Delays

I wish to acknowledge that I occasionally overlook parts of my self-imposed regimen of word posting here.

Every day gets quickly filled by preparing the illustration which goes with this post, and the post appears elsewhere, too. Sometimes I simply forget to do the post in the whole sequence of places. This one typically comes last in my sequence…and gets missed as other parts of life begin to crowd in around me.

I admit that the past weekend has been extra challenging as I tried to keep myself busy, avoiding the final days of media churn leading up to the Super Bowl. I guess I distracted myself from this job, too.

At least the SB won’t be a problem for about a year. Let’s see if I can remember my task here.

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inutile

inutile

/ɪnˈjuːtɪl/
adjective
formal
Useless; pointless.

Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin inutilis, from in- ‘not’ + utilis ‘useful’.

Important question of the day: Is inutile a useless word?

[This illustration MAY need a note. Some from recent generations might not recognize this land-line phone socket from the mid 20th century.]

antique

antique

/anˈtiːk/
noun
A collectable object such as a piece of furniture or work of art that has a high value because of its age and quality.
as modifier ‘an antique dealer’
adjective
1 Having a high value because of age and quality.
1.1 Intended to resemble the appearance of high-quality old furniture.
2 Belonging to ancient times.
2.1 Old-fashioned or outdated.
2.2 humorous Showing signs of great age or wear.
verb
1 with object Make (something) resemble an antique by artificial means.
2 usually go antiquing – North American no object – Search or shop for antiques.

Origin
Late 15th century (as an adjective): from Latin antiquus, anticus ‘former, ancient’, from ante ‘before’.

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Many times the WotD is an antiquated word, shared by one antique individual with MANY other like-minded codgers. We even recognize our CamelCase abbreviations, we’ve been at it so long, though maybe we do not know what CamelCase actually is.

Poetry at Indieweb

Crossing miles or crossing wires,
We share our words and our desires.
Posting here, embedding there
Many ways today to share.

This was also posted to
/en/indiewebpoetry.

THIS IS A TEST.
For the record, on the free version of WordPress.com blogging, webmentions appear to not function. There seem to be plugins available, but one must have an upgraded (paid) account on WordPress.com to install plugins.

For now, it seems this is not going to work.

dicrotic

dicrotic

/dʌɪˈkrɒtɪk/
adjective
Medicine
Denoting a pulse in which a double beat is detectable for each beat of the heart.

Origin
Early 19th century: from Greek dikrotos ‘beating twice’ + -ic.

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While “dichrotic” is mainly a medical term, a double beat is a strong element of drum and bugle corps performances.

stonkered

stonkered

/ˈstɒŋkəd/
adjective
NZ, Australian
informal
1 predicative Utterly exhausted or defeated.
1.1 Drunk.

Origin
1920s: from Scots and northern English stonk ‘game of marbles’, perhaps of imitative origin.

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Simon was stonkered after the game. It did help that his team had won, but there were at least two more games in the series to go.

torment

torment

noun
/ˈtɔːmɛnt/
mass noun
1 Severe physical or mental suffering.
1.1 count noun A cause of severe suffering.
verb
/tɔːˈmɛnt/
[with object]
Pronunciation /tɔːˈmɛnt/
1 Cause to experience severe mental or physical suffering.
1.1 Annoy or provoke in an unkind way.

Origin
Middle English (as both noun and verb referring to the infliction or suffering of torture): Old French torment (noun), tormenter (verb), from Latin tormentum ‘instrument of torture’, from torquere ‘to twist’.

==========

She tormented him with her words.

Copyright Creeps

There’s a new “free” trade agreement among the three North American nations which apparently includes language extending Canada’s copyright to  life of the creator plus 70 years.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/10/01/canada-capitulates-on-copyright-in-new-usmca-deal.html

It’s another blow to the commons. I presume that it’s another bit of chicanery by Hollywood and the publishing industry to keep a tight grip on ALL creative works. Not that the works are routinely available for the public, mind you. In Disney terminology, they are in the Vault for years until a new generation can be made to pay for the privilege to watch an animated film from the 1940s. Then, too there are all the out of print books by authors long dead. Even libraries have culled them because the physical books became musty and were not regularly circulated. Those same works have not been lovingly converted into digital ebooks by their original authors or even by their estates because the publishers own the rights. The public, people like you and me, only has the right to complain. Our voices carry not at all in the midst of the “negotiators” who speak regularly with the poor, downtrodden film and publishing industry.

House vs. Home

Realtors with their advertising suggest to us that a building with residential zoning is a home which can be purchased. I don’t think so. The building is just a house, no matter how cute or how many rooms have hardwood floors and crown molding.

A house becomes a home only when someone moves into it and makes it a cozy, emotionally warm and safe. “Home is where the heart is.” That old adage tells me that one or more people need to invest their love into making a house more than an occupied building.

Veronica

Also known as “creeping speedwell”, Veronica is a tiny lobed flower growing in my lawn. I look forward to seeing this little thing even though it is technically a weed. The flower is tiny, only a few millimeters across. You need to look closely, probably even kneel or stoop on the lawn to see how pretty it is.

(An entry of “Weed and Wildflower Wednesday”)