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I was recently introduced to Brian Regan. He can’t be blamed for having a hard time with plurals. Have you seen the wikipedia page?

For anyone writing in the Hudson Valley (of New York), The Hudson River Reader is collecting submissions for river’s quadricentennial celebrations. There’s just over a month left for the deadline.

Guidelines can be found here.

Good Luck!

I’m currently cloistered in my apartment watching my car get buried in that white powder better known as back-breaking labor. As usual, I want to write an article, but don’t know what to talk about. It’s been a slow week. I’ve already tapped the usual sources of inspiration, the news, a handful of books I check daily, the word of the day. All pretty mundane.

Horoscope is interesting though. I wonder if I can find a story there…I could do with a day of brainstorming. Horoscope Brainstorming…?

I’m a Pieces:
“Being blunt can be liberating — give yourself a break and just speak the truth.

Someone offers you a great deal, which might be complicated by a debt they or someone else owes you. Try not to think about it too much — if it feels right, go for it and if not, then say no.”

James, stares out the window watching the snow pile up on his car. A recent feud with his neighbors/landlord means there won’t be any snowplow coming today. That’s what you get for complaining about midnight sessions of rock-band being played a wall away. So much for being blunt.
The phone rings. James picks it up lazily. He’s tired and not expecting anyone. It’s David, a coworker.

“How’s the weather at your place?”
“Snowy. A few inches.”
“Weather channel says it’s going to continue tomorrow.”
“I know. I might be late for work.”
“How about you don’t come in at all.”
“Work from home?”
“Not quite. Check your email.”

The man hangs up abruptly. James shakes his head and logs into his computer. “I wonder if I got fired. David said if I screwed up one more time…”
James pulls up his email. He was BBC’d on a message from management.

“Senior Managers: Due to cost-cutting and efficiency measures we are asking all employers to do an immediate review on all employees. One member of each department is slated for occupational minimization before the end of the quarter. We expect reviews to be turned in by Thursday.”

A moment later his email beeps. There’s a message from his coworker.

“James: read the message from senior management. I sent to all the other technicians. I’ll make you a deal: you stay at home this week. Just stay home. You’ll get fired, but I’ll pay you 50% of my salary. I’ll get to keep the health care that I need for my kids. My wife’s work-at-home business will cover the rest of my bills. You won’t have work so you can do freelance or whatever to make the rest of your bills. Think about it!”

James closes the laptop and goes to make coffee. As James sips from his cracked mug he looks outside. It’s nearly a whiteout and his car looks like a burial mound soon to be dissolved into the land.
“I don’t want to go in tomorrow and I don’t really like work. Something is weird though. Why would David be worried about getting fired?”

Just a short story idea. A bit of practice. I would need to flesh everything out a lot more, make real paragraphs. It’s winter and it’s cold, but I the weather needs to be really bad for this to make sense. Maybe it’s not the storm. The wind took out a bridge so the commute is now an hour longer. This car is really just a rental from a friend. His commuter car has a broken axle on a highway somewhere, a remnant of the last time he tried getting to work in the snow.
David shouldn’t just be a coworker. He should have a title, something senior. Maybe David is the department head. The whole conflict should be a bit larger anyway. It can’t just be “not driving to work/getting fired/healthcare”. There should be someone else at work. There’s a new person angling for the boss position. A recent hire from a good school, well liked by senior management. “On the fast-track for sure.” Maybe James is part of the car-pool that picks the new guy up because he doesn’t have a driver’s license. David is trying to sabotage him as well?

Just a few thoughts to get myself warmed up today. I, for one, wouldn’t mind not having to shovel for 50% of the salary. Ha!

I don’t do much freelance writing (wish I did), but here’s a pretty good list of freelance resources.

And here’s one more that’s not on the list: Helium Marketplace.

There’s just some things you can’t make up. Best part: setting the shrubbery on fire. Sure why not? Always leave the audiance asking why.

Epeolatry: Worship of words.

