Fun with Words: Thanks, CJR and TSA

I'm a word-lover, so two articles from Columbia Journalism Review made me smile this week -

What do 'recombobulation' and 'binary' have in common? Well, at first you might think, not much, other than the fact that CJR recently wrote about both.

On further review, however, there may be a little more to the relationship. I've been discombobulated and I have to say, I believe it is a binary thing. Either you're combobulated or discombobulated. Based on personal experience (and a poor grasp of chemistry), I think it's something like being either solid or liquid. Frankly, I find it nearly impossible to be in both states at the same time.

Apparently, the Transportation Safety Administration now recognizes that collecting your carry-ons, shoes, and other assorted atoms and grouping them into a tighter bundle takes some time. And space. So there.

Recombobulation Takes Time. And Space. And Good Reporting. 

So, for shedding light on the under-appreciated word combobulation, I thank CJR (and TSA).

Now, back to binary. It seems a little odd that there can be so many meanings, don't you think? Does that mean two really isn't enough?

Think about it. And if you like words and wonderful writing (reporting, too) maybe consider supporting CJR.

_____________________________________
Speaking of words to love, remember sniglets? Since they appeared in the 1980s, they've been upgraded.

Wiser Wednesday

Wednesday is a great day to work your vocabulary muscles!

Warm up with GetWords.com then see if you're smarter than an 11th-grader by taking the SAT vocabulary challenge and then, if you just haven't gotten your fill of words, consider The Word on Words, a self-published book that received a starred review* from Kirkus review.


*See, they're out there.

Wiser Wednesday

If you enjoyed my Matriculate Monday series, you might like this, too:

Definition a Day quiz from Vocabula.com

___________________
Link not working? Here:
http://www.vocabula.com/quiz/showDOTD.aspx

Poets.org Unsnobs Verse

The Academy of American Poets was founded in 1934. 

I don't think of myself as a poetry lover, but Poets.org convinced me to re-consider. 

With a mission "to support American poets...and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry," it sounds just a tad stuffy, don't you think? Well, it's not.

Turns out these wordsmiths foster appreciation in some very accessible ways. Mobile poetry reader, anyone? (It allows you to "Woo or woe, on the go.")

The site has oodles of references for educators (hello, substitute teachers, bookmark this: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/6) and other folks, including those (like me) who can't always tell their ee cummings from their Robert Frosts and those who'll admit (as I do) they've never read Shakespeare outside of a classroom. Poetry 101 is a lively, not-at-all disdainful or sarcastic section where I could learn a lot. But for today, at least, I'm going to browse the more bourgeois Poems for Every Occasion pages, complete with emoticons and links to the poets' Twitter and Facebook pages. #don'tjudgeme :D
___________________________________________
psssst - April is also National School Library Month. Hey I know, you could celebrate by donating a poetry book to your local school library. Bet Poets.org could recommend a few good books ...

Gifts for writers/lexiphiles

Kiss and Tell and Haikubes, both available in Chronicle Book's Fall/Winter catalog, could be perfect gifts for a writer, English teacher, librarian, book club leader, or other word-lover in your life.

Haikubes is a set of 63 word cubes players can roll like dice to dish up ingredients for an original haiku. From the folks behind the Cranium games, the cubes are available in August. US $25

Players of Kiss and Tell compete to tell the sexiest/sultriest/silliest story, according to the story component  cards they are dealt. Available in November; US $19

Let's Go to Guernsey and Read about Reading

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, By Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer (c) 2008

First a (long overdue) confession: I am not a member of a book club.

If I were, surely I would have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last year, when it was published. As it is, my ex-mother-in-law recommended the book after I passed along Yes, My Darling Daughter.

(Aside: Yes, my ex-mother-in-law. Divorce or no, there love of books goes on.)

The novel is comprised entirely of a series of letters and telegrams - no dialog, description, or any other prose - sent from the narrator, who is also an author, to her publisher, her dear friend Sophie (sister of the publisher) and to a handful of endearing folks (and one infuriating old biddy), all residents of Guernsey.

The setting is London and Guernsey, an island protectorate of England situated near the coast of France, as the cleanup is beginning following WWII.

How the author gets in touch with the residents of Guernsey and how the titular society came to be unfolds so sweetly I don't dare ruin it for you. And that is only the first few pages. Read it, dear reader. Read it.

Need more prodding? The authors' word selection is superb and the book hinges on the sheer joy of reading. Now, off to the library with you!

3 Cups for Young Readers - or Not

Three Cups of Tea
for Young Readers (c) 2009 209 pages

We’re all busy, it’s true. In case you’ve been so busy that you haven’t heard Greg Mortenson’s story – the riveting nonfiction Three Cups of Tea – well, OK, I’ll tell you. But I’ll wager you haven’t been quite as busy as Mortenson.

