Coming soon to a blog near you....

But I'm not ready to deal with Dataism and BitRot. I have other stuff to catch up:

comity |noun (pl. comities), formal: 1 an association of nations for their mutual benefit.• (also comity of nations) [ mass noun ] the mutual recognition by nations of the laws and customs of others. 2 [ mass noun ] courtesy and considerate behaviour towards others. a show of public comity in the White House. ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in sense 2): from Latin commits, from comus ‘courteous’. Hey, we could use this for the G6 Plus One!

jerboa noun: a desert-dwelling rodent with very long hind legs that enable it to walk upright and perform long jumps, found from North Africa to central Asia. ogg-legged jerboa ●Family Dipodidae: several genera and species. ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: modern Latin, from Arabic yarbū‘ .

quokka noun: a small short-tailed wallaby with a short face, round ears, and some tree-climbing ability, native to Western Australia.●Setonix brachyurus, family Macropodidae.ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Nyungar kwaka . I have a friend on an RTW (Round The World) trip who sent me a photograph of this little fellow ver cute. Never heard of it before last week. What a world !

anecdotage |noun [ mass noun ] 1 anecdotes collectively: a number of reports cannot be dismissed as anecdotage. 2 humorous old age, especially in someone who is inclined to be garrulous. it is not within many of us to emulate such a feat in our anecdotage.[from a blend of anecdote and dotage.] think I already covered his one; it's a natural, was to identify and I'm sure to use.

berm noun: a flat strip of land, raised bank, or terrace bordering a river or canal.• a path or grass strip beside a road.• an artificial ridge or embankment, such as one built as a defence against tanks. berms of shovelled earth.• a narrow space between a ditch and the base of a parapet. ORIGIN early 18th cent. (denoting a narrow space): from French berms, from Dutch berm . This is an easy, useful one but I haven't used it, yet.

anechoic adjective: technical: free from echo: an anechoic chamber.• (of a coating or material) tending to deaden sound. The Russians treat their submarines with anechoic coatings to reduce sonar returns. This makes me think of that line from A Lady'sNot For Burning: "Oh for a holiday in a complete vacuum."

anaphora noun: [ mass noun ]1 Grammar: the use of a word referring back to a word used earlier in a text or conversation, to avoid repetition, for example the pronouns he, she, it, and they and the verb do. I like it and so do they. Compare with cataphora.2 Rhetoric the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.3 Christian Church the part of the Eucharist which contains the consecration, anamnesis, and communion. DERIVATIVES anaphoric adjective: ,anaphorically adverb ORIGIN late 16th cent.: sense 1, sense 2 via Latin from Greek, ‘repetition’, from ana- ‘back’ + pherein ‘to bear’; sense 3 from late Greek.

swather Scottish verb [ no obj. ]: be uncertain as to which course of action to choose: Leonard swithered as to whether he should enter the arts or commerce.noun [ in sing. ]a state of uncertainty. ORIGIN early 16th cent.: of unknown origin. ou can tell every once in a while that I'm reading Outlander.

bothy noun: (pl.bothies) (in Scotland) a small hut or cottage, especially one for housing farm labourers or for use as a mountain refuge. ORIGIN late 18th cent.: obscurely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic both, both an, and perhaps to booth. (See above.)

gralloch noun [ mass noun ]: the viscera of a dead deer. verb [ with obj.]: disembowel (a deer that has been shot). ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Scottish Gaelic grealach ‘entrails’. Another one.

coppice noun: an area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber. coppices of oak were cultivated. [ mass noun ] : much coppice is no longer managed as such. verb [ with obj.]: cut back (a tree or shrub) to ground level periodically to stimulate growth: (as) : coppiced timber. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, based on medieval Latin ‘a blow’ (see cope1). Compare with copse.PHRASES coppice with standards chiefly historical managed woodland consisting of coppiced shrubs or trees, with scattered trees that are allowed to reach full height. it's a pretty word.

rootle verb: Brit.informal term for root2. the terriers scuttled off to rootle through the brushwood. I rootled around for ten minutes.ORIGIN early 19th cent.

vipassana noun [ mass noun ] (in Theravada Buddhism): meditation involving concentration on the body or its sensations, or the insight which this provides.ORIGIN Pali, literally ‘inward vision’. (Where did I read this??)

The computer is demanding to be updated. Anon, anon. That was enough, anyway.

Ah, paper! Such treasures it holds in an agglomeration of ideas: all the little scribbles and notes I write to myself. I've gone through a stash of paper, taking notes on notes (huge list of people i have to write. Does anyone else feel this compulsion/need to communicate?) I'll try to get through it all; haven't forgotten what I want to get back to. So:

1) Sherpa, noun: (pl. same or Sherpas) a member of a Himalayan people living on the borders of Nepal and Tibet, renowned for their skill in mountaineering.• informal a civil servant or diplomat who undertakes preparatory work prior to a summit conference. ORIGIN from Tibetan sharpa ‘inhabitant of an Eastern country’.

Hold on. This is not word-search tonight. Early evening yesterday I was heading for the hall towards the elevator in my wing when I met a neighbour from a lower floor heading the same way. I was carrying the planting paraphernalia, the picnic equipment,my big handbag (water, sunglasses, tickets), a couple of shawls (I get cold easily) and the mail I had just picked up. My friend said, "You're loaded like a Sherpa," and took some of my stuff to carry. I could have made it with two trips or a buggy but I didn't want two trips. I wanted to get HOME after the outing to Stratford. With my friend's help, I was that much sooner on my sofa, collapsed in front of the Jays game. But her word stayed with me: Sherpa.

Of course, I know what a Sherpa is, but I had never used my neighbour's simile. That got me thinking about all the little familiar expressions a person uses, perhaps exclusively to oneself, or common to the family. Some of the words may have been in the family for one or two generations; others come up fortuitously, as required. Actually, I think about them all the time. As a playwright, I look for them and use them. They are called "tags" - not to be over-used but useful shorthand for identifying the speaker and attitudes.

My son Matt picked up an expression, I guess from a fellow worker who called his work place "the hellhole". Matt would say, "Have to go back to the hellhole tomorrow." I suggested he might like to try saying "salt mines" It's old-fashioned; my father used it. It refers, of course, to the salt mines in Siberia, infamous in an earlier time for horrendous working conditions. Today we might use the Third World factories and their workers who produce low-priced clothes for us. Bt how would are say it? Back to the sewing machines?

We all speak in metaphors and similes and time-worn cllches and family expressions. How dull, stale and flat would our communication be without those tools. Actually, it is stale.

Catch you later, alligator. In a while, crocodile. (ugh)