lim•er•ick (n.)

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The WORDmeister Notes: The WORD returns refreshed from his hiatus at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, only to find the world much as he left it. So it goes. Somehow, trampling the pristine fields of a brand new year with limericks seems fitting. The pristine will quickly turn messier. As Tiny Tim once observed, “God help us, every one!” Happy New Year.

   
There once was a man from Nantucket . . . 

In news that may or may not be important to WORDsters in a troubled world comes a story about Chris Strolin, an apparently sane man in Belleville, Illinois, who has spent the last 13 years defining the world through limericks.

“He started with the word ‘a’ — ‘It’s used with a noun to convey/ A singular notion/ Like “a duck” or “a potion”’ . . .  

“The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF) has published more than 97,000 rhyming definitions since Strolin started it in 2004. The retired Air Force radio operator . . . says his project is on track to publish its 100,000th limerick in the coming year.”

—Russ Bynum, reporter, “Definition mission: A rhyming limerick for each English word,” Associated Press, Dec. 28, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: Oy.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Man and His Muse Confront a New Year












Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Seasonal Grammar Ghosts

• Editorial Comment: Booowahahahahaaaaaa!

Presidential Press Relations

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WORDmeister Note: Always on top of the latest developments here at WORD Central, we’ve just been informed that it’s Christmas in a few days. Bit of a shock, really. So we’ll be closing up shop for a bit. The WORD’s got full-contact Scrabble and eggnog back at St. Mumbles, and I’ve got some crabbing and quick catch-up to do. We’ll be back in a bit, hoping that 2018 is not only a clean slate, but a lot saner. HoHoHo.
 
Staying Humble

“The fact is I really do respect the press. I recognize that the press and I have different jobs to do. My job is to be President; your job is to keep me humble. Frankly, I think I’m doing my job better.” 

—President Barack Obama at the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner. URL

• Editorial Comment: Makes me nostalgic. A little weepy, even.





PeezPix by Ted Pease

Crabpot Christmas








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Listen Here.

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Read a Book

“In a time of dangerously increasing division, we must listen. Good writing and good reading will break down barriers. We may even find a new idea, a great humane vision, around which to rally.” 

—Kaguro Ishiguro, author of “Remains of the Day” and other novels, in his Nobel acceptance speech, “My Twentieth Century Evening – and Other Small Breakthroughs,” NobelPrize.org, Dec. 7, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: Beats 4+ hours/ day of Faux and Tweets, Donnie.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Crabpot Christmas










Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Declaration of Conscience

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American Basics

“Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism: The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought.”

—Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), first woman elected to Congress, U.S. senator, R-Maine,  “Declaration of Conscience,” 1950.

• Editorial Comment: We used to hold these truths to be self-evident.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Pelicans








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

The Information Superhighway

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Free Cyber-Markets

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to dismantle rules regulating the businesses that connect consumers to the internet, granting broadband companies the power to potentially reshape Americans’ online experiences. . . . 


“We are helping consumers and promoting competition,” [FCC chairman Ajit] Pai said. “Broadband providers will have more incentive to build networks, especially to underserved areas.” . . .

“There is a lot of misinformation that this is the ‘end of the world as we know it’ for the internet,” Comcast’s senior executive vice president, David Cohen, wrote in a blog post this week. “Our internet service is not going to change.”

—Cecilia Kang, reporter, “F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules,” The New York Times, Dec. 14, 2017. 

• Editorial Comment: You can trust us.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Crunchy Snacks












Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Not to Overstate

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Over the Top

“When you overstate, the reader will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in his mind because he has lost confidence in your judgment or your poise.”

—E.B. White (1899-1985), writer and author, in Strunk & White, “An Approach to Style,” The Elements of Style, 3^rd edition, 1979.

• Editorial Comment: Anyone remember the boy who cried “Wolf!”?

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Fishing Buddy












Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

2017’s Top Quote

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‘Alternative Facts’

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The use of the term “alternative facts” by Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to President Donald Trump, tops a Yale Law School librarian’s list of the most notable quotes of 2017.

The statement Conway made when asked why Trump’s then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer mischaracterized the size of inauguration crowds is one of many Trump-related quotations on the list, assembled by Fred Shapiro, an associate director at the library.
 “I actually had to limit the amount of Trump-related quotations on the list so as not to have the list overwhelmed by him,” Shapiro said.

—Associated Press, “‘Alternative facts’ remark tops 2017 list of notable quotes,” wire service report, Dec. 12, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: We’re already overwhelmed. Sad.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Sort of Like a Fish Story












Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Shredded by Unreason

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ToniTalks

 

“[W]hen the political discourse is shredded by an unreason and hatred so deep that vulgar abuse seems normal, disaffection rules. Our debates, for the most part, are examples unworthy of a playground: name-calling, verbal slaps, gossip, giggles, all while the swings and slides of governance remain empty.” 

 

—Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate poet, writer, thinker, “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear,” The Nation, 2015. 

• Editorial Comment: The playground of government is crawling with bullies, thugs, cretins and criminals.




PeezPix by Ted Pease

Shroom Condos









Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Boob Tube

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Donnie’s Daily Soap Opera

“Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals. People close to him estimate that Mr. Trump spends at least four hours a day, and sometimes as much as twice that, in front of a television, sometimes with the volume muted, marinating in the no-holds-barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back.” 

—Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker, “Inside Trump’s Hour-by-Hour Fight for Self-Preservation,” The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: I have a disturbing image I can’t shake of the Leader of the Free World in a floral housecoat and curlers in front of “Days of Our Lives.”

• WORDmeister CORRECTION: Friday’s WORD (Revised: My Truth) referred to presidential “truth” extending back to FDR. The source, historian David Greenberg, reports from Rutgers that he actually said TEDDY, not Franklin, Roosevelt. The error appears in the Christian Science Monitor story.







PeezPix by Ted Pease

Summer Squash








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Revised: My Truth

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Presidential Pulpit

“Every president, at least every president I’ve studied, going back to Teddy Roosevelt, believes that he understands the truth better than the press does.” 

—David Greenberg, historian, in Linda Feldman, “Lots of voters say the press fabricates Trump stories. What’s going on?” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 26, 2017. (Thanks to alert WORDster Terry Marlow)

• Editorial Comment: Oh, bully.

• WORDmeister Note: This WORD originally referred to presidential “truth” back to FDR. Professor Greenberg reports from Rutgers that he actually said TEDDY, not Franklin Roosevelt. The error appears in the Christian Science Monitor story.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Bikers








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet, to infinity and beyond. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) #tedsword
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard