Lifted Paragraph Project -Six

from Interactive Post


Clearly, Brooke had been dismissed.  She took the elevator to the sixth floor, walked to her cubicle, thoughts roiling in her mind.  She took the brown paper bag from the bottom desk drawer.  She opened the sack, found the sandwich within.  Brooke had peanut butter and jealous for lunch.

Lifted Paragraph Project --Four

The church custodian is going about his business when someone enters the sanctuary. She thinks she is alone as she goes about her mission.  Then the man reveals his presence.
 
"Startled?  I thought she would surely break for the door but she was so startled that she was frozen in place.  As she looked at me her eyes and her mouth were as though they were three gaping caverns.  Her face was so thin that the rest of it seemed to disappear,"

Here is the full account of that morning in "Mt. Carmel Community Church."

Lifted Paragraph Project --Three

In the true story "Climbing Fool's Hill; and Coming Back Down" I recounted an incident in the life of a fourteen-year old.  That would have been me. The scene has been set, the end (so to speak) is not yet.  I wrote

"As I stepped out onto the unstable pile of small rocks, my weight and the forward motion combined to create a skiing action.  Wow!  That was fun.  Climb back up the hill, repeat.  Climb back up,  Wait.  If I make a short run (there was space for no more than a short run) I can fly!  The landing will be safe, for the itty bitty rocks will cushion me, and I may skid a  l o n g way down the hill!"

Here you may read the story in its entirety.

New Toy

Vanilla is attempting a new approach to writing his blog posts. It works like this. Two weeks ago I purchased a piece of equipment that purports to be a cell phone for less than 20 bucks. I did not purchase any of the minutes for telephone usage but simply adapted the piece of equipment to serving as a handheld computer. I soon discovered that this machine has many amazing features including voice writing. Thus I sit here at my ease and dictate my story to my machine. I am so excited by this that I am hoping to carry this away from home and transmit my messages back to my base computer. Wow this thing is amazing!

Lifted Paragraph Project --Two

The series about the Burrell twins ended in a twist that surprised the author, for I was not aiming in that  direction when the story began. This is the penultimate paragraph in the series.

"A choking in his throat and a feeling that his heart would stop, Cooter held his aim.  A tear ran down Scooter's cheek, and the report of the rifles was as one.  Two minie balls sped toward their targets."

Read "Burrell's War" here.

 Little Margot entertained me over a series of brief stories.  This paragraph found its way into the tale "Margot and the Pink Elephant."

 But as the elephants approached, Margot suddenly got very quiet and very still.  Very un-Margot-like behavior indeed.  The first behemoth was pink.  All over pink.  Mother could see that the attendant for whatever reason had dusted the animal all over with pink powder of some sort.  But little Margot's comprehension was addled, or as we would say in this day and age, her mind was blown.

Read about the Pink Elephant here.

Four-letter Words: Y and Zed

Approaching the end of the project the four-letter "y" word I choose is:

yaks.

I have been influenced by my current environment in the selection of this word.  I am thinking of it in the sense that "She yaks incessantly about a lot of nothing or a little of everything."  My BBBH and her eldest daughter are on the other side of the room.  They have been yakking for over an hour and their mills show no sign of flagging.  Sometimes one talks, then the other, but frequently they are both talking at the same time.  Ninety miles an hour.

Please, take a breath.

yak (v.) to talk uninterruptedly and idly; gab; chatter.  You yak, she yaks, and so on.

Yaks is also a plural noun indicating large, shaggy-haired Asian buffalo.

*****

For the ultimate four-letter word I have chosen

zest.

This is a wonderful word.  Just makes one feel all perky, does it not?

zest (n.) relish, gusto, piquancy.

"I admire one who undertakes a task with zest."  

Zest is also a culinary term referring to the use of the outer rind of an orange or a lemon for flavoring in certain concoctions.

"I used a grater to scrape the zest from the orange."

Finis 

 

Four-letter Words: W and X

Holy cow!  We've come a long way and are rapidly approaching the end of our alphabet.  Today we select two more words, leaving only two to go.

