Monday, November 17, 2008

Learn Something New Every Day

I learned a new word the other day: viragos. Definition: shrews, nags, or shrewish sorts (of people). I've recently reignited my love of, and addiction to, crossword puzzles. I was doing any and all puzzles for a while, but now I focus on the NY Times crossword puzzles because, well, I'm a snob, and they're the best, and I want to conquer the best! I fly through Monday, cruise through Tuesday with a bump here or there, and stumble through Wednesday. I don't even attempt Thursday because my fragile ego cannot handle the frustration, confusion or implied rejection. My colleague/friend from work, Andy, belongs to some sort of special online crossword puzzle club, and he prints them out for me, on 8 1/2 X 11 paper, so the puzzle is bigger and cooler. Andy also listens to me vent needlessly about the lame clues (I particularly hate it when the answer is an abbreviation but you're not prompted to think in abbreviated terms!). I figured I'd share my new knowledge with my blog readers. So try to use "viragos" in a sentence this week. Or write sentences in the blog comments section! Fun with vocabulary!

It's almost Thanksgiving; can you believe it? And now it's cold out--I hate the cold. I truly do not comprehend how anyone can love (or even like) the winter. The only two things I like about winter are: #1 my cats are more cuddly and #2 BOOTS! I do love wearing my boots. And I am a hat person, so I also like wearing hats in the winter. But I would gladly trade all my hats AND my boots (not my cats) to live in more temperate weather and wear flip-flips month after month!

How amazing/great/exciting is it that people are selling/buying/wearing T-shirts and buttons and hats carrying the picture and/or name of our President-elect Barack Obama? I love it. . . it feels like change actually is on the way!

PS--I totally knew about Wanda. . . been saying it for years! Go Wanda Sykes!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

thanks for sharing! but without looking it up, I'm not sure I know how to use the word. Is it plural? Do you call someone a _____? Would it be correct to say, the only v___ I know is you? You should blog more often. I don't think you need to wait for an event. This blog was fun and light. Do it again! ; )

ab said...

Nice post. At first when I saw that word, i thought it was the name of a wind or a type of storm, as in, "The virago blew in from the north and toppled all the shanties outside of town." Then i thought it was the name of a car. The Volkswagen Virago, right? It's real definition is unexpected. And, imo, just slightly unsatisfying. It lacks the simple economy and onomatopoeia of shrew.