That’s about as obsure a word as you can find. The only reason I know about is from Anu Garg’s word of the day email. Every day I check my email and a handful of other sites for new and obscure words to explore. Given that I’ve just put out my list of words of the year, I decided it’d be a good time for a Word of the Day article. Below are websites that offer up a word (or a handful of words) every day for your linguaphilistic pleasures.

Dictionary.com: I’ve been checking this site every day for almost four years.
NYTimes
Wordsmith.org: This is Anu Garg’s site. They also have a word of the day email you can subscribe to. It’s consistantly well-written and informative.
Marriam-Webster: I don’t tend to care much for their popup advertizements.
Oxford English Dictionary
OneLook: This one is cool. It shows 5 of the words most often searched for on their dictionary.

If you have any more, send em my way!

Every year I make a list of 100 words. These are words that I find interesting, or exotic, or just strike my fancy. There’s no particular rhyme or reason to them, but over the course of the following year I try to memorize and use the words in a list. I’ve been doing this for a while and my previous lists are still online.

2006
2007
2008

And now, without further ado. The words of 2009. Most of the definitions are from dictionary.com. Many of these words have multiple meanings and parts of speech. I choose the meaning and part of speech that I found the most intriguing.

1. Abulia: n: a symptom of mental disorder involving impairment or loss of volition.
2. Absquatulate: v: Slang. to flee; abscond
3. Aestival: adj: Of, relating to, or appearing in summer.
4. Afflatus: n: inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within.
5. Affray: n: a public fight; a noisy quarrel; brawl.
6. Amative: adj: disposed to love; amorous
7. Ambisinister: adj: clumsy or unskillful with both hands.
8. Anodyne: n: anything that relieves distress or pain:
9. Argal: conjunction, adv Literary. therefore: used facetiously to indicate that the reasoning that had gone before or the conclusion that follows is specious or absurd
10. Atrabilious: adj: gloomy; morose; melancholy; morbid
11. Bagatelle: n: something of little value or importance; a trifle
12. Bedizen: V: to dress or adorn in a showy, gaudy, or tasteless manner.
13. Bescumber: v.t: To discharge ordure or dung upon
14. Bespoke: adj: (of clothes) made to individual order; custom-made:
15. Bibulous: adj: fond of or addicted to drink
16. Bruit: v: to voice abroad; rumor (used chiefly in the passive and often fol. by about):
17. Cadastre: n: A public record, survey, or map of the value, extent, and ownership of land as a basis of taxation
18. Caitiff: n: a base, despicable person
19. Callipygian: adj: having well-shaped buttocks
20. Calumny: pl. n: a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or something:
21. Caterwaul: v: to utter long wailing cries, as cats in rutting time
22. Cavil: v: to oppose by inconsequential, frivolous, or sham objections
23. Cenotaph: n: a sepulchral monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.
24. Clochard: n: a beggar; vagrant; tramp
25. Comity: n: a state of mutual harmony, friendship, and respect, esp. between or among nations or people; civility
26. Contumacious: adj: stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient
27. Deracinate: v: to isolate or alienate (a person) from a native or customary culture or environment
28. Dextral: adj: of, pertaining to, or on the right side; right
29. Dilatory: adj: tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy
30. Dishabille: n: the state of being dressed in a careless, disheveled, or disorderly style or manner; undress
31. Epeolatry: n: The worship of words.
32. Epigone: n: an undistinguished imitator, follower, or successor of an important writer, painter
33. Ersatz: adj: substitute, artificial and often inferior; using substitute components
34. Espalier: n: a trellis or framework on which the trunk and branches of fruit trees or shrubs are trained to grow in one plane
35. Excrescence: n: an abnormal outgrowth, usually harmless, on an animal or vegetable body
36. Factitious: adj: Produced artificially rather than by a natural process.
