Hygge Holiday Challenge ~ third update

Dec. 15 ~ make a new friend

This one was easy-peasy.  I found a new friend named Amy on Facebook and got to know her.  She lives in North Carolina, so I haven't met her face-to-face.  On a slow day, I also got to know Sue in the Circle@Crown Café and "friended" her on Facebook.  Two new friends!

Dec. 16 ~ treat yourself to an at-home spa day

Two quotes from Albie, who came up with this Hygge Challenge:  "keep calm and spa on" and "a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind."  When I think of "spa," I think of a hot tub.  Or hot water in my bathtub at home.  So I filled my tub with warm water, lit a candle, and read a book while adding more hot water whenever it cooled off.  I also did a bit toward a less cluttered space by sorting another box or two of "stuff" I need to get rid of.  (Yay, me!)

Dec. 17 ~ enjoy some hot cocoa or tea

I had hot chocolate at the party for Crown Center volunteers.  I'm weird — I asked them to leave off the whipped cream.  (I volunteer as an "ambassador" for new residents, and I re-shelve books in our little library.)  Another time, I had tea with someone who couldn't understand why I let it cool, but I don't like tea to burn my tongue.

Dec. 18 ~ cook a new recipe with family

I live alone, unless you want to call Clawdia my family.  Her idea of food is "hurry up and open that can of salmon paté!"  New recipe?  Okay, the grocery store was out of one of her favorites in the Friskies brand, so I got her the Fancy Feast tender liver and chicken feast classic.  She gobbled it down.  Does that count as a new recipe?

Dec. 19 ~ get cozy and watch your fav movie

Now, see, this is the sort of thing that derails me.  Having to watch a movie is not hygge to me.  I'd rather read.  I prefer the movies in my mind as I read a good book.  Nope, not interested.  This month, I returned to the fictional Mitford with Jan Karon's Father Tim.

Dec. 20 ~ have a game night

Donna and I decided to play Scrabble and invited a couple of other residents of the Crown Center.  Not as "hygge" as we had expected, since the other two are SERIOUS about this game and don't waste time thinking about their next move.  Donna and I tend to laugh and talk and enjoy the game.

Dec. 21 ~ let in natural light

Every morning, Clawdia runs to watch me open the blinds and "let in natural light."  Mostly, she wants to see if that sunny white spot comes in so she can chase it.  Imagine this:  turning and turning my wrist so the spot "runs" across the floor and up the wall, with Clawdia turning on a dime to catch it.  Can you imagine such fun?

Dec. 22 ~ have a dance party

Only in my mind.  I do regularly get together with a friend or two and eat together.  Close enough for elderly women?

Dec. 23 ~ bake your fav holiday treat

I got all the ingredients to make "daisies" for friends, but still I procrastinated.  I never did get those daisies made and put inside tin gift boxes for a few friends living here at the Crown Center.  I taught Varvacille how to make a large Daisy three years ago.

Dec. 24 ~ pray, meditate, or just breathe

Probably none of these happened on the date chosen by Albie for us to do these things, but I can say that breathing in and out — in through the nose and out through the mouth — in through the nose and out through the mouth — happened consciously when I started exercising with Risé in the fitness center.

Dec. 25 ~ It's Christmas!  Give yourself a break!

Done!  I was supposed to take Barbara out to eat that day, but her back pain scotched that.  Today, we had lunch together at her table at home.  Whenever she feels up to it, we'll go out to eat.

The challenge
Click this link to see the complete Hygge Holiday Challenge calendar.

Update 1-2-18:  There's a different Hygge Challenge found by Barbara, my friend who wasn't up to eating out on Christmas Day.  Click the link to watch the video.

Words of the Year ~ 2017

Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2017:  Feminism

Look-ups for the word feminism spiked following news coverage of the Women's March on Washington, DC in January and again when Kellyanne Conway said during an interview that she didn't consider herself a feminist.  There was more interest after the release of Hulu’s series The Handmaid's Tale" and the film "Wonder Woman" and, later, in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news and the #MeToo movement.  Today’s definitions of feminism read:  “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.”