Mortenson served as a US Army medic before surviving years of what most would consider successful mountain climbing. Then, when he failed to reach the summit of K2 (he was about 600 meters short) and got himself badly lost, by the grace of God, or Allah, or Mohammed, or all three, he found himself in very good company, in the village of Korphe, in the Baltisan region of Pakistan.

There ended his climbing adventures and began a much more heroic journey.

Sincerely wishing to repay the kindness of those who nursed him back to health in Korphe – and probably, with a climber’s bravado – Mortenson promised to return to the village and build a school for its children.

How he fulfilled that promise is a great story, and after years on bestseller lists, it is now available in a young reader’s version (Puffin pb 2009). There's also a lovely picture book for the lapsit set. (More on that later.)

Weighing in at 209 pages, the young readers edition about two-thirds as long as the original – so adults who want to read Three Cups but just haven’t made time will have to come up with a new excuse. The Young Reader’s edition is better than a Readers’ Digest Condensed version, but the fact that it is so true to the original story is why, IMHO, it will not resonate with teens the way Three Cups did with adults.

For one reason, by teen standards, it’s a very slow-moving story.

There's little action, aside from some wild drives through Baltistan's Hushe Valley, which is quite dramatic. The rest of the book's drama is social, interpersonal, conversational. It's in the strange and protracted negotiations about concrete and nails. Trust me, it's a lot more exciting than it sounds, but it'll never grip kids like Twilight or (pulling out the obvious here) Harry Potter.

What could be done about it? That's a good question. Three Cups will probably never be a graphic novel. But the writing needs to be a little sharper, a little more pointed to get to kids, I think. It needs to move a little bit faster.

And the conundrum is, well, the book is about slowing down. That's the lesson of the three cups of tea. So a graphic novel or book with more action-packed dialog probably isn't the answer.

I hope I'm wrong in my assessment, and that tweens and teens will pick up and finish Three Cups, because it's an amazing story with an important message that kids - heck, all of us - would do well to grasp.

Click here to read my review in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which also highlights the picture book, Listen to the Wind.

More Like Animal Dreams, Please

Barbara Kingsolver knows how to write. She describes people, places, things, and feelings in such a way - in only a few words - that they get under your skin, and you understand all you need to know about them. The language she uses isn't lengthy or flowery; it's overwhelmingly beautiful in its simple perfection.

While many writers can say a lot in a few words, what sets Kingsolver apart is how expertly she uses those few words to tell a story; even her descriptions move the action forward. Consider the expedient, but unrushed unfolding of Animal Dreams:

about the place, Grace, AZ: [p. 40]

people here spent their childhoods tearing through the homes of their future in-laws

about the shy doctor, the boyfriend left behind: [p. 41]

He could face new flesh wounds each day at work, but he avoided actual people.

about going home: [p.69]

My father, the only real candidate for center of my universe, was content to sail his private sea and leave me on my own. I still held that against him. I hadn't thought before about how self-sufficiency could turn on your in old age or sickness. The captain was going down with his ship. It became possible for me to go back to Grace.

The main character and narrator of Animal Dreams is Codi, a self-described educated vagabond. Codi returns to her childhood home to check on her father, who may or may not be dying. I'm afraid to review the plot further, for fear I'd make the book sound like "just" another can't-go-home-again story, and that would be ridiculous.

In fact, for the most part, Animal Dreams is about going home, and within its pages, Kingsolver (once again) proves that a good storyteller can make even the oldest stories worth hearing again.

It's PC to Read About Your PC

Reading PC Magazine isn't exactly a pleasure; I consider it a duty. Like a lot of folks, I shop, read, learn, and work on a PC (a PC and two laptops, in fact) so I think I ought to try to understand the machines that are, for better or for worse, embedded in my life.

I know, as sure as I'll have to see a doctor when I get sick, there are some computer illnesses I'll have to see a help desk technician to heal. And then God help me (and my PC) - because like doctors, some help desk technicians have great "keyboardside" manners, and some don't.

But I digress. The latest issue of PC Magazine contains a dandy list of the editors' top 200 websites. Among them were a few for readers and writers:

Project Gutenberg features more than 20,000 books in the public domain;
WOWIO is an e-book site that offers loads of free books, in easy-to-download PDFs;
Footnote digitizes and uploads every document housed by the National Archives (!); and
Ninjawords, for when you've just gotta know the meaning of a word, and you don't wanna wade through several dictionary sites to get it.

I also enjoyed reading about Kiva, an organization that's reinventing what it means to "share the wealth." The site helps users make small loans to entrepreneurs worldwide - for example, $200 to a shopkeeper in Kenya - and then, helps loan-makers recoup their dough. Sounds good to me.