Thesaurus Thoughts

Word choice is always fascinating. A friend recently mentioned how much she loved her dictionary, but I said that it is my thesaurus that I love. Back in my teaching days, we had to write out "referrals" when we sent a kid to the principal for discipline. The referral described why you were sending the kid to the principal, what he did, etc, and what action you took before sending the kid. I’m sure my principal got a kick out of my referrals, because I tried to make them more interesting and unique. How many ways can you say you "chewed out" the student. Well, get out your thesaurus and see. Just try looking up the word "scold." Besides "lecture" and "rebuke," I liked "raked him over the coals," or "had him on the carpet" or "had words with."
Different phrases and words certainly change the connotation and give a different mental picture.

Yesterday while reading through the blogs, I was listening to GMA. They reported on the death of Casey Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. The needless death of a young person is always sad, but what struck me as odd in the news report was the words. Robin Roberts reported that Casey had a drug problem, that her parents had "cut her off", and that she was "living in squalor." Then GMA reported that Casey’s body was found (on whatever day) by "her maid". While GMA was focused on Casey’s parents "cutting her off," I was focused on having a maid and "living in squalor." Makes you wonder what GMA thinks "squalor" is.

Anyway, I had a great day at art with the Painted Ladies. The day was fairly warm in the 40’s – kind of the calm before the storm. Early this morning the cold front hit. The wind blew – or should I say howled, roared, gusted, whipped, whirled, blew my socks off, etc. None of those words do this wind justice.

Later today, I will post what I painted with the Ladies. They need some touching up, working over, revising, finishing, polish, etc.

Did I mention that my husband turns another year older today? Happy birthday, baby!