Dictionary.com's word of the year for 2017:  Complicit

The word complicit came up in conversations in 2017 about those who spoke out against powerful figures and institutions and those who stayed silent.  It was a year of real awakening to complicity in various sectors of society, from politics to pop culture.  From our 2017 Word of the Year announcement:  "Our choice for Word of the Year is as much about what is visible as it is about what is not.  It’s a word that reminds us that even inaction is a type of action.  The silent acceptance of wrongdoing is how we’ve gotten to this point.  We must not let this continue to be the norm.  If we do, then we are all complicit."

Merriam-Webster's definition of complicit is "helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way." It comes from the Latin word meaning "to fold together."  This word is one of Merriam-Webster's 2017 Words of the Year, and you should click on their link to go read about each one:  feminism, complicit, recuse, empathy, dotard, syzygy, gyro, federalism, hurricane, gaffe.

Sunday Salon ~ family and books

FAMILY

Above are three of my great-grandchildren:  Jaxon, Shelby, and Shiloh on their mother's lap.  Below are my other three great-grandchildren:  Micah, Raegan, and Jonathan.

BOOKS

Recently finished:

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living ~ by Meik Wiking, 2017, psychology, 8/10

Currently reading:

To Be Where You Are ~ by Jan Karon, 2017, fiction (North Carolina)

Looking forward to:

The Donkey's Dream ~ by Barbara Helen Berger, 1985, children's

He was just an ordinary donkey, but on his back he carried a miracle.  He carried Mary to Bethlehem on the night she gave birth.  Along the way he dreamed he was carrying a city, a ship, a fountain, and a rose.  He dreamed he was carrying a lady full of heaven.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Beginning ~ before it hit the fan

"It was the first day of October, and all things considered, Mitford was pretty quiet.  Around the tenth of the month is when it would hit the fan."

To Be Where You Are ~ by Jan Karon, 2017, fiction (North Carolina)

After twelve years of wrestling with the conflicts of retirement, Father Tim Kavanagh realizes he doesn't need a steady job to prove himself.  Then he's given one.  As for what it proves, heaven only knows.  Millions of Karon fans will be thrilled that it’s life as usual in the wildly popular Mitford series:  A beloved town character lands a front-page obituary, but who was it, exactly, who died?  And what about the former mayor, born the year Lindbergh landed in Paris, who’s still running for office?  Twenty minutes from Mitford at Meadowgate Farm, newlyweds Dooley and Lace Kavanagh face a crisis that devastates their bank account and impacts their family vet practice.  In this latest Mitford novel, Jan Karon weaves together the compelling lives of two Kavanagh families and a cast of characters that readers around the world now love like kin.

And I'm wondering what it is, exactly, that's about to hit the fan.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Here are some VERY good words

Thanks to Analytical Grammar on Facebook for posting this, saying:

"It's Word Wednesday!  Vary your VERY."

Caturday quote ~ illustrated by Clawdia

"If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor,

a cat will find it and soak it up." — J. A. McIntosh

Hygge Holiday Challenge ~ second update

Dec. 8 ~ have a candlelight dinner

I call this meal "chicken by candlelight" because I remembered at the last minute to light a candle
for this challenge.  Eating by candlelight doesn't feel more hyggeligt to me, but more like remembering an assignment.  Chatting with a friend is what I enjoyed.

Dec. 9 ~ have a tech-free evening

How about simply "have fun opening a small gift bag" I was given?  The leaders of our two "Life Transitions" groups got us together this week to talk about whether (and how) we should continue as support for each other.  At the end of our session, we received gifts from young people at a local synagogue.  I say "young people" because I don't know if they are seven or seventeen.  Each gift bag included:

• warm knit gloves (mine are purple),
• a pocket-sized packet of tissues,
• five cough drops,
• lip balm (mine is watermelon flavored),
• two Newman's Own tea bags that say on one side "keep calm and brew tea."
• a folded half-page-sized note, each one different.

