Indubitably, It's DeBussy...

Canorous /kuh-NORE-us/ Adjective - Pleasant sounding: melodious

The sounds of heaven

Canorous strains, Clair de Lune

Great work DeBussy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Uo5kcDpyg

Don't Let Your Grammar be a 97 Pound Weakling...

Enervate /ENN-err-vayt/ Verb – 1: to reduce the mental or moral vigor of; 2: to lessen the vitality or strength of.

Using passive voice

Enervates your turgid prose

Use the active voice!

(You know, the little voice in your head…)

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

Betwixt / bih-TWIKST/ adverb or preposition – Between.

Beauty, her splendor

A red rose betwixt two thorns

A fragrance divine

Give Thanks for All Your Blessings...

Thanksgiving /thanks-GIVE-ing/ Noun – 1a, capitalized: Thanksgiving Day b: a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness 2: the act of giving thanks 3: a prayer expressing gratitude

Blessed Thanksgiving

Family, friends, and colleagues

Glad thanks for them all

“Oh Captain, I do declare!”

Coquetry • \KOE-kut-tree\ • Noun - A flirtatious act or attitude

Fluttering lace fan

Sparking eyes, a hidden smile

Southern coquetry

The falling leaves...drift by my window...

Rambunctious• \ram-BUNK-shuss\ • Adjective - Uncontrolled in a way that is playful or full of energy

Fall winds, swirling gusts

Rambunctious leaves playing tag

Float softly to rest

All Aboard for "Geezer Town"

Geezer \GEEZE-zer\ Noun – A queer, odd, or eccentric person – used especially of an elderly person.

Sixty makes me laugh

Take the train to geezer town

First class ticket please

Howling at the Moon...

Lycanthropy /lie-KANN-thruh-pee/ Noun – 1: a delusion that one has become a wolf 2: the assumption of the form & characteristics of a wolf held to be possible by witchcraft or magic.

Dental dilemma

Bob’s canines grow at full moon

Lycanthropy, Yes!

Boom, Boom. They All Fall Down

Shambles /SHAM-bulls/ Noun – 1: slaughterhouse 2a: a place of mass slaughter or bloodshed b: a scene or a state of great destruction: wreckage c: a scene or a state of great disorder or confusion d: great confusion: mess.

Scrambles and shambles

Trees like jackstraws, big damage

Storm season’s coming

Do You Have the "Guts" to Eat This Dish?

Blandish • \BLANN-dish\ • Verb - 1: to coax or persuade with flattery: cajole 2: to act or speak in a flattering or coaxing manner.

Blandishments aside

Haggis is Haggis, always

Not my cup of guts

I Think I'll Just Sit Here & Think...

Tergiversation ● /turr-jiv-er-SAY-shun/ ● Noun – 1: evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement: equivocation. 2: desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith.

Tergiversation

Well, of course YOU could say that

I couldn’t comment

Cloistering the CPO

Cloister ● / KLOY-ster/ ● Verb – 1: to seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister. 2: to surround with a cloister.

Cloister Truck…

Hide the robots, Ben

Not the droids you’re looking for

Thanks. Move along now

Got to Have Gershwin Today!!!

Orotund ● /ORE-uh-tunned/ ● Adjective – 1: marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound: sonorous. 2: excessively elevated or inflated: pompous, bombastic

Rhapsody in Blue

Gorgeous, orotund music

A Gershwin classic

I Got a Basketball Jones...

Debunk ● /dee-BUNK/ ● Verb – To expose the sham or falseness of.

Debunk the big dunk

Can’t slam it if you can’t jump

A jump shot will do

Harry Mudd: Listen to this carefully, Norman. I am lying.

Illusory ● \ill-LOOZ-uh-ree\ ● Adjective – Based on or producing illusion: deceptive illusory hopes.

Illusory truth

Political speech gone wrong

Lie detector time

Oh, The Humanity...

Behemoth ● /bu-HEE-muth/ ● Noun – 1: Often capitalized: a mighty animal described in Job 40:15-24 as an example of the power of God 2: something of monstrous size, power, or appearance.

Odd protest puppet

Behemoth marshmallow man

Shouts: “S’mores are Murder.”

Shakespearean Insults, Forsooth...

Lady: Out Damned spot

Bolting hutch of beastliness

Ha! Thou cream faced loon.

Takin' It Easy...

Today is National Simplicity Day – Working to make complex stories easier to understand

Please tell the story

Use Simplicity Language™

It’s easy to grasp

Caught in the PR Spin Cycle...

Wangle • \WANG-gull\ • Verb - 1: to resort to trickery or devious methods 2: to adjust or manipulate for personal or fraudulent ends 3: to make or get by devious means: finagle

Wangle and Fritter

Fish and politics don’t mix

You can’t swim in spin

It's All Downhill from Here...

Subterfuge • \SUB-terr-fyooj\ • Noun - 1: deception by artifice or stratagem in order to conceal, escape, or evade 2: a deceptive device or stratagem.

Racing with your luge

Beware of the subterfuge

Opponents may cheat

Pounding the Podium...

Sophistry ● /SAW-fuss-tree/ ● Noun – 1: subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation 2: an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially: such an argument used to deceive

Political speech

Sound like the “Peanuts” parents

Sophistry deluxe

On the Tiny Wings of a Swallow...

