Random Thoughts

 

by Sybil Johnson

My head is filled with random thoughts about nothing in particular. I’m pretty focused when I’m writing or working on a plot for a story, but outside of that lots of odd thoughts pop into my mind. Here are some of the most recent ones.

Welcome to my mind.

- I woke up the other morning with the words to “If I Had a Hammer” running through my mind. (1963, Trini Lopez) Doesn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out where that came from with its lyrics about hammer of justice and talking about love between brothers and sisters all over this land.

- smitten – Have you ever thought about the word smitten? It’s a past particple of to smite. Smiting someone isn’t a very nice thing: to attack, damage or destroy by blows. It also means to affect sharply with great feeling. I think most people use smitten to mean someone who is deeply in love with someone where it’s very obvious to everyone around. I find it interesting that it derives from smite. Sometimes being smitten with someone can be destructive.

- How should cats wear pants? This one didn’t come from my mind, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since Ellen talked about it on her talk show. In the photo on Twitter (https://twitter.com/lorenzothecat/status/1284930351798923270?lang=en) I opt for A (pants goes over the back legs with a hole cut for the tail). B just seems stupid. (pants goes over both legs and around the whole cat). Hard to explain. Look at the picture.

- Is cereal a soup? Heard about this one on Ellen, too. Apparently, it’s been making the rounds on the internet. Of course not, I say. Advocates say there are cold soups and cereal is served in a bowl. Really, I shake my head on this one. Still occasionally pops into my head.

- English words with be- prefix. I feel like we don’t use these words enough. bedim (to make dim), besmirch (okay, that one we use), belittle (another one we use). Maybe we should bring more of them back to common usage. How about bedew (to wet with or as if with dew)? belaud (to praise usually to excess)? befog (to confuse)? befool (to make a fool of)? bedaub (to ornament with vulgar excess is one meaning)?

- agitate – to discuss excitedly and earnestly is one of its meanings. One that I never really thought about until I was doing a workout video and the leader talked about agitating meaning talking. Hmmm...

Those are some of things going through my mind recently. How about you? What random thoughts have you had recently? 

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On another note, Merriam-Webster announced its word for 2020. It’s pandemic. They decide the word based on statistical analysis of words that are looked up in their online dictionary. Not terribly surprising that they chose pandemic. Dictionary.com’s word of the year is also pandemic. https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-year/ The American Dialect Society will be voting on their word of the year on December 17. You can register to view the livestream vote here: https://www.americandialect.org/register-2020-woty