2022 has been a bit more stable than the previous two years, and yet still very much under the influence of the pandemic. The “hibernation” we all went into in 2020 is hard to wake up from. For example, I rarely want to go the grocery store in person like I used to. Instead, I […]
I have moved from the prologue of this book of adventures that is now me and on to the first chapter. In the month that has passed since you last heard from me, I have created an altar (inspired by a Daily Om article), I have do Sanskrit chants like “Asatoma Sadgamaya” (spelling varies wildly) […]
Did you know that “mistakable” is the English word that includes the entire history of the English language? Neither did I. I was listening to “Språkteigen”, a Norwegian radio program on language and Norwegian dialects, and the organizers of a “word exhibit” were interviewed. The exhibit consisted of a single word from each language on […]
I stole this from Paula’s 2 x 13 questions (which had me thinking about one half of a deck of cards, and the fact that the Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters, but I digress). Current profile pic from last year. Heh. 1. Share your profile picture.Shared. 2. Who are you named after?Nobody. My mom saw […]
I could give you all kinds of astrological reasons for why my flow suddenly choked, but suffice to say that the communication planet Mercury is slowing down to turn around and right itself on Sunday. Until then, I shall amuse myself—and hopefully you, too—by wondering about the “false friends” language has. Things that look related […]
I have been to the US embassy in Norway only twice. The first time was when I was 13, and had to say an oath in front of some embassy officer in order to get my passport renewed, seeing as how I was living in a foreign country. I remember my first passport, probably lost […]
As the man said, as he took my signed papers, when I finally get notification that the Department of State has approved my renunciation in a couple of months’ time, the date on all the paperwork will say January 30, 2018. My renunciation day. All the having to be my own travel agent, map reader, […]
I’ve seen “visceral” used to describe something I perceive as instinctual or pathological from the context, but honestly, I don’t know what the word means, so I looked it up. Oh, what do you know: It can mean instinctual. Visceral means “relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect” according to my dictionary, […]
Some words in the English language are a lot of fun to say or look at or both. Skedaddle, poppycock, aviation, jiffy, moron. Today’s Daily Prompt (I’m obviously not doing them daily) is Jiffy. I am a person who walks fast and likes to get things done quickly, but I never say I’ll get things […]
“Gate” is one of those words that linguists call “false friends”. The word looks alike in two different languages but does not have the same meaning. So a movable barrier in a fence in English is a street in Norwegian (pronounced as GAH-teh). I’m bilingual, equally comfortable with my mother tongue English, and with Norwegian. […]
Disastrous: Causing great damage. Fortunately (heh, see what I did there?), I have never experienced a disaster. Neither of the natural kind, nor the personal kind. And that leads me to the word’s origin: From “disaster” which means “ill-starred” or to be ill-fated because of the stars. Modern astrology is more psychological and less about […]
A Roll in the Universe 