Last night I went to a special, selected meeting of playwrights and composers, ten of each, the meeting arranged and facilitated by the Playwrights' Guild of Canada. I'm not sure how selective the selection was. There are not many playwrights who are librettists or lyricists. Those of us who are (or wannabes) were invited to submit a resume of musical works produced, if any, and a statement of intent or attitude, if one had no actual experience. From the submissions considered admissible, a random choice was made. Not sure if it was eeny-meeny-miny-moe or just take what can get. Anyway, I sent in a resume of the musicals I had had produced, in one form or another, and some suggestions as to what I'd still like to do. I told them I couldn't remember the production dates and that they were irrelevant, anyway. The only date they had to know was that I was born in 1931 and I still have all my marbles. So I was one of the ten.

Of course, they were all younger than I. I was acquainted with the oldest-next-to-me person in the room, a playwright. I talked to a couple of young (one early 20s, the other mid-30s) composers who seemed intrigued with the musical that I wanted to write at one time, a long time ago now. As I spoke of it, memories flooded back, all the research I had done, the people I had interviewed, the plot I had worked out. I even had a title. At the time, I couldn't get anyone interested in collaborating with me, nor could I get a theatre (producer) "eager" to do it. By that time, I could not afford to work on spec. I still can't. I have a film project I'd like to do but one needs a producer, absolute essential these days.

My battery is getting low. I think I am too.

Do I dare to eat a peach?

As you know, I love words and I love to follow trends, personal foibles, new words, anything that gives one an insight or a clue to the people that use them. I've talked about vocabularies changing and expanding all the time. I've talked about U- and non-U words (Upper and Middle Class; Lower is like Upper), and the use of a brand name instead of a generic, in some cases. I've noted other people's use of words. I came across a hint the other day about fashions and aging. I sort of noted that before but here are some more:

Apparently older people, like me, say porridge instead of oatmeal. My mother used to call instant coffee ersatz coffee, the term she picked up during World War Two . Ersatz is from the German, meaning replacement. Words change with the times. My mother never did learn to say refrigerator instead of icebox. Long ago I used to call those cheap rubber sandals I wore at the beach thongs. Nowadays they are called flip-flops and they are worn on the street and on escalators and in subways and I worry about peoples' toes. (CROCS are known to be very dangerous on escalators.) And now thongs refers to those horrid G-string panties that younger women wear so as not to reveal a panty-line under their clothes. The best ad I saw for Fruit of the Loom's sensible, comfortable underwear showed a variety of thongs bobbing along a clothes line to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You". I don't really know what to call sneakers, runners, tennis shoes, Nikes, Addidas whatever. Is it best to use a brand name?

A wrap used to be a sweater or shawl or jacket one put on to be warmer: "Put on a wrap if you're cold." Evening wraps were the most common. Now wraps are like a sandwich only trendier: tortillas or (lower-calorie) Romaine leaves wrapped around a filling.

Well, I could go on and on but I have work to do.