2019 - Day 326/39 - Friday...Kickshaw...

It turned out to be a really pretty day, even though I was not outside enough to really enjoy it. The forecast called for a bit of rain (we didn't get any) and cooler temperatures (we got those). Nothing drastic, just a few degrees cooler. Our high temperature today was recorded at midnight, 74 degrees. Then the temperature fell to the middle fifties, and we ended up with temperatures in the middle 60s. Not too bad for late November. No rain, darn it, but some lovely clouds. I was inside all the day, guiding a couple classes for my colleagues, Legal Updates I and II. The new Legal update classes will begin being presented in January, so these are some of the last folks to take this class. This class was first presented in January of 2018. The classes are updated every two years to coincide with the Legislative changes which also take place every two years. Enough of that, just enjoy the clouds!

Kickshaw -- Noun. 1. a fancy dish. 2. a showy trifle. The TV chef devoted an episode to creating interesting and tasty kickshaws out of Thanksgiving leftovers.

Did You Know? Kickshaw began its career in the late 16th century as a borrowing from the French quelque chose-literally, "something." In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, the Justice of Gloucestershire, Robert Shallow, orders a feast: "a couple of short-legged hens, a joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny kickshaws." In line with the French pronunciation of the day, the "l" in quelque was dropped and the word was anglicized as kickshaws or kickshoes. English speakers soon lost all consciousness of the word's French origin and, by taking kickshaws as plural, created the new singular noun kickshaw.

2019 - Day 325 - Thursday...Pariah...

I did not realize it at the time, but this photo looks like a winter snow day in the Detroit suburbs where I grew up. Except for the What-A-Burger. And the fact that it is not snow, it is just central Texas, early in the morning, after a light spritz of rain. Really early in the morning, and after a really light spritz of rain. It was 81 degrees in Austin today, compare that to the below freezing temperatures we had last week, it is just kind of crazy. We don't have the air conditioning going in the house, the thermostat is set on 'heat,' but we aren't using that either. We are supposed to have a cold front come through overnight, and lower the temperatures by about five degrees and bring a little bit of rain, but back up in to the 70s over the weekend. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am looking forward to the short work week next week.

Pariah -- Noun. 1. a member of a low caste of southern India. 2. outcast. The senator's critical remarks about the direction of his party have made him somewhat of a pariah in Washington.

Did You Know? Pariah comes from Tamil, which is the language of the Tamil Nadu state of India and of parts of Sri Lanka. The origin of pariah is the Tamil word paraiyan, which literally means "drummer." The word was also the name for a member of a particular low caste in southern India. Members of this caste were sometimes responsible for the tasking of beating drums at festivals. Pariah was originally the English rendering of the name of that specific caste. It eventually was extended to denote a member of any low Hindu caste, and finally was used more broadly, as a synonym of "outcast."

2019 - Day 324/41 - Wednesday...Doctrinaire...

I have been being the 'guide-on-the-side' quite a bit lately, and I will try my luck at it a couple more times this week. Guiding colleagues through Continuing Education classes is something that I really enjoy. This particular group gave me three full days of their time in the last two weeks, and it was a pleasure doing my best for them and sharing experiences with them and from them. When I have good groups like this, I try to take them on a tour of their association facilities, and show them that is not just the MLS that they pay their dues for. Our association is a complex, complicated machine, and there are lots of moving parts. This photo was taken by Clarisa in the marketing department, and this is just a part of the group. They have one more day of class, and then they will have completed on course towards obtaining their GRI (Graduate, REALTOR® Institute) designation. Congratulations to them all, and have fun with this crazy profession you are involved with!

Doctrinaire -- Adjective. attempting to put into effect an abstract doctrine or theory with little or no regard for practical difficulties. As a teacher, Jerry tried not to be too doctrinaire in his thinking, choosing rather to adapt to the needs and idiosyncrasies of his students.

Did You Know? Doctrinaire didn't start out as a critical word. In post-revolutionary France, a group who favored a constitutional monarchy called themselves Doctrinaires. Doctrine in French, as in English, is a word for the principles on which a government is based; it is ultimately from the Latin doctrina, meaning "teaching" or "instruction." But both ultraloyalists and revolutionists strongly derided any doctrine of reconciling royalty and representation as utterly impracticable, and they resented the Doctrinaires' influence over Louis XVIII. So when doctrinaire became and adjective, "there adhered to it some indescribable tincture of unpopularity which was totally indelible" (Blanc's History of Ten Years 1830-1840, translated by Walter K Kelly in 1848).

2019 - Day 323/42 - Tuesday...Niveous...

I am just about as crazy (anal retentive) as they come. Just in case you were not aware of that fact, I an CDO. In case you do not know what that means, it means I am so OCD that I have to put it in alphabetical order. I even have a card from Beinno and iJm to prove it. I am a list maker. Many of you might have had the high honor of seeing one of my lists, and having the tutorial about what all the colors that I use to declare a task completed mean. There is not anything subtle about my list making. But I digress. Every evening when I return home from work, I have a routine. I check the front electric meter, the water meter, feed the chickens, make sure they have water, collect eggs, and sometimes (depending on how I feel) scoop chicken shit out of the coop. This particular ceremony began when the cattle destroyed a water line going to the back pasture, and before I knew it, we had lost thousands-and-thousands of gallons of water (metered water). So, it started as just checking the water meter to see if there could be a leak somewhere, but now it is an obsession. But I digress. The whole point of this conversation is to say that, as I was going about my compulsions, Barney decided to come and acknowledge my existence. Say hi to Barney, y'all.