My note says:  "Hope you have a warm winter! — Lauren."
Thank you, Lauren!  She didn't know about my Hygge Challenge,
but how's that for a cozy hygge gift?

Dec. 10 ~ add some greenery

Okay, but first I'll add to my gratitude list.  I'm grateful for friends, old and new, and that includes my furry friend, Clawdia.  This photo shows her inspecting the crinkly white paper on Tiny's door and sniffing those peppermint candy canes.  When Tiny's phone quit working, she came to our door just down the hall to borrow my phone to call her daughter.  When she left, Clawdia hurried along with her because Tiny is one of Clawdia's best friends.  I told Tiny I needed to shower to take a neighbor shopping and didn't have time for visiting, but she let Clawdia go home with her for a visit anyway.  I was still getting ready when my hall door opened and Tiny announced, "She's home!"  Not just every cat has her very own friends.

Now for the greenery.   I have re-seeded Clawdia's kitty garden with a mixture of barley, rye, oats, and wheat.  It sprouts in four to six days.  I got it for her when she started nibbling my green plants, some of which could kill her.  It's been several weeks since she had any grass of her own, like in this photo that I've posted before, and she really loves it.  So that's my added greenery for December, which will go back on the floor in the kitchen, once some sprouts get a few inches tall.

Dec. 11 ~ invest in a cozy sweater

I'm retired with enough cozy sweaters to last the rest of my life, so instead I invested in some soft, fuzzy, warm, and cozy socks.  These are on sale right now, which makes me even happier.

Dec. 12 ~ go for a 30-minute walk

I'm behind in the walking and exercising I intended to do this month, but I've been doing some of both.  One of my neighbors goes to an indoor gym for walking and promised to take me next time she goes.  It's too windy and cold to do a lot of walking in St. Louis weather right now, and the fitness center in our building has machines, but no place indoors for serious, intentional walking.  Going with that friend means another opportunity to socialize.

Dec. 13 ~ go on a coffee date in real life

I interpreted this as going out to eat with a friend, when Evelyn and I decided to go to Dewey's.  Here's the pizza we shared, her side with sausage and artichokes and mine with feta cheese and Greek veggies.  No coffee for us, though.  I had my usual iced tea, and Evelyn had a Coke.

Dec. 14 ~ cozy up with a new book

This is the day library books are delivered to the Crown Center, and I got Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin.  Click the link to read what I wrote about the book.  I started reading it today, curled up in my recliner.

The challenge
Click this link to see the complete Hygge Holiday Challenge calendar.

Sunday Salon ~ booked and unbooked

Booked

Here's a brand-new novel I put on reserve at the library, since I've been reading all nonfiction lately:

Grief Cottage ~ by Gail Godwin, 2017, fiction (South Carolina)

After his mother's death, eleven-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past.  Aunt Charlotte, otherwise a woman of few words, points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she'd moved there thirty years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life.  Eventually she was inspired to take up painting so she could capture its utter desolation.  The islanders call it "Grief Cottage," because a boy and his parents disappeared from it during a hurricane fifty years before.  Their bodies were never found and the cottage has stood empty ever since.  During his lonely hours while Aunt Charlotte is in her studio painting and keeping her demons at bay, Marcus visits the cottage daily, building up his courage by coming ever closer, even after the ghost of the boy who died seems to reveal himself.  Full of curiosity and open to the unfamiliar and uncanny given the recent upending of his life, he courts the ghost boy, never certain whether the ghost is friendly or follows some sinister agenda.

Here's my library loot for this past week:

• Do One Thing Different: And Other Uncommonly Sensible Solutions to Life's Persistent Problems ~ by Bill O'Hanlon, 1999
• The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person ~ by Judith S. Beck, 2007
• The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living ~ by Meik Wiking, 2017

Here's what I'm in the middle of reading with my study buddies:

• Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America ~ by Chris Hedges, 2005
• Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne ~ by Wilda C. Gafney, 2017

Unbooked

What's going on in my life outside of books?  I swiped a photo off Facebook of my son holding his youngest grandchild before her sister's dance recital.  Baby Shiloh's hand is blurred, but I think David is digging Cheerios out of a baggie for her.  That's big brother Jaxon sitting beside his grandpa.  So you want to see the little ballerina, right?

