's printed materials were printed here and then distributed to the regional offices. I was responsible for sending them out. One day I received a request from a manager to send out a substantial number of a particular sales form - let's call it "Form F." I hadn't worked there very long and wasn't familiar with all of the forms. When I looked at Form F, I questioned to myself why that manager would require that form, but I was too timid to question him, so I sent them anyway. They were the wrong forms. Someone had erroneously labelled two different forms as Form F and I had unknowingly chosen the wrong one. So, my boss immediately implemented what he called "The Broadfoot Principle," wherein anyone in the company, regardless of their position, could feel comfortable asking questions of anyone else in the company if something was unclear to them - there would be no hierarchy when it came to information sharing. That lesson has served me well over the years, and nowhere more so than in my writing. The more questions I ask, the clearer my writing becomes.
I find it best to start with the basics, and in this case that means the five Ws: who, what, where, when, and why. Whether you're sending an email to a friend, composing a blog post, or writing a speech for your company's president, these five questions will always serve you well.
You can see how each of these questions impacts on a different aspect of your message and can only help in making that message clearer. So the next time you're facing a blank page and wondering where to begin, think of the Broadfoot Principle, and start asking questions - the answers will help you get focused. *** Questions, comments, complaints? You know what to do. Sarah |