The four-letter "w" word springs to mind almost without bidding, for we all

wish

one thing or another might occur, or that we could obtain something we don't have.

wish (v.) desire, to want, long for

"I wish people could disagree without being disagreeable."

wish (n.)  something desired

"He got his wish-- a new car!"

*****

Having had several children of my own and having worked with other people's kids in a school setting for many years I have encountered many "Alphabet Books."  You know, "A is for apple, B is for bear," and so on.  Almost invariably when the composer got to "X" she wrote, "X is for X-ray," or "X is for xylophone."  Xylophone hardly qualifies as a four-letter word. The x-ray equipment has served me well over the years, both identifying problems and ruling out problems, but no x-ray for us today.  Our four-letter "x" word is:

 xyst.

 xyst (n.) a covered portico; a garden walk planted with trees.
Pronounce [zist], rhymes with fist.
 

Yes, I had to look this one up.  Enough said.

Four-letter Words: U and V

Except for ugly, upon, user, and undo, most of the four-letter words beginning with "u" have never graced my blog; no, most have never so much as entered my vocabulary.  Of the examples given, I do not like two of them, and the other two seem a bit pedestrian.

So in honor of my hair-sylist spouse, I have chosen:

updo.

The word hardly needs a definition.  It is almost obvious that an updo would be a style in which the hair is combed upward away from the face.  While it has been stylish, both for men and women, in the past, I think it has fallen into disfavor.  But despair not--  what goes around comes around.

"Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb."

*****

 Four-letter "v" word for this July morning is:

vamp.

Vamp is a multipurpose word having several distinctly different meanings.   The first thing to cross my mind when I hear the word is Ella Fitzgerald singing "Hard hearted Hannah, the vamp of Savannah, the meanest gal in town. . .   she'd pour water on a drownin' man."  The word here is used to indicate

vamp (n.) a woman who uses feminine wiles seductively.

The word can be used as a verb:

vamp (v.) to seduce, esp. to gain an advantage.

I had a great uncle who was a cobbler and a businessman whose skill made his business very successful.  A cobbler is a shoemaker.  Here we encounter our word as

vamp (n.) the part of the shoe that covers the instep and toes.

Another usage of the word occurs in the music world:

vamp (v.) to accompany by improvisation.

Thus enough space has been devoted to our four-letter "v" word.

 

Four-letter Words: S and T

There are literally hundreds of four-letter English words that begin with "s."  The lovely initial sibilant sound is fun to make and pleasing to hear.  Place the tongue at the top of the upper teeth and s-s-s-say the sound!

Skep, skew, skid, sing, silo, shun, shoe, seed, sass.  What a wonderful panoply of words from which to choose.  I choose:

stob.

I particularly like this word because my BBBH introduced me to it.  This is a direct quote:

 "Stobs are tough on your feet when you are stealin' watermelons."  Spoken like a true Southern Illinois farm girl.  She was referring, of course, to the stubble in a cornfield.  Makes sense.  Barefoot girl, stobs, heavy melon. possibly an irate farmer.  Yeah, that would be tough.  But if you love watermelon as much as she does, . . .

The dictionary definition is

stob (n.)  a post, a stump, a stake
Regional, south central United States.

 *****

Our four-letter word for "t" is:

true.
 

[Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.  --Philippians 4:8 (KJV)

I have a very strong preference for things that are true as opposed to, say, fake news.  I have no problem "making up" stories for this blog, but if you are observant, you have noted that I tag such tales with the label "fiction."  I enjoy fiction, I like to read imaginative stories, I enjoy writing such tales, but I want my truth to be true.

A popular "t" word these days, way too long for this current exercise, is "truthiness."  What th' ?  I think the word did not even exist in my younger day, nor was there any need for it.

Please, just stick with what is true.  Or give me a heads up if you spin a tale.

 

Four-letter Words: Q and R

While there are twelve or fourteen four-letter "q" words one might expect that my favorite one would be:

quiz.