Here's Shelby after the dance performance.
She'll be four years old on Wednesday.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Beginning ~ with how to pronounce Hygge

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living ~ by Meik Wiking, 2017

Hooga?  Hhyooguh?  Heurgh?  It is not important how you choose to pronounce or even spell hygge.  To paraphrase one of the greatest philosophers of our time — Winnie-the-Pooh — when asked how to spell a certain emotion, "You don't spell it, you feel it."

However, spelling and pronouncing hygge is the easy part.  Explaining exactly what it is, that's the tricky part.  Hygge has been called everything from "the art of creating intimacy," "coziness of the soul," and "the absence of annoyance," to "taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things," "cozy togetherness," and my personal favorite, "cocoa by candlelight."

I've already started reading this book and applying what I've learned to living a more cozy life.  I've even taken on what one person is calling the Hygge Holiday Challenge.  Click on that link to read what I wrote on Tuesday about that challenge and what hygge is all about.  Just to intrigue you a bit more, the image above shows not only the book's cover (front and back, with the author's photo) but also a pair of warm, cozy socks.  Yes, new socks.  Let me quote from a later chapter in the book:

"Ally yourself with a nice pair of woolen socks as a hygge insurance" (p. 85).

No, I haven't gotten that far in the book yet, but I have figured out how socks and candlelight and my favorite tea help make my life more ... hyggeligt ... more cozy.  I'm hooked.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays. Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Hygge Holiday Challenge ~ first update

Dec. 1 ~ start a gratitude list

• Three children ~ Barbara, Sandra, and David.
• Seven grandchildren ~ Kendall, Cali, Brandy, Kenzie, Chase, Jamey, and Cady.
• Six great-grandchildren ~ Raegan, Jaxon, Shelby, Jonathan, Micah, and Shiloh.

Dec. 2 ~ add relaxing scents

I lit a vanilla-scented candle and bought a new hand soap scented with coconut water and mango to use in the kitchen.  I'm already using hand soap in the bathroom that's lavender-scented.

Dec. 3 ~ more gratitude

Since I'm retired, the challenge on the list makes no sense for me:  "sleep in 15 mins or more."  I can do that any day.  Instead, I'll add to my gratitude list.

Randi Schenberg

I'm very grateful for the Crown Center for Senior Living for being the great place for active retirees that it is.  That means being thankful for the wonderful people on the staff and the board.  Randi Schenberg, the Community Relations Director, was the first person I met at the Crown Center, when I applied to live here.  In February, Randi was given the 2017 JProStl Pillar Award, and I posted a 2-minute video about it on this blog.  Thanks, Randi, for your smiles and all you do for the Crown Center!

Dec. 4 ~ learn a new skill

I'm still trying to learn how to operate my new computer.  I've been very annoyed trying to use Windows 10.  Oops!  Being annoyed is not very "hyggeligt" ― it doesn't create a cozy environment.  I'll get someone to help me with the new laptop, but not today.  I'm going to get comfy, instead, and read a book.

Dec. 5 ~ get the Hygge book

I went to the University City Library and got a copy of The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking.  Loosely translated, hygge is a sense of comfort, togetherness, and well-being.  It's about an atmosphere and an experience, like being cuddled up on a sofa, wearing cozy socks, and covered by a soft throw during a storm.  And don't forget to light a candle or two.

Dec. 6 ~ "unbook" yourself

Too late!  I had already agreed to drive my friend Barbara somewhere today.  Watching her enjoy old friendships was also joyful for me, so it worked out perfectly.  On our way back home, we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for Barbara and for another Crown Center resident, since we were going there anyway.  She and I also had lunch together in the Circle@Crown Café and visited with several people, including Judy and Marianne.

