I’m singing, Mary Jane!! Love that song. Thanks. It’s nice to know there is someone else out there who feels the same way I do about things. Bet there’s more than just us two. 🙂

Ha! I always thought that line was “And you’ll find that you’re on the road to grandeur.” 🙂

I love this gleaning a word a day. A gleaming word to add sparkle to our language! Zephyr. I have never seen this poem in its’ entirety. Thank-you for this fun exercise.
Eileen

Hey! I’m in the west. Think of me when there is a Zephyr blowing by you…
We have Santa Ana Winds that blow around here and they come mostly from the East so I’ll think of you (all). When I hear the word Zephyr I think of the Amtrack Railroad Train route called “The California Zephyr” This is the website’s description since I’ve never actually had the honor of traveling on the “California Zephyr” myself.
“From Towering Skyscrapers to the Golden Gate~Experienced travelers say the California Zephyr is one of the most beautiful train trips in all of North America. As you climb through the heart of the Rockies, and further west through the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas, you may find it hard to disagree.

The Zephyr runs daily between Chicago and San Francisco, coursing through the plains of Nebraska to Denver, across the Rockies to Salt Lake City, and then through Reno and Sacramento into Emeryville/San Francisco.”

Wow, I did not know this! I googled and found out that the poet, Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to “Oh, Beautiful” changed several lines slightly several years after the poem was first published. I have always sung the word “spacious” in its “halcyon” place. I had no idea…Also changed from the original by the author was “enameled plain” to “fruited”. Fascinating. This is according to “The American Patriot’s Almanac” that I found in GoogleBooks.

I’m a retired school librarian and every week we’d have The Word of the Week. The kids looked forward to it because they never knew if it would be Latin, French, Yiddish or what and I loved hearing them use the words (and their parents told me THEY loved learning new words, too!). One of the all-time favorites was “kvetch”, a Yiddish verb that means “to complain loudly and constantly”, as in “Stop kvetching that there’s nothing to eat and have an apple!” BTW, clear pronunciation is VERY important with this word! I think that my elementary students were erudite, had a certain je-ne-sai quoi, engaged in some profound quid pro quo and, in short, were never flibbertigibbits, although they did appreciate serendipity!

“Wagafritz”is my go-to word. My father taught me this word that he learned from reading the Sunday comics as child. Pogo – do you remember the comic strip Pogo? – or one of his cohorts would be exasperated or frustrated and exclaim “wagafritz”. I think this may be the perfect word. I use it all the time…

I cogitate best when sitting on my porch stoop in the warm morning sunshine with a nice cuppa tea. When I cogitate elsewhere it manifests itself more like worry and less like pondering.

When did I last ‘gamboled’?… why just last week, with my 2 wee grandbabies as we annoyed (in good nature as only a 20month & 23month old can do) the family goats and sheep…..
Everyday is a great day to ‘gambole’…
Thanx for the word of the day, you’ve made my day !
hugz
>^..^<

I think it is confusing! I have always used “home in” when referring to pin point accuracy…and “hone in” or just “hone” when referring to improving skill. I guess if one says she is honing her pronunciation (making it sharper) but she still needs to home in on her congugations…it could seem as though they are interchangeable…probably an evolution of the language that will proceed.

I see “hone in” as sharpening ones focus on something. So yes I can see it used as an alternative.

I would love to leave a wonderful reply, but others had honed the idea way better than I ever could. So I will just sit here in my home and hone up on my reading skills.

Slang can change on a daily basis, but I don’t think that misuse of a word should be encouraged. I work around college students and I get quite a few empty looks from the younger ones and dirty looks from the older ones because I can’t stop myself from correcting them when they misuse a word or mangle a cliche phrase.

I am so glad to find another person who thinks “garden hose” is a dirty word. I have purchased innumeral “anti-kink” hoses in green, yellow and flat black only to find they all kink. I had decided it was the way I pull, use, or even touch my hose that causes my problem, but I now know I am not alone. Thanks!

It’s my Windows XP computer that I remonstrate with on almost a daily basis. I restart, defrag, disk clean and it still decides that after being on for 8 hours it has just had enough and won’t move an inch no matter how hard I plead for it to run just a little bit longer!!!!

Oh, the garden hose think is so true. I remonstrate on my hilly yard, on the flat, hooking up to a sprinkler, or soaking hose. Just when I least want a problem, I have one. I have tried to keep myself from getting upset when it happens, and simple unkink the thing. I have at least 4 colors and name brand anti-kink hoses. I think their definition for anti-kink must be different from mine.