I am a teacher.  What can I say?  "Class, there will be a quiz over the first section of this chapter tomorrow."  Or, one of my favorites, "Pencils and paper, ladies and gentleman.  We'll have a little pop quiz this morning.  Number your paper from one to five."

quiz (v.) to examine informally, interrogate briefly.

quiz (n.) the question or series of questions asked in a short informal exam. 

"The glee of the instructor is inversely proportional to the joy of the class."  Kidding.

*****

If you thought the "r" word would be "rich," guess again.  Rich is an excellent word and I like being rich.  But I am not indicating worldly goods or treasure when I say I am rich.  I am talking about the cornucopia of blessings I have received.  Food, shelter, warmth, family, friends, sunshine, rain.  There it is!  The four-letter "r" word of choice is:

rain.

 Yes, I am one who counts rain as one of life's richest blessings.  Rain waters the earth, provides a basic necessity for all life: water.  Of course too much rain over too long a period of time can be distressing, but I truly appreciate our rainy days.  Flooding days, not so much.

rain (v.)  to fall; to send down upon

rain (n.)  water that is condensed from the vapor in the atmosphere.

I lived for several years in the Pacific Northwest.  That statement by itself evokes the idea of constant, never-ending rainfall in the minds of the uninitiated.  It is an inaccurate concept.  Unless one's entire time spent in the PNW falls between October and May.  There is a rainy season in which it seems almost perpetual precipitation occurs.  Usually light rain, but rain nevertheless.  The summers, though, are gorgeous and rain is rare.

In point of fact if the fall season remains dry late into October the locals in the area begin to get antsy.  "Where," they wonder, "is the rain?"

Fact: The average annual rainfall in Seattle is less than that in Indianapolis.  Check it out.

(Of course the PNW is a large territory and local rainfall figures vary widely.  Aberdeen, Washington, for example has an annual rainfall of 83 inches, whereas Sequim, not that far away, has an average of 16 inches.)

"May the Lord rain blessings upon you."

 

Four-letter Words: O and P

One of my favorite four-letter "o" words is oven.  Clearly that is because of the wonderful comestibles that exit the oven and wind up on my plate.

But surprises are good.  Sometimes.  And sometimes not so much.  So for the "o" word I have selected:

oops.

 Unfortunately I have occasion to use this word too often.  Oops is an interjection, the first such that we have picked for this series.  It is most often used to express dismay at a minor mistake or mishap.  It may serve as an introduction to an apology as in, "Oops.  I'm sorry I spilled the coffee on the carpet."  (Although that could be a bit more than an "oops" depending upon whose carpet is stained.  Well, at least in my case, it would not be wine.

Oops.  I'm late; gotta be running along!

*****

Pick a peck of peag.  There we go.  The word is:

peag.

Of all the words from which to pick, why peag?  Have I jumped the shark?  Well, no; but perhaps have gathered some shells.  As a school child I learned that the medium of exchange among the East Coast Native Americans (whom we called "Indians" at that time) was "wampum."  Later in life I learned that both "wampum" and "peag" are short forms for the "money" called wampumpeag.  Since I am a descendant of some of those people as well as the early seventeenth century arrivals from Europe I find it amusing to insert peag into a conversation.  Glazed eyes.

peag (n.) A string of white beads made from shells of the quahog.

 

Four-letter Words: L and M #T

If you have  been following this little exercise in four-letter words, you may recall that the word "love" was used in the introduction as the greatest of the four-letter words.  So then I choose another word for today, which is:

lacy.

What other choice do I have?  Capitalized, this little four-letter word is my surname.  It has been said that for most people the sound of their own name is the most pleasing sound in the world.  So it is imperative that I find this to be a word pleasing to my ear!

lacy (adj.) describes an object which is made of, or is trimmed with, or resembles lace.

 The frost on the window imposed a lacy design on the world viewed through it. 

I carry the name proudly, for it was my father's name, and his father's before him.  But as an adjective it totally would not apply to me.  Who was it who said, just the other day, "You are a bit of a prickly old man, you know that?"

*****

 There exists a mess of four-letter "m" words.  Menu could be a favorite because I always want to know what's available.  Meek is good.  Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek."  I find that a difficult posture to attain.  However, I choose:

mend.