Dec. 7 ~ send a thank you note

I looked through my cards and found this one that says "Thoughts of you..." on the front and on the inside "...are the happiest kind!"  Who and why shall remain between the recipient and me, but the card is on its way.

The challenge
Click this link to see the complete Hygge Holiday Challenge calendar.

Laura's award

Laura accepting her award on November 17th

Laura Greenberg, who is Crown Center's Community Engagement Manager, has been recognized by the Metropolitan Volunteer Management Association as the 2017 Volunteer Director of the Year.  Here's a quote:

"Laura has engaged Crown Center volunteers and provided them with meaningful, fulfilling volunteer experiences."

I'm one of those volunteers.  I work in our small library, mostly re-shelving books, but also going through boxes of donations to see what is likely to be of interest to our elderly readers.

I also have been an "ambassador" for some of the new residents who moved into the Crown Center.  Laura assigns us as needed, and we show the new folks what's available here:  the library (of course), our Circle@Crown Café, the fitness center, bus trips to shopping malls or eating out together, workshops available each month, the dining program, where to dump our trash.  You know, all those little day-to-day things, though I think we probably have a lot more activities than most independent living retirement places.  And that's thanks to Laura!

Congratulations, Laura!  You deserve it!

UPDATE:
I ran across this article just now that fits perfectly with Laura's job: Volunteering Is the Best Kept Secret for Mental Health.

Hygge Holiday Challenge

Hygge Holiday Challenge:
Since I just learned about this minutes ago, I'm already behind with this challenge.  But ... and this is important ... I'm smiling because this seems like a way to be loving to myself.  First, I need to run over to the University City Library and get this book:

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living ~ by Meik Wiking, 2017, psychology

Embrace Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga) and become happier with this definitive guide to the Danish philosophy of comfort, togetherness, and well-being.  Why are Danes the happiest people in the world?  According to Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, the answer is Hygge.  Loosely translated, Hygge is a sense of comfort, togetherness, and well-being.  "Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience," Wiking says.  "It is about being with the people we love.  A feeling of home.  A feeling that we are safe."  Hygge is the sensation you get when you’re cuddled up on a sofa, in cozy socks under a soft throw, during a storm.  It’s that feeling when you’re sharing comfort food and easy conversation with loved ones at a candlelit table.  It is the warmth of morning light shining just right on a crisp blue-sky day.  This book introduces you to this cornerstone of Danish life, and offers advice and ideas on incorporating it into your own life, such as:

Take a break.
Be here now.
Turn off the phones.
Turn down the lights.
Bring out the candles.
Build relationships.
Spend time with your tribe.
Give yourself a break from the demands of healthy living.
Cake is most definitely Hygge.
Live life today, like there is no coffee tomorrow.
Get comfy.

From picking the right lighting to organizing a Hygge get-together to dressing hygge, Wiking shows you how to experience more joy and contentment the Danish way.

I googled the word Hygge and got this, which seems to contradict the book cover (hoo-ga):

"Hygge (pronounced hue-guh not hoo-gah) is a Danish word used when acknowledging a feeling or moment, whether alone or with friends, at home or out, ordinary or extraordinary as cosy, charming or special."

I'm so ready to try something like this.  My version of the rules is to do the things on the list that fit me and my life.

1.  I'm willing to "start a gratitude list," but not "turn off the phone before bed."  Why?  Because I'm retired and live with other retirees, some of whom count on me to be there for them (even in the middle of the night) if they are having a bad reaction to a medication with the room whirling around or if they need me to drive them to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

2.  For the same reason, I'm willing to "go for a 30-minute walk" ― hey, it's on my agenda anyway ― but not "w/o phone."  My mobile phone is always in my pocket, in case I need assistance or someone to come get me.  Yes, I understand why this may work for young folks, but I'm 77 years old.

