Journeys of a Bent Mind

Central California in late 1941 was quiet and slow-paced, tranquil and idyllic in many ways. It was in this haven that Nina and Gordon had met as second graders and grew into fast friends. Their families lived on the same side of town just outside the city limits, hers on her grandfather’s dairy, his on his parent’s peach and almond farm. The world beyond was in turmoil and the drums of world conflict were pounding a beat in Europe that shook our national shores. Continue reading →

What is a word worth? Did Wordsworth every wonder? Do words have value? Does its meaning affect what you think of it? Is it worth any fuss from you for any reason? Does it matter in the greater scheme of things? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Do you ever think of a word and wonder how its meaning came about? Have you ever in that mindless state of daydreaming had a word do a flash dance Continue reading →

1. The Olympic sprinter was banned from competition for a year because he was found to have a spring in his step.

2. A procrastinator’s life is characterized by the laws of pause-and-effect.

3. When you try to read between the lines sometimes it turns out to be nothing.

4. Super models are often overly concerned with their face value and the body of their work.

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Sample Pun: “I wonder, do Eskimo salesmen use their cell phones to make cold calls?”

Those of us who are introverts are lucky in many ways, not the least of which is we’ll never be bored. If things around us are going too slowly or we lose interest in them for a variety of reasons, not to worry, we have a built-in “backdoor” that opens on a fascinating world within that utterly blows away boredom. It is not falling but leaping down Alice’s rabbit hole; it is storming the castle in the Land of Oz; it is crossing the River Styx with safe passage back; it is the portal to the shores where unicorns bound and Merlin holds court. Continue reading →

No one knows with any certainty how language started in the dawn of human life. Primitive humans probably grunted a lot and gesticulated to convey what was on their minds. Over eons those grunts morphed into regular sounds recognizable by those within the same family groupings. Sounds would slowly grow into what we would call “words.” Continue reading →