37. Fainéant: adj: lazy, idle
38. Flummadiddle: n: nonesense
39. Friable: adj: easily crumbled or reduced to powder; crumbly
40. Gamine: n: a diminutive or very slender girl, esp. one who is pert, impudent, or playfully mischievous
41. Gelid: adj: very cold; icy
42. Gestalt: n. pl: an instance or example of such a unified whole.
43. Gimcrack: n: a showy, useless trifle; gewgaw
44. Gloaming: n: twilight; dusk
45. Gnomic: adj: expressing what is generally or universally true
46. Guerdon: n: a reward, recompense, or requital.
47. Hirsute: adj: hairy
48. Hypergelasts: n: someone who laughs excessively
49. Imprimatur: n: official sanction or approval; support:
50. Inchoate: adj: not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary
51. Inculcate: v: to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly
52. Ineluctable: adj: incapable of being evaded; inescapable
53. Insouciant: adj: free from concern, worry, or anxiety; carefree; nonchalant
54. Inveigle: v: to entice, lure, or ensnare by flattery or artful talk or inducements
55. Importunate: adj: urgent or persistent in solicitation, sometimes annoyingly so
56. Lachrymose: adj: suggestive of or tending to cause tears; mournful
57. Lissom: adj: lithesome or lithe, esp. of body; supple; flexible
58. Lucullan: adj: (esp. of banquets, parties, etc.) marked by lavishness and richness; sumptuous
59. Louche: adj: dubious; shady; disreputable
60. Malinger: v: to pretend illness, esp. in order to shirk one’s duty, avoid work, etc.
61. Magniloquent: adj: speaking or expressed in a lofty or grandiose style; pompous; bombastic; boastfu
62. Manichean: n: a believer in religious or philosophical dualism
63. Maquillage: n: Cosmetic or theatrical makeup
64. Maugre: preposition: in spite of; notwithstanding
65. Mawkish: adj: characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin
66. Mendacious: adj: telling lies, esp. habitually; dishonest; lying; untruthful
67. Merkin: n: false hair for the female pudenda
68. Miasma: n.pl: a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere
69. Misoneism: n: hatred or dislike of what is new or represents change.
70. Monadnock: n: A mountain or rocky mass that has resisted erosion and stands isolated in an essentially level area. Also called an inselberg
71. Nostrum: n: a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.
72. Objurgate: v: to express strong disapproval; to criticize severely
73. obsequy: n: a funeral rite or ceremony.
74. Pellucid: adj: allowing the maximum passage of light, as glass; translucent
75. Perdurable: adj: very durable; permanent; imperishable
76. Purlieu: n: an outlying district or region, as of a town or city
77. Persiflage: n: light, bantering talk or writing
78. Perspicacity: n: keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration.
79. Pestiferous: adj: Producing or breeding infectious disease.
80. Probity: n: integrity and uprightness; honesty.
81. Prolix: adj: Tediously wordy
82. Quietus: n. pl: a finishing stroke; anything that effectually ends or settles
83. Recherche: adj: very rare, exotic, or choice; arcane; obscure
84. Repine: v: to be fretfully discontented; fret; complain
85. Rodomontade: n: vainglorious boasting or bragging; pretentious, blustering talk
86. Roister: v: to act in a swaggering, boisterous, or uproarious manne
87. Rollick: v: To move or act in a playful, carefree manner.
88. Ruminate: v: to chew the cud, as a ruminant
89. Sempiternal: adj: everlasting; eternal
90. Sinistral: adj: of, pertaining to, or on the left side; left
91. Skeuomorph: n: an ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques, as an imitation metal rivet mark found on handles of prehistoric pottery
92. Stentorian: adj: very loud or powerful in sound
93. subfusc: adj: dark and dull; dingy; drab:
94. Tarradiddle: n: A petty falsehood; a fib
95. Temerarious: adj: reckless; rash
96. Tocsin: n: a signal, esp. of alarm, sounded on a bell or bells
97. Topiary: adj: (of a plant) clipped or trimmed into fantastic shapes.
98. Univocalic: n: A piece of writing that uses only one of the vowels.
99. Vexillology: n: the study of flags
100. Virago: n.pl: a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; shrew