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.

A book, a photo, and a coincidence

Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America ~ by Jane Borden, 2025, cultural anthropology, 304 pages

This colorful and enlightening pop history explains why the eccentric doomsday beliefs of our Puritan founders are still driving American culture today.  The current rise in far-right extremism as a natural result of our latent indoctrination, so the author proposes that the United States is the largest cult of all.

Since the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Rock, cult ideology has been ingrained in the DNA of the United States.  Journalist Jane Borden argues that Puritan doomsday belief never went away; it went secular and became American culture.  From our fascination with cowboys and superheroes to our allegiance to influencers and self-help, susceptibility to advertising, and undying devotion to the self-made man, Americans remain particularly vulnerable to a specific brand of cult-like thinking.

With in-depth research, Borden uncovers the American history you didn’t learn in school, including how we are still being brainwashed, making us a nation of easy marks for con artists and strong men.  Along the way, she also revisits some of the most fascinating cults in this country presenting them as integral parts of our national psyche rather than aberrations.

Family photo

A photo I found recently among my stuff shows my dad holding my little brother and me when there were only the two of us children.  Since Billy was two-and-a-half years younger than I was, I think the photo was taken about 1944 or 1945.  I believe our car was a black 1940 Chevy.

I could call this coincidence #1142

I love coincidences.  I went to the Café one morning this week and got back to my apartment a bit before noon.  I looked to see how many steps I had taken by that time.  There would be many more steps before I went to bed, but I smiled when I saw that at 11:42 a.m. I had taken exactly 1,142 steps.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. Monday's focus was on food, HERE.  Fried okra is my favorite food.
2. Wednesday was a "purr-fect" day to "Adopt a Shelter Pet," HERE.
3. Thursday was about May Day protests, HERE.
4. Saturday was a family birthday, HERE.  My twins are now 65 years old.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Coincidences for us to muse about

Coincidences

If you've been reading this blog, you know I love coincidences.  HERE are ten coincidences that I thought were fascinating.  If you've noticed a coincidence, please share it with us in a comment below.

Added later:  The date that "just happens" to be 3.14 is both the date Einstein was born in 1879 and the date that Stephen Hawking died in 2018, well over a century later.  I'm not sure the words in the illustration make that clear.

Coca-Cola coincidence

Back in 1899, Chattanooga became the site of the world's first Coca-Cola Bottling Company.  The Coca-Cola taste had been invented by a pharmacist in Atlanta in 1886 and was originally only sold as a fountain drink.  Then, two businessmen from Chattanooga convinced the owner of Coca-Cola to expand into bottling the beverage.  I chose this illustration because I remember buying Coca-Cola for a nickel, and the bottle was green like that.

My neighbor Larry noticed me sitting alone at a table in our Circle@Crown Café the other day, so he brought his food over to join me.  Our conversation got around to my hometown being Chattanooga, and he asked me something like "wasn't your town connected to Coca-Cola somehow?"  Anyway, it was only a small bit of our conversation, easily forgettable.

That afternoon, I happened to be sitting in the lobby when Larry came back from shopping and started rummaging around in his bags.  He pulled out something small and came over to hand it to me.  It was a Coca-Cola coaster like at the upper right of that second illustration.  I had a puzzled look on my face, so he said, "I was at Goodwill and saw this.  What a coincidence that we were just talking about Coca-Cola!"  He had bought it to show me.  I smiled and reached out to hand it back to him, but he said, "No, it's for you!  You keep it."

So here I am in St. Louis, with my iced tea beside me on a Coca-Cola coaster representing Chattanooga.  (Are you confused yet?)

The coincidences continue (added late in the day):

Larry and I were both sitting around a table with other friends having a Café Conversations meeting, so one of us mentioned the Coca-Cola coincidence.  Someone in the group happened to look up at the large windows to the outside and shouted, "There goes a Coca-Cola truck!"  We were all astounished, to say the least.

The coincidences continue (added a whole week later):

I was reading Out of Time by Caroline B. Cooney (1996), and the main character had time traveled to 1898 (p. 74).  On the opposite page, I read this:

She didn't have to figure out how to buy a ticket; her driver and the porter accomplished this.  She did buy a Coke, which cost a nickel.  It made her happy to buy a Coke in a glass bottle and pay five cents for it.

Another coincidence

Tisha B'Av, or "the ninth of Av" in Hebrew, is an annual fast day in Judaism.  It is a day of mourning that commemorates a series of tragedies in Jewish history and is considered the saddest day of the Jewish calendar.  It's a time for Jews to commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem by the Second Babylonian Empire and the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago.

The date this year was Tuesday, August 13th.  The Crown Center had a notice on the monitors telling us the Café would be closed that day.  The coincidence is that I was reading Jewish Reflections on Death (HERE) just after I had seen the announcement and got to page 29, which says:  "On the Sabbath following Tisha-b'Ab, many Hasidim came to him..."

It was the first time I had ever heard of that particular Jewish holiday, and then I read about it in my book?  That's a weird coincidence!  The photo shows the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Wailing Wall.  Now I know why.

Sunday Salon ~ and more coincidences

Shadow Tag ~ by Louise Erdrich, 2010, literary fiction, 272 pages

 

When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe-deposit box.  There she records the truth about her life and her marriage, while turning her Red Diary — hidden where Gil will find it — into a manipulative farce.  The story alternates between these two records.

Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children:  14-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family's unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an 11-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realize, at the beginning of the end.

Apple pie snack ~ When I checked Louise Erdrich's novel out of our Crown Center library yesterday, I went across the hall to the vending maching and got myself a snack to nibble while reading.  Don't laugh; it's fruit!

Coincidences that I found online were so fun to read that I thought I'd share them with you.  Click HERE.  I found this perfect illustration HERE.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon

to share what we've read and done during the week.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts the Sunday Salon

Maya Angelou's connection to my town

Fun fact:  Today at lunch, when she saw I had that book below, my friend Alyssa asked me:  "Was Maya Angelou from St. Louis?"  I didn't know, so I googled it and found:  "On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.  Due to her parents' tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age."  I found this 2017 photo of her childhood home from St. Louis Magazine, HERE.

Today I am sharing quotes from two poems I want to remember from Maya Angelou's 1991 book of poetry I Shall Not Be Moved, that I wrote about earlier today, HERE.

"Human Family" (pp. 4-5):

. . . 

I know ten thousand women

called Jane and Mary Jane,

but I've not seen any two

who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different

although their features jibe,

and lovers think quite different thoughts

while lying side by side.

. . .

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are are unalike. . . .

"Preacher Don't Send Me" (pp. 38-39):

Preacher, don't send me

when I die

to some big ghetto

in the sky . . .

I'd call a place

pure paradise

where families are loyal

and strangers are nice,

where the music is jazz

and the season is fall.

Promise me that

or nothing at all.

Coincidence

You know I notice coincidences, right?  When Alyssa asked the question that started my search, she noticed today is April 4th.  Look up there again.  When was Maya Angelou born?  April 4th!  We were discussing her on her 96th birthday.  She died on May 28, 2014, mere days before I moved to St. Louis.