To mend is to set right, to repair, to improve.  My parents were both very talented and accomplished menders of things.  Father could fix almost anything mechanical and Mother was a wizard at keeping the clothing presentable long after most people would have discarded them.  "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without" was not just a mantra in our household.  They were words lived by.  One of Mother's mending maxims was, "It is no shame to wear patches; but it is a shame to be dirty."

I like "mend" particularly in the instance of improving health, as in "He has been deathly ill, but he is on the mend now."

I also favor the use of the term in cases of healing relationships.  "The man and his son were alienated for years, but they seem to have found a way to mend their relationship."  Such mending almost always requires someone to say, "I was wrong."  In many cases of broken fellowship, both parties are at fault to some degree.

Can a broken heart be mended?  There is a question that should be pondered long and hard before one behaves toward his beloved in such a way as to break her heart.  imho 

 

Four-letter Words: J and K

I so wanted "joy" to be a four-letter word, but alas, not so.  Thus I have chosen instead:

jars.

jars (v.t.)  That jars me to the very core of my being.

jars (n. plural)  Containers for the thing contained. (ha-ha)

  

 I chose jars as a happy word because it was the labor of my father in the gardens and the toil of my mother in the kitchen that put the produce in the jars.  We were then fed sumptuously over the long winter months.  Mama cleaned, pared, and "canned" the produce in jars which she processed, I think seven at a time, in a large pressure cooker.  She was terrified the whole time it was in use which was hours and hours over many long days.  She was afraid the thing might blow up.  It never did.  Mama died at age 83 and a few years later I saw the pressure cooker in the trash bin at the alley awaiting its final trip to the landfill.  

Man has been making and using jars for thousands of years.  Early jars, of course, were made of clay and perhaps even of stone prior to that.  We read in the Book of Genesis that Isaac said to the beautiful woman at the well, "Lower you jar and draw water that I might drink."  She replied that she would not only give him to drink, but his camels also.  What a woman! 

The material changes, but the purpose remains the same: storage and transportation of the thing contained.  Mother's canning jars were Mason jars, glass, and preserved their contents beautifully.  Jars still make me happy.  So long, that is, as the contents are satisfying.

*****

 "Every kiss begins with "k," says the jeweler's advertisement.  And mete it is that our word choice for "k" is

kiss.

Kiss is another multipurpose word.  It may be a verb used either with or without an object, or a noun.

We are thinking here in our choice of the word of an expression of affection.  Though we may also consider that our skill in getting the cue ball to kiss lightly the object ball or the cushion was never refined to the point I would have liked.

A kiss may also be a small piece of candy.  Also a sweet, if not so sweet as the sign of affection. 

 

Four-letter Words: I

It is too bad that the word "I" is not a four-letter word because it is almost everyone's favorite word.  But enough of self.  Here is today's "i" word:

iris.

 

Iris is my choice for several reasons.  First, the bearded iris, which we are beginning to see now here in Hometown, is one of my favorite flowers.  There are so many striking varieties in an entire palette of colors.  Yet even the lowly wild iris with yellow stands and brown falls is lovely to behold.  The typical lavender flower with falls and stands of the same color may be the blossom that springs to mind for most people since it is quite common.  In the yard of a previous residence we had 13 varieties of the bearded iris.

iris (n.)  The iris is a thin disc in the eye which controls the size of the pupil opening and thus the amount of light that reaches the retina.  The iris is that part of the eye that imparts eye-color so if the iris is brown we say, "She has brown eyes," and so on.  

Such an important element of our sense of sight deserves to be recognized.  My father literally made it a practice to note eye color and recognize people years later by that feature.

My wife says I have amazingly green eyes.  My driver's license says they are hazel. (Some "experts" on the topic say that "hazel" and "green" are two distinctly different eye colors.)  I am sure that we  have all noted eyes of many colors: brown, blue, hazel, green, grey, gold, and so on.  I think probably all eyes are either brown or blue in some variation, but what a variety!  My wife's eyes are a deep brown, you know, those eyes I fell into right away!  Yet she had a brother whose eyