What's a bosky campus?

bosk·y /ˈbäskē / adjective literary = wooded; covered by trees or bushes.  Example:  "I made my way across the bosky campus of the University of Pittsburgh."

My 2002 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition) has this definition:

1. having abundant trees or shrubs.
2. of or relating to a woods.

Background:  I was reading page 69 of Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt and came across the words in the campus example I used in the title.  I very rarely come across a word that I've never seen or heard before.  After all, I've been reading since the mid-1940's.  So I was surprised and wondered, "What's a bosky campus?"  The illustration above shows an example of "having abundant trees or shrubs."

(I'm also fascinated by the coincidence that the illustration says "bosky" was the word of the day on July 9, 2017.  It's also my word for July 9, 2025, exactly eight years later.)

Professor Pigeon has even more to say about the word.  Look at all those synonyms:  shady, shadowy, shaded, leafy, brushy, dim, sheltered, screened, verdant, dark.

Two bananas for TWOsday

Two bananas appeared in the box beside my door yesterday.  I had to ask a couple of friends before I found out who put them there.  It was my neighbor from down the hall in the old building who admitted to putting them there.  

The other day, a different neighbor gave me a banana that came with her lunch; saying that she cannot eat bananas.  Don't I have nice neighbors?  (I seem to be going bananas over bananas today, but they make good snacks while reading.)

World Chocolate Day

World Chocolate Day is celebrated on July 7, which some suggest is the anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe in 1550.

I have some Coyote Tracks ice cream in my freezer.  It just happens to be my favorite ice cream these days.  It's vanilla ice cream with thick fudge swirl and mini peanut butter cups in it.  But I think I'll also go down to our Café for lunch and have one of their muffins as well.  Something chocolate.  (Added:  Today, the Café had chocolate muffins with chocolate chips added.  It's delicious!)

I loved the book

I'm looking forward to our afternoon movie today, which will be "The Secret Life of Bees."  This is what I said about the book in September 2009, HERE:

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (2002) is #10 alphabetically in my continuing series on "fifteen books that will always stick with me."

What is it about this book that I like so much?  Maybe it's the image of Rosaleen, a black woman in the South in 1964, spitting snuff on the shoes of a racist white man who is harrassing her.  Maybe it's the strong character of August Boatwright (one of the "calendar sisters" of May, June, and August), who epitomizes a queen bee in this story about bee-keeping sisters who take in a 14-year-old white girl running away from her abusive daddy — I think making her kneel on grits is abuse, don't you?  Maybe it's the Black Madonna in Tiburon, South Carolina, that Lily runs to after she breaks Rosaleen out of custody.  Maybe it's that this first novel was written after the author realized conventional goodness just wasn't enough.

1. On Tuesday, I wrote about two friends, HERE.  Well, I also mentioned a book and a couple of magazines from the library that I was reading.
2. On Wednesday, I wrote about a boy who loved words, HERE.
3. On Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I didn't post anything.  This has NOT been my best blogging week.  Maybe I attended too many Fourth of July events we had at the Crown Center.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A book about words in my library loot

The Boy Who Loved Words ~ by Roni Schotter, illustrated by Giselle Potter, 2006, children's picture book, 40 pages

Some people collect shells or stones; young Selig collects words. Whenever he hears a new one he likes, he jots it down on a slip of paper and stuffs it into a convenient pocket, a sock, a sleeve, or a hat. The words he collects are ones that stir his heart and ones that make him giggle.  What should he do with so many words?  After helping a poet find perfect words for his poem (lozenge, lemon, licorice), he decides that his purpose is to spread the word to others.  And so he begins to sprinkle, disburse, and broadcast them to people in need.  This book won the Parents' Choice Gold Award.

Two friends on TWOsday

A friend from the community called this morning to suggest we get together for lunch in the Cafe at noon.  A few minutes later, she called back to say she had also invited another of her friends, who happens to be a resident here.  That's fine with me, since she's also my friend.  So there's my TWOsday angle for today.  But what about books?  Of course I'm still reading!  Every day.  Maybe not every minute, though it sometimes seems that way.

 

I'm still in the middle of re-reading Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, 1997, and reading through a couple of magazines (TWO, again) from the Crown Center library:

1. XPLOR from the Missouri Department of Conservation for July/August 2025.
2. Audubon, (Summer 2025 issue) which celebrates 120 years of Audubon.

Starring Grace as Peter Pan

Amazing Grace ~ by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Binch, 1991, children's picture book, 32 pages, 10/10

Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells.  So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be.  The watercolor illustrations fully express Grace's high-flying imagination.

Grace wants to be Peter Pan, but her classmates tell her:  "You can't be Peter -- that's a boy's name" and "You can't be Peter Pan ... He isn't black."  But Grace kept her hand up.  Before the class auditions, Grace's Nana told her:  "You can be anything you want, Grace, if you put your mind to it."  Re-read my title.

1. On Monday, I posted another version of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, my favorite piece of music, HERE.
2. On Tuesday, I asked for your opinion about children's books, HERE.
3. On Wednesday, I wrote about a children's book, HERE.
4. Thursday's post was philosophical, about buying something on sale and about what TL;DR means, HERE.
5. Friday's post was about a memoir of a family moving to Gaza in 1948, HERE.
6. On Saturday, I wrote about two sole survivors, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.