Word Crimes: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Want to join the party?  Go on over to From This Side of the Pond  for the Hodgepodge link-up!

July 15th is National Give Something Away Day.  What can you give away? Will you?

Well, I give throughout the year, but I won't be giving away anything specific tomorrow.  I would like to donate blood, but so far, the days I've seen the donation bus are the days I've felt puny.

Do you have a mantra? Please share with the class if you feel comfortable doing so.

"When in doubt, don't"  When I don't listen to my heart, I get burned.

Who does the grocery shopping in your house? How many times a week do you shop? Do you make a list or pray for inspiration in the produce aisle?

I try to shop for groceries once a week.  I have certain things I buy all the time, but the special items are what I need a list for.  

Is there a TV show you're embarrassed to say you watch? You're going to tell us what it is, right?

I don't have one I'm embarrassed about watching, but I am embarrassed about what's been done to it.  One of my favorite shows is Extreme Weight Loss.  I love the inspirational stories and the transformations.  Now, they've added a new element called "Love Can't Weight."  It's about engaged couples who need to lose weight before the wedding.  It would be OK if it focused on the things that the show is known for, but it's more about wedding planning and drama than health.  I skipped through to the end on the first episode and haven't watched any of the others. When they get back to the real show, I'll watch again.  Until then, I guess I'll watch something else.

A recent article listed fifteen words we should eliminate from our (written) vocabulary in order to sound smarter-that, went, honestly, absolutely, very, really, amazing, always, never, literally, just, maybe, stuff, things, and irregardless.  Of the fifteen, which word is your most overused?

Oh please!  There's always someone who pees on creativity.  First, Irregardless isn't a word, so eliminating it isn't necessary since it wasn't a part of my vocabulary anyway.  The other words?  Wouldn't it depend on the context whether these words are overused or not?  Yes, we should expand our vocabularies, but come on.  I think this article is a little ostentatious, not to mention annoying to read with all the ads and "click me" boxes.  How about a list of made up words like irregardless in need of deleting?  Play the video, Al.

So apparently dying your hair gray (in your youth!) is a thing right now. It's called 'The Granny Hair' trend. Your thoughts?

No.  Just.  No.

A while back Buzz Feed asked members to share the most beautiful sentence they've read in a piece of literature. A hard thing to narrow down, at least for me, but let's try. What's one of the most beautiful sentences you've ever read in a piece of literature?

"The first cheerleader to catch my eye during my freshman year of high school was a dazzling fourteen-year-old redhead from a well-to-do Newnan family.  She whirled with the best of them, and she did seem to show some spark of interest when I hit her with my classic opening line, 'Do you think professional wrestling is fake?'" - from The Grizzard Sampler by Lewis Grizzard

What?

Insert your own random thought here.

I'm not sure what to write about here.  I'm still adjusting to the new job.  I like that life has gotten busy without being too much.  Maybe I'll write something more salient next time.