Joyous ● \JOY-uss\ ● Adjective – Joyful, a joyous occasion a joyous celebration

Shafts of golden light

Swallows dart through the sun’s rays

Bright chirps, joyous flight

The Warmth of the Sun...

Canicular ● /kuh-NICK-yuh-ler/ ● Adjective – Of or relating to the period between early July & early September when hot weather occurs in the northern hemisphere

Summer sun’s soft kiss

Canicular caresses

God, I love summer

"What We Have Here, Is a Failure to Communicate"

Hoosegow ● \ HOOSE- ow (the “O” sound like ouch!)\● Noun – Jail

The Graybar Motel

In the Hoosegow, the Big House

You’re in trouble, man

Color Me Green - The Dramamine Conundrum

Deasil • \DEE-zil\ • noun – clockwise

Ride the tidal surge

Inner tube in deasil spin

Give me ‘Dramamine’

Prehistoric Poo

Gild the lily • \GILD-thuh-LILL-ee\ • phrasal verb – To add unnecessary ornamentation to something beautiful in its own right

An Ode to Coprolite

Fossilized Feces

Gilding the Lily of Time

History Is Changed

It's the Same, Only Different

Homophone • \HOME-uh-fone\ • Noun - A word that is pronounced like another word but is different in meaning, origin, or spelling.

A homophone haiku

I chased your chaste love

Your love is a sweet dessert.

Dear don’t desert me.

Look out Below!!!

Defenestration ● / dee-fen-uh-STRAYS-shun / ● Noun – 1: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window 2: a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office).

Defenestration

Chamber pot out the window

Hey! Regardez l’eau

What is the origin of the word ‘loo’?

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-loo/

This Rock's Gonna Roll...

Otiose /OH-shee-ohss/ Adjective – 1: producing no useful result: futile 2: being at leisure: idle 3: lacking use or effect: functionless.

Otiose Effort

Push the rock up the big hill

Sisyphean task

Delicate Drifts of Pink Snow...

Flocculate ● /FLOCK-yuh-layt/ ● Verb – To aggregate or coalesce into small lumps or loose clusters

Wafting, spent blossoms

Soft, pink petals flocculate

See the hue of spring

Light, and get away. With loud retort!

Efficacious • \eff-uhKAY-shus\ • Adjective - Having the power to produce a desired effect

Ipecac relief

Efficacious music now!

Here’s the “Candy Man”

(Good Grief…what a HORRIBLE haiku!)

National Haiku Poetry Day - The Rain, It Falls...

The rain. It falls...

Hard rain, and soft drops

Charm of Pacific Northwest

Evergreen and sweet

The blessing of the rain...

I welcome the rain

Torrents, sprinkles, soft drizzle

Blesses blooms of May

The Dance of the Daring Starlings

Murmuration ● \murm-uh-RAY-shun\ ● Noun – 1: the act of murmuring: the utterance of low continuous sounds or complaining noises 2: A flock of starlings: usually flying in large formations.

An Aerial Busby Berkeley Show

Synchronized in flight.

Murmuration of starlings.

Tiny sky dancers.

Robot Ruckus

Pummel ● /PUM-mull/ ● Verb - Pound, beat.

Punch. Pummel. Bam. Pow!

Those Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots

“You knocked my block off!”

Snow Falling From Cedars - Gravitational Crystalline Sloughing

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Phrase of the Day – Gravitational Crystalline Sloughing  (Common Name: Snow Drop)

The act of snow falling from tree limbs, power lines, roofs, or other places during a thaw.

Gravitational

Crystalline Sloughing, Heads up

“Twang!” the limbs recoil

This is a phrase a former journalist friend and I made up today as he described snow falling from fir trees in his back yard. Sounds impressive. No?

Time's Up - Missed Deadlines

Deadline ● /DED-line/ ● Noun – 1: a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot 2 a: a date or time before which something must be done b: the time after which copy is not accepted for a particular issue of a publication

Those dratted deadlines

Immutable march of time

Missed. Copy now dead

Word Origins, “Wonderopolis

The term “deadline” has uncertain origins. The earliest uses of the word appear to have referred simply to lines that did not move. This usage may have developed into “deadline” being used around the time of the Civil War as a term related to prisons, meaning a line that could not be crossed by prisoners.

Eventually, the term began to be used by journalists in the sense we know today. This was most likely the result of the design of early printing presses that featured a guideline on the printing plate. Any text inside the line would be printed. Any text outside the line — the “deadline” — would not be printed and would “die.”

On the Pot

Loo ● \loo\ ● – Noun – Bathroom.

Gardex l’eau she cried.

“Too late” groused the soused old man.

Chamber pot emptied

From Oxford Living Dictionary and Kottkey:

When people flung their potty waste out of the window, they would shout

“Gardez l'eau” [gar-day low]. That's French for “watch out for the water”. We probably get the word “loo” from this expression. Some people think it comes from “Room 100” which is what European people used to call the bathroom. A third theory refers to the trade name 'Waterloo', which appeared prominently displayed on the iron cisterns in many British outhouses during the early 20th century.

The Grand Pooh Bah is Large, and in Charge

Pooh-Bah ● \POO-bah\ ● Noun – 1: a person holding many public or private offices; 2: a person in high position or of great influence

Bow to the Pooh-Bah

The Lord High, Everything Else

In charge. Just ask him

(With all due deference to Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado”)