I have so many blog ideas, I think I will just have to list them and let you take them from there, or one, or two, if anything appeals to you. It was a strange, hard week as I tried to be strong and upright after my flu bug, great to be swimming again, but I had some horrible fiddlies to deal with, technical fiddles, of course, to do with a very recalcitrant computer, or program, or provider, or whatever.

(ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Latin recalcitrant- ‘kicking out with the heels,’ from the verb recalcitrare, based on calx, calc- ‘heel.’) Computers, of course, don’ t have heels, but they carry quite a kick. I was exhausted at the end of each day last week. But I coped, with the help of some (endless!) online or (baffled and baffling) chat help, and I knocked off three tasks hanging over me. All it took was time, I guess.

Evenings when I had a second and even a third glass of wine, I thought of the rule that women are supposed to have only one a day, and I thought, too, of the assurance that if one limits one’s liquor consumption, one will live longer. I have already lived longer, so what kind of an incentive is that? Well, I say to myself, if I’m going to go on as I am, I’d better take some care. Remember that comment of the entertainer, Eubie Blake, on his 100th birthday: “If I’d knowed I was gonna live so long, I’da taken better care of myself.” I’ll be careful.

Next, I came across an expression, apparently common and recognizable: the IKEA effect”. It refers to the inordinate pride people take in IKEA furniture they have laboured over, out of proportion to the beauty or quality of the product. Cute, but I know what they mean. I have lived several lives in several different venues and few things have stayed with me, except books. My line is that I have lost family, friends and furniture (also doctors and agents). So – furniture; I have gone through several different phases of furniture and I have ended (?) with IKEA, not early-married IKEA, not stop-gap IKEA, but late-life IKEA. I guess it’s had an effect.

Then, I read an article in the NYT by someone trying to procrastinate more as a way to increase his creativity. I have discussed procrastination in my blogging past and will again. Always put off today what you can do tomorrow, except when there’s a gun at your head. I have always been fond of quoting Dr. Johnson: “Depend upon it, Sir, knowing you’re going to be hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully.” And that’s all I have to say about that. For now.

And now, I just got cut off, not by Safari but by my neglect of the battery. So I’ll put in the plug and pull out the plug on this busy day and week.

Anon, anon.

nonce 1 |

adjective

(of a word or expression) coined for or used on one occasion: a nonce usage.

PHRASES

for the nonce for the present; temporarily: the room had been converted for the nonce into a nursery.

ORIGIN Middle English: from then anes‘the one (purpose)’ (from then, obsolete oblique form of the + ane‘one’ + -s3), altered by misdivision; compare with newt and nickname.

newt

noun

a small, slender-bodied amphibian with lungs and a well-developed tail, typically spending its adult life on land and returning to water to breed.

ORIGIN late Middle English: from an ewt ( ewt from Old English efeta: see eft), interpreted (by wrong division) as a newt(NOTE: eft is a good crossword puzzle word.)

NICKNAME

noun

a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.

ORIGIN late Middle English: from an eke-name ( eke meaning ‘addition’: see eke2), misinterpreted, by wrong division, as a neke name.

You may have noticed, I love words.

When my son John was a very little boy he called afternoon safternoon, because he heard the s attached to the noun as in “this afternoon”. And I heard the same elision when my mother offered my father “acereal”, all one word.

When Safari erased my blog yesterday I had just used nonce. I kept it as a bookmark to remind me where I left off. However, now I can’t remember my parabolic tangent so I’ll stick with wordplay.

I would like to thank the people both on comment and off who told me what I should do about Safari. I think they should tell Safari; apparently it is a common problem.

Anon, anon, sir.