Chiclets for Bill

I would say it had been more than a year since Bill has been able to find Chiclets gum. He used to be able to find it at both Walmart and Publix. But it disappeared. He has kept his eyes open for it, hoping it would reappear.

At the beginning of last year, when I went to Dollar Tree, I spied Chiclets! The package has only ten pieces per box. He says it used to be twelve pieces per box, and these do slide around quite freely because it’s ten pieces in a twelve-piece box. Nonetheless, it was only a dollar for the package of six boxes.

Happy Bill!

Gone With the Wind Vocab, Lesson 3

Lesson 3

Here are some more words from Gone With the Wind. This is all quite interesting to me—looking up words, many with which I used to be more familiar. When I first made this list, I realized I had become quite removed from reading, writing, and words! I look at some of these and recall vocab lessons from high school, but it’s great fun to record them here and look for the tighter meanings of words that are remembered to a degree, obvious in context, but calling me to take a closer look. And so I continue.

Lesson 1 started here.

redolent p 76—heavy with velvety smells, redolent of many blossom, of newly fledged trees
—exuding fragrance, aromatic, full of a specified fragrance

riot p 76—a bright riot of the twin lanes of daffodils bordering the graveled driveway, and the golden masses of yellow jessamine
—a random or disorderly profusion

sprangles p 76— yellow jessamine spreading flowerey sprangles modestly to the earth like crinolines.
—relates to aimless or random

obdurate p 80— Seeing the obdurate look on Scarlett’s face
—stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing, hardened in feelings; resistant to persuasion or softening influences

lugubrious p 84—Irish ditties or the more lugubrious lament for Robert Emmet
—mournful, gloomy, dismal or the like, esp. in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner

vociferous p 88—the four girls . . . gave such vociferous cries of greeting that the team pranced in alarm.
—marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry; clamorous, blatant, strident , boisterous, so loud or insistent as to compel attention; implies a vehement shouting or calling out

sallies p 89—Scarlett laughed with the rest of these sallies but, as always, the freedom with which the Tarletons treated their mother came as a shock.
—a clever, witty, or fanciful remark

hoyden p 90—It was the same conflicting emotion that made her desire to appear a delicate and high-bred lady with the boys and to be, as well, a hoyden who was not above a few kisses.
—a girl or woman of saucy, boisterous, or carefree behavior

broad p 91—“Our cook is the broad wife of the Wilkes butler
—female slave whose husband was owned by another master

Calendar Gift

For Christmas 2010, Jo gave me a 2011 calendar, with images she had shot.

I have enjoyed it all year long at my work desk.

What a wonderful gift!

I will eventually show all the images from the calendar.

Holding My Hand

When my husband holds my hand, he often tells me, “I like your sweet little hands.”

Gone With the Wind Vocab, Lesson 2

Lesson 2

These are words from Gone With the Wind. Some are brand-new to me; others I’ve looked up to get a clearer definition, to confirm the meaning or look for expanded definitions. Plus, it’s just fun, for me.

Lesson 1 started here.

amity p 52—With all the rest of the County, Gerald was on terms of amity and some intimacy.
—peaceful harmony; mutual understanding and peaceful relationship

pony p 52—signaled for tall glasses in which a pony of Bourbon had been poured over a teaspoon of sugar and a spring of crushed mint
—something smaller than standard; a small liqueur glass typically holding one ounce

truculent p 52—a kind heart, a ready and sympathetic ear and an open pocketbook lurked just behind his bawling voice and his truculent manner
—eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant

florid p 35—When Gerald . . . so thickset of body and florid of face that he looked like a hunting squire out of a sporting print
—tinged with red, ruddy; archaic: healthy

depredations p 60—About the geese on the lawns of Tara: Against their depredations, a small black sentinel was stationed on the front porch. Armed with a ragged towel, the little negro boy sitting on the steps was part of the picture of Tara—and an unhappy one
—preying upon, plundering, ravage

chunk p 60—one, for he was forbidden to chunk the fowls and could only flap the towel at them and shoo them.
—to make a dull plunging or explosive sound

splitter p 74—Pork took a long splitter from the mantelpiece, lit it from the lamp flame and went into the hall.
—a flexible strip of wood, used in basket making; a slender piece of wood (or a roll or twist of paper) for lighting a fire

Gone With the Wind Vocab, Lesson 1

Lesson 1

This begins some fun, for me, with vocabulary. The words are not necessarily unknown to me, but are less commonly used. When I read Gone With the Wind in early 2008, for the first time, I decided to write down words I wanted to know better.

basque p 5—About Scarlet O’Hara: The dress set off to perfection the seventeen-inch waist, the smallest in three counties, and the tightly fitting basque
—a Victorian-era bustier, a sort of corset

mettlesome p 6—About the Tarleton twins: They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek, graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome as the horses they rode, mettlesome and
—spirited, courageous

approbation p 16—Stuart had courted India Wilkes with the approbation of both families and the entire County. The County felt the perhaps the cool and contained India Wilkes would have a quieting effect on him.
—formal approval; sanction

skylark p 20—but regretfully refused to elect them, because the Tarletons to lickered up too quickly and liked to skylark
—from running up and down the rigging on a ship: to frolic, sport

importunate p 28—never so importunate as the younger Fontaine boys, but, still, never the week went by that Ashley did not come calling at Tara
—troublesomely urgent : overly persistent in request or demand

temerity p 32—the temerity to think of Gerald O’Hara as a ridiculous little figure
—suggesting boldness arising from rashness and contempt of danger; audacity

code duello p 47—poker and horse racing, red-hot politics and the code duello, States’ Rights and damnation to all Yankees, slavery, and King Cotton, contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women.
—rules of dueling

poteen p 49—“Never mix cards and whisky unless you were weaned on Irish poteen,” Gerald told Pork grave the same evening as Pork assisted him to bed.
—illicitly distilled whiskey, typically from potatoes

manumitted p 51—Old Angus had never manumitted a single slave and had committed the unpardonable social breach of selling some of his negroes to passing slave traders
—to release from slavery

25 Most Commonly Misspelled Words

Here’s a little spelling test to challenge you. 25 Most Commonly Misspelled Words is a list that has circulated among American businesses for decades.

Please read the instructions when you go to the link.

Watch for:

Two words have variant spellings for companies using British English spelling. Those two words are repeated at the end of the list of 25 words asking for the British spellings.

Two words also have variants that appear in dictionaries. However, business writers have clear preferences for one of the spellings and expect to see that spelling in business documents.

When you have taken the test, please come back and let me know how you did.