x, y and z (pron. zed) are for the end

Not the very end.  Perhaps a summary, a wind-up, but not a conclusion. Not yet.

The end of days. Those days.  Latter days.

xenophobia noun, mass noun:  intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. racism and xenophobia are steadily growing in Europe

But not only in Europe.  I bet a lot of people never even heard the word, let alone knew what it meant, before Trump. We'll see what happens in 2018.

  yabber verb [ no obj.:   informal chatter. What's he yabbering about?  ORIGIN  probably from Wuywurung (an Aboriginal language).

Spel-Chek doesn't like that one. It keeps trying to change it to jabber.  More like Twitter, I  think, the way Twitter is being used these days. We'll see what happens in 2018.

Z - doesn't exist in one family any more, and maybe not for a lot of us. Sue Grafton, the author of the A-to-Z detective stories, died this week at the age of 77.  Her last book was Y is for Yesterday.   

 I found this in a recent letter she wrote to her fans when Y was published:

"Y IS FOR… is slated for publication in the fall of 2017 with Z IS FOR ZERO following in the fall of 2019. Many of you are asking (some quite plaintively) what I intend to do when I get to ‘the end’ of the alphabet. I’ve been consistent in my response which is “no clue.” I want to see what kind of shape I’m in mentally and physically. I don’t want to keep on writing if the juice is gone. These novels about Ms. Millhone take incredible focus, ingenuity, energy, and imagination. If I have the wherewithal, I may write a Kinsey Millhone stand-alone or two. If I feel I’ve lost my touch, I’ll retire with grace."

R I P

Tomorrow is another year.

w is for whereabouts

whereabouts interrogative adverb: where or approximately where: whereabouts do you come from?  noun:  treated as sing. or pl.: The place where someone or something is: his whereabouts remain secret.

My trouble was, I didn't know my own whereabouts. I was lost last week. The wifi was off for a week, I went to Boston (Quincy) for Christmas; I'm back now, catching up with the alphabet and me. I won't have a fireplace this coming NY Eve to do my annual assessment  but I'll watch Channel 204 (The Fireplace Channel) and turn up the sound so I'll feel the heat.  I'll finish off X, Y and Z pronounced zed)   and be prepared to jump into a new year feet first. I hope it's not too cold.