Felt flat till I heard
It’s National Pancake Day
Make mine blueberry!
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Category Archives: Everyday things
“What’s the frequency, Heinrich?” haiku
Catch a birthday wave
Electromagnetically
Google salutes Hertz
Hertz was first to prove
Electromagnetic waves
Really existed
Showed radio waves,
Light had same velocity
Could be transmitted
Thought his findings were
“Of no use whatsoever”
Boy, he got that wrong
Led to radio
And wireless telegraph,
Rent-a-cars (kidding)
They named the unit
Of radio frequency
The hertz after him
And that’s Heinrich Hertz
Not Heinrich’s uncle Hertz Hertz
Then we’d have hertz squared
“Inbox subject line” haiku
“Meet Christian Singles!”
Holy adulterous spam!!
Jesus, I’m married!!!
“A day late? Hardly!” haiku
To have and to hold
The heart’s perfect companion
Born 1903
Hushed confidences
Whispered to soft, waiting ears
That always listen
A trustworthy mouth
No loose lips to slip and tell
All secrets safe here
The perfect body
For two arms to hug, squeeze tight
Before slumber comes
One hundred nine years
Since this special love began:
First Teddy bears sold
“Lost my head” haiku
Happy Valentine’s Day. Last year it seemed as if lots of different people were singing to me. For some reason, this year it’s Van Morrison. Here are a couple of light ones.
“Crazy love,” I love
That craziest phrase in all
Its redundancy
Valentine, a saint
But not first guy, or last, who
Lost his head this day
I wrote a lot of verses last year, but for some reason this one got the most response. Hmmmm.
It’s Valentine’s Day!
Hug your sweetie; love your spouse
Just don’t let them meet
The whole 2011 bunch is here.
And here are the rest of this year’s, not so light.
Courageous, we love
Surrender our hearts, ourselves
Out beyond the fear
Courageous, we love
Losing those we hold most dear
Inevitably
No more to savor
Taste of salt, scent of flowers
Intoxicating
No more to drink in
Every line, curve, lash and lock
With forever’s thirst
But till then we dare
To love with all our senses
Out beyond all sense
“Waist deep in words” haiku:
Feb. 1, 1884: First part of Oxford English Dictionary released
OED was born
At least the first installment
Called a fascicle
“Fascicle” — oh joy
600,000 words, they
Had to pick that one
It took 40 years
To finish that pig, which grew
To 12 … fascicles
A definition:
Fascicle — what you get when
You freeze your fas off
Second edition
Grew to 20 full volumes
Took 61 years
The third edition?
Complete through “Ryvita,” up
To its “S” in words
It’s also online
Good thing it’s just text or we’d
Be out of bandwidth
Happy birthday, book
With 600,000 words
Guess that says it all
Also see haiku from Aug. 22, when the latest OED update was released.
And from Oct. 6, haiku on British-isms, to mark U.K. Poetry Day.
And check out the latest newsletter for ABC Books in Springfield.
“There’s a word for that” haiku, redux
From Aug. 22, 2011, when the Oxford English Dictionary folks released an update.
People make up words
When old ones no longer do.
Oxford keeps a list
Wonder when the word
“Dictionary” first appeared?
You could look it up
Oxford started this
A century ago when
“Aeroplane” took wing
Today’s updates seem
Paltry in comparison:
“Woot,” “Mankini,” Ugh!
“Domestic goddess”
LOL, I like that one
And “sub-prime” is choice
“Cougar” (new meaning),
“Carbon footprint,” “Gastric band,”
“Slow food” have their place
Technology spawns
Some good ones: “Cyberbully,”
“Sexting,” “OMG”
Now if they’d just ditch
“Lifestyle” I’d be quite happy.
Fuzzy, mixed meaning
Yes, some made-up words
Still put me among WACOS:
“What A Crock Of … Stuff”
But I guess language
Can advance even if it’s
Sounding the retweet
“Mightier than sword” haiku
Dot i’s, cross t’s, it’s
National Handwriting Day
Be neat about it
John Hancock’s birthday:
Practice autograph, you might
Be famous someday
—————————
It’s Chinese New Year,
Slow Monday — just hope I’m not
Dragon till next year
“Bushy appendage” haiku
It’s 1-21
“Squirrel Appreciation Day”
Rocky would love it
The squirrel family’s huge
Three hundred sixty-five kinds
One species per day
Except it’s Leap Year
So I might jump in and join
The parade of squirrels
Tree squirrels and ground squirrels
Chipmunks, woodchucks, flying squirrels
And cute prairie dogs
Pygmies (3 inches)
To Marmots (2 point 5 feet)
Long and short of it
Excellent vision
(Where did you get those big eyes?)
Sharp teeth, sturdy claws
A nuisance, granted
(They empty our birdfeeder)
But much fun to watch
And Letterman says,
“It’s so hot I saw a squirrel
“Out fanning his nuts”
Etymon of “squirrel”
Includes Latin sciurus,
Norwegian ekorn
(Those sound like “scurry”
And “acorn” — you must admit
That’s kinda squirrelly)
And Greek skiouros
Means “shadow-tailed” — poetic
For rats that jump, fly
So put out some food
For your favorite squirrel today
I’ll be right over
“There’s a word for that” haiku
Peter Mark Roget
Jan. 18, 1779 — Sept. 12, 1869
It’s Thesaurus Day
Should we celebrate, revel,
Proclaim, or extol?
There’s a synonym
For thesaurus: lexicon
“Glossary” comes close
Peter Mark Roget
Doctor, inventor, researched
TB, laughing gas
Made log-log slide rule,
Tried to make calculator
More powers to him!
Studied optics, liked
Kaleidoscopes, but we know
What he’s famous for
“Roget’s Thesaurus
“Of English Words and Phrases”
Stuffed with synonyms
Of him we’re in awe
(Or reverential wonder)
And don’t lack for words
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