Niveous -- Adjective. of or relating to snow. resembling snow (as in whiteness). snowy. "Wind-deposited drifts reshape the landscape. Where there was once a gently slope, there is now a steep niveous wall." Paul G Wiegman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 8, 1994

Did You Know? Niveous is a rarely used word, but the vocabulary virtuosos of the past have found occasion to put it to good use. Take James Hurdis, for example, who in 1800 wrote of "cottage and steeple in the niveous stole of Winter trimly dressed." Today, you are most likely to come across niveous in spelling bees or word games. If, however, you have an inkling to use it, make sure your audience gets the drift (get it?) that the word ultimately traces to the Latin nix, meaning "snow."

2019 - Day 322/43 - Monday...Xeric...

I stopped under this thing this morning on my way in to the office. There is a new high-rise going in where Hooter's used to be on South First Street and Barton Springs Road. Interestingly, this little triangular shaped piece of land was owned at one time by the Estate of Charles Schultz, the guy that did the Peanuts comic strip. It seems he just bought up land here-and-there, and I do not really even know if he ever visited Austin. Interesting things about land speculators, you never know who they are. So, there I was, stopped for a traffic light, under this crane, and it gets you to wondering if I you will be the next headline in someones morning paper. Either that or a mass shooting victim or a drive-by or something. It is kind of weird the things that cross your mind when you have an hour-plus commute each way, every day. The world is going crazy, and I just wonder how many of us can survive.

Xeric -- Adjective. characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture. "As water restrictions were enacted through the metro area...the three display [plant] beds filled with xeric varieties that don't take much water flourished." Austin Briggs, The Denver Post, August 6, 2015

Did You Know? By the late 1800s, botanists were using the terms xerophyte and xerophytic for plants that were well adapted for survival in dry environments. But some felt the need for a more generic word that included both animals and plants. In 1926, a group proposed using xeric (derived from xeros, the Greek word for "dry") as a more generalized term for either flora or fauna. They further suggested that "xerophytic...be entirely abandoned as useless and misleading." Not everyone liked the idea. In fact, the Ecological Society of America stated that xeric was "not desirable," preferring terms such as arid. Others declared that xeric should refer only to habitats, not organisms. Scientists used it anyway, and by the 1940s xeric was well documented in scientific literature.

2019 - Day 321/44 - Sunday...Flyting...

It was a lovely day today in central Texas; temperature in the middle 70s, sunny and bright. There were several naps in order, and messing around with a few thises and thats. I did get everything that was on the weekend 'to-done' list crossed off, and a few more as well. All the plants are back in their natural habitats (as opposed to under sheets or in the garage). I did have to put water in the pool, and all that is okay. The cattle were not in any particular need of hay, but I took a couple bales out to them this afternoon. They were all laying around in one of the front pastures, but they are a nosey bunch, so they got up and lumbered back to see what the hell I was up to, and as long as they were there, they may as well take advantage of the hay. Nothing wrong with that! I wasn't really dueling with that bull, he is just one of the nosier ones.

Flyting -- Noun. a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form. "The obvious modern-day equivalent of flyting is the rap battle, but it's unclear whether the two forms of verbal combat have common ancestry." Tao Tao Holmes, Atlas Obscura, January 14, 2016

Did You Know? Flyting in 15th and 16th century Scotland was analogous to a modern-day rap competition during which rappers improvise clever disses and put-downs against their opponents. Similarly, the makars (a Scottish word for "poets") engaged in verbal duels in which they voiced extravagant invectives in verse against their rivals. The base of flyting is the ancient verb flyte (also spelled flite), meaning "to contend" or "to quarrel."

2019 - Day 320/45 - Saturday...Fructify...

Quite often, it is the dumbest things I get accomplished that make me feel accomplished, especially on the weekends. For at least the last two years, maybe three, the thermostat on the den side of the house could not be set at a higher heat temperature than 70 degrees. We have two thermostats. Ons controls the guest bedrooms and the den, and the other controls the master bedroom and bath side of the house. There are vents controlled by both units that heat and cool the public areas of the house, the areas that have the high ceilings like the living, dining and kitchen areas. The master bedroom side worked wonderfully and we could stay toasty warm all the time, the other side would only go up to 70 degrees. This caused the areas with the really high ceilings to be cooler than the other parts of the house. Today, Jody said, 'you know the manual for the thermostat is in the office don't you?' Well, no I didn't, but after consulting the manual, I fixed it in about three minutes. UGH. Plus, I got a lot of this and that done, and worked in two or three naps along the way. Good grief...

Fructify -- Verb. 1. to bear fruit. 2. to make fruitful or productive. "After the war his business interests fructified. He invested in canals...organized to extend the navigability of the Cape Fear River deep into the back country, and kept up his interest in land speculation." Bernard Bailyn, Voyagers to the West, 1986

Did You Know? Fructify derives from the Middle English fructifien and ultimately from the Latin noun fructus, meaning "fruit." When the word was first used in English in the 14th century, it referred to the actions of plants that bore fruit; later it was used transitively to refer to the act of making something fruitful, such as soil. The word expanded to encompass a figurative sense of fruit, and it is now more frequently used to refer to the giving forth of something in profit from something else (such as dividends from an investment). Fructus also gave us usufruct, which is the legal right to enjoy the fruits or profits of something that belongs to someone else.