Saturday, May 12, 2007

Word of the Day

Here's a few words of interest from Webster:

Bucolic:
1: of or relating to shepherds or herdsmen : pastoral
2 a: relating to or typical of rural life b: idyllic

I can't remember where, but A read this to me sometime yesterday and I must say that I really had no idea what it meant. Having looked it up, it makes sense, because we were in the country.

Parkinson's Law:
1 : an observation in office organization: the number of subordinates increases at a fixed rate regardless of the amount of work produced
2 : an observation in office organization: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

I was looking up another word in the hardbound dictionary the other day...can't remember which word, but it's somewhere on that two page spread and this entry jumped out at me. There's an interesting fact about me that you may not know - I read in chunks. I don't read across a line of text the way most people do, but more "at a glance" and swallow whole paragraphs. That's why I'm such a fast reader of fiction, but this technique doesn't work for nonfiction as well. Also, this is why I do still so enjoy a paper dictionary - looking up words online doesn't allow for these lucky leaps across the page. At any rate, I like knowing about this law, because it explains a lot about why my thesis is not moving. No excuse though. Time to leave the dictionary and get back to writing something to turn in. But not before:

Morose:
1 : having a sullen and gloomy disposition
2 : marked by or expressive of gloom

Like my last couple posts, the weather and my general disposition today. Cedric the Entertainer and a few Pepsi's are helping though. I tell you that Norman Cousins was onto something with that laughter bit.

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