What next?

By Mike Lundy
- avoiding what he really should do next with a flight of fancy on next as a part of speech 

From Toothpaste For Dinner

The books sitting on Reader’s bedside table, on the floor, those in the bookshelves, and the ones on the tablet are all locked in a fierce debate. They bicker and snark at each other as the self-entitled things that books tend to be.

'I should be the next (adjective) book: I am by far the most important and relevant to Reader's current project,' asserts Seven Cheap Things, sitting in the promising prime position on the bedside table. 'There is a deadline to consider.'

'No, I should be the next (pronoun) in line, 'says White Teeth. 'One should always read a novel between non-fiction books. That way, Reader can consolidate all that heavy, ridiculously self-important, so called ‘factual’ information before moving on. Plus, I'm due back at the library in four days; Reader better get started soon.'

Nomological

By Fred Shivvin

Here's an adjective you don't hear every day, or maybe even any day - nomological.

It is uncommon. And a bit awkward to say. What if I told you knowing about this word nomological might help you better understand other people?

The dictionary definition is:

Nomological: relating to or expressing basic physical laws or rules of reasoning

Dry and unhelpful, you will probably agree. Something about rules that describe how people think and reason. Who would think there could be rules about that?!

Gruntled

By Fred Shivvin

A meme on social media about gruntled being the long-lost opposite of disgrunted caused me to stop scrolling. Really? Haha emoji.

I googled it for a while. Heaps of hits resulted - even t-shirts and gruntled websites. The re-discovery of this word seems to have made a lot of people gruntled and amused.

Part of the humour lies in the way the unearthing of gruntled seemed to right a wrong, an unknown sense of something lacking, providing something that should have been there but was not. 

Where had the opposite of disgruntled been all this time?

TATKOP 104

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who think 'love is all you need' and those who run the world.
Inspired by Prince Charles' amusement at the speech by Bishop Curry about the power of love at his son's wedding, and this image of the word 'love' surrounded by the destruction caused by fire, from Liam Hemsworth.
(View all the posts in the TATKOP Series by Fred Shivvin here)

Romantic

By Mae Wright

It's a Tuesday evening and my friend B and I are enjoying a beer after work. We're doing what we often do: making up back stories about the city workers walking past on their way home.

It's nearly 5pm and the streets are starting to crowd, so we finds lots of inspiration in the jostling pedestrians. Eventually B says, "Why are so many people carrying flowers?"

"Because it's Valentine's Day; didn't you remember? Ooh, you'll be in trouble when you get home!"

He shrugs, "Nah, I would never get flowers just because it's Valentine's Day. We never used to do that in Australia. I don't know why we started. I think Lee minds a bit, but I find it annoying to be told I have to buy them."

TATKOP 103

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who can entertain an idea they don't agree with and those who don't agree with entertaining an idea. (Apologies to Aristotle.)
(View all the posts in the TATKOP Series by Fred Shivvin here)

Feisty

By Mae Wright

Most dictionaries define feisty as 'having or showing a lively aggressiveness'; 'tough, independent, and spirited'; 'lively, resilient and self-reliant.'  Sounds like a good thing to be.

The Collins dictionary adds the essential element that restricts which words feisty can be combined with 'often when you would not expect them to be, for example because they are very young, old or ill'. We see a feisty 85 year old who is active and assertive in their local community, and not what you would expect them to be: the elderly archetype of retiring, quiet, decrepit, submissive, helpless, ill.

But when it's combined with the word woman then feisty usually has had a negative meaning.

Quote from P!nk

A feisty woman. The adjective feisty implies the individual behaves differently from how women are expected to. Tough, having a lively aggressiveness (i.e. assertive), independent, spirited, resilient, self-reliant. Not what she is expected to be: gentle, sweet, tolerant, deferential, caring and sensitive. Not secondary and dependent.

Apologetic

By Mike Lundy

When we feel wronged or hurt by someone, an apology can help make amends and go toward restoring the relationship. Sometimes though, what gets offered as an apology falls a long way short.

We may not know exactly what words we want to hear, but we recognise when an apology is not quite right or not sincere. When the other person is not genuinely apologetic, this can add more hurt and damage to the situation.

TATKOP 102

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who fear they are ordinary and those who know they are.
(View all the posts in the TATKOP series by Fred Shivvin here)

TATKOP 101

There Are Two Kinds Of People: those who think there are two kinds of people and those who don't.
(View all the posts in the TATKOP Series by Fred Shivvin here.)