3.  I won't "invest in a cozy sweater" because I have enough sweaters to last the rest of my life.

4.  "Have a dance party"?  Hmm, I'll have to think about how to adapt that, like maybe dancing around my apartment by myself.  Or maybe I'll "party" by inviting a couple of friends to go out to eat together, letting our words dance all over the table.

5.  If the suggestions don't work on the day suggested, I'll shuffle them around and do what I can when I can.

Anyway, here's to having a fun December doing things suggested by or dreamed up because of Albie's list above and her "How to Hygge for the Holidays."  Thanks, Albie!

Readers’ Workouts – Dec. 5, 2017

Hosted by Joy's Book Blog

Goals for this week:

Tuesday ~ walk in my neighborhood (cardio)
Wednesday ~ exercise with Melissa (strength)
Thursday ~ chair exercises and squats (endurance)
Friday ~ exercise band twists and pulls (flexibility)
Saturday ~ floor exercises (strengthen core)
Sunday ~ walk in my neighborhood (cardio)
Monday ~ chair exercises and squats (balance)

Here's a week's worth of challenging myself, since it apparently takes something like this to make myself exercise.  My twice-a-week group let me down.  When nobody showed up twice in a row, I called the whole thing off.  Now I need to find a way to do it on my own.  Maybe this will work.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Hey!  I did get around to it!  I'm answering the questions I posted for Thanksgiving, you know, the ones none of us has attempted to answer yet.  Actually, I did tell a couple of friends my answer to this one, and now I'll share it with you.

"What advice would you give to your younger self?"  I told my two friends, "I'd tell myself not to get married."  Yeah, I didn't do very well in picking a husband.  "But what about your three children?" one of them asked.  Well, there you go.  Back in the 1950s and 1960s, one certainly did NOT talk about choosing to be a single mother and raising children on my own.  It was not done.  Oh, no, no, no.  Unless, of course, one was divorced.  Which I was.  So I raised them as a single mother, anyway, albeit with their father getting them on weekends and such.

Okay, I may have to keep pondering this question.  Otherwise, this advice would impact my three children, their spouses, their seven children (and spouses of the two grandchildren who got married), and my six great-grandchildren.  Here's a 2016 family photo with all 21 of them in it, along with five people from my children's father's side of the family.  (He died six years ago.)

I guess I'll have to re-think this advice.  (Is that like recalibrating?)

Beginning ~ in the ghetto

Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America ~ by Chris Hedges, 2005

"I stand across from the Mission Main and Mission Extension Housing Project in Roxbury on a muggy July night.  Scattered streetlights cast out dim yellow arcs on Parker Street.  The remaining slate-gray metal poles, with their lamps shattered by rocks, leave the strip of asphalt gap toothed, with lonely outposts of pale spotlights and long stretches of darkness.  The unlit stretches are uncharted oceans of fear.  They are filled with dangers imagined and real.  At night, in the ghetto, I cling to light."

Here are the ten commandments, plus the epilogue, from the table of contents:

Decalogue I ~ Mystery
Decalogue II ~ Idols
Decalogue III ~ Lying
Decalogue IV ~ The Sabbath
Decalogue V ~ The Family
Decalogue VI ~ Murder
Decalogue VII ~ Adultery
Decalogue VIII ~ Theft
Decalogue IX ~ Envy
Decalogue X ~ Greed
Epilogue ~ Love

Chris Hedges, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and Harvard Divinity School graduate, explores the challenge of living according to these ten moral precepts we have tried to follow, often unsuccessfully, for the past 6,000 years.  The commandments, he writes, do not save us from evil.  Instead they save us from committing evil.  He illustrates how the commandments usually choose us ― and how we are rarely able to choose them.  We cannot protect ourselves from theft, greed, adultery, or envy, nor from the impulses that lead us to commit evil acts.  In honoring the commandments, we free ourselves from self-worship and are called back to the healing solidarity of community.  It is in the self-sacrifice championed by the commandments that integrity, commitment, and, finally, love are made possible.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Word of the day ~ HAD

Someone "explained" how the last sentence SHOULD have been written for clarity, entirely missing the humor.  The "fun" point being made, however, was that a sentence could actually use the word "had" eleven times in a row and be grammatically correct.  Count 'em ― ELEVEN.  The sentence needed careful punctuation, using commas, quotation marks, and a semicolon (not counting the period at the end).  But if it has to be explained like this, then it failed with lots of people.  Probably most people.

