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.