Thanks, Analytical Grammar, for sharing this on Facebook.  I started stringing "had hads" together as soon as I read your opening comment:  "The word of the day is HAD."

Around the table ~ conversation starters

Get your own PDF of this place setting here.

Choose a question and answer it for me.  Since the squares are too small on this blog, here's the list to choose from:

1.  Tell me about your parents or grandparents.
2.  What are your hopes for the future of this country?
3.  What is one of your happiest memories?
4.  Where did you grow up?
5.  What are you most grateful for?
6.  What are you proudest of in your life?
7.  How would you like to be remembered?
8.  What advice would you give to your younger self?
9.  Tell me about a family tradition you have.

Did you notice that the first and last on the list are not questions at all?  That's okay.  You can pick one of those, if you like.  Tell me a story, in the blog comments below, or in an email (emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com), or on my Facebook page.  Do whichever you prefer.  I'm smiling in anticipation!

Oh, you want a story from me?  Okay, I'll come back here and share a story sometime today or in the near future.  What's "near" future?  I knew you'd ask.  The near future is whenever I get around to it.

No, silly, not a round tuit.

I'm a story teller, but I have to think about it ― a lot.  I'll be back.

In the meantime, I'm having a Thanksgiving meal with a friend.

The #metoo phenomenon

Why are women just now speaking up?

Here's the best answer I've seen:

"We’re not.  You are just now hearing us."

When scripture sets a bad example

from The Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb

Genesis 19 tells the story of Lot residing in the city of Sodom, from which we get the word "sodomy."  Lot takes in two men who have arrived in town late in the day, rather than leave them to sleep in the town square.  The men of Sodom, however, are not deterred by Lot's having sheltered the strangers under his roof, and they surround the house shouting demands:  "Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us, so that we may know them."  That word "know" refers to sexual relations, which is why fundamentalists use this story to prove God hates homosexuality.  Determined to protect his guests, Lot says:

"Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof" (Genesis 19:8).

How honorable of him, people say, to have tried to prevent homosexual gang rape of his guests.  In seminary, I was taught that what Lot was actually championing was not the prevention of homosexual rape itself, but the hospitality he owed these strangers.  Here's a footnote from my New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (Oxford Annotated edition) for the verse quoted above:

"Once guests had eaten in his house, Lot felt he had to obey the law of oriental hospitality which guaranteed protection.  Thus his proposal to hand over his daughters showed his determination to put first his obligation as a host."

So this is an example of a good man, right?

No!  What father would do that?  His daughters are also "under the shelter of his roof."  We aren't told how old they are, but I couldn't do that to my daughters whether 6 or 16 or even 60 years old.  Why don't his daughter count?  Is this an example of where patriarchy has taken us, to a place where women (any females) are less important than men, even strangers?  And don't tell me how righteous Lot was when he himself later fathered sons by both of his daughters.  "Thus the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father" (Genesis 19:36-38).  The first daughter bore Moab, ancestor of the Moabites, and the other bore Ben-Ammi, ancestor of the Ammonites (Genesis 19:36-38).

What I see here is that hospitality to a couple of men was more important to this father than his two virgin daughters being gang-raped.  He was a horrible father, not an honorable man.  Yet all some people can see here is that "God hates homosexuality."  Why don't we think, instead, that God would hate treating your daughters this way?

Caturday ~ Clawdia's advice

Clawdia stretched herself across my laptop and gave me a look that said, "Walk away from the computer, please."  That was a few months ago, but when I have read too much of the anger on Facebook and get frustrated, I should remember Clawdia's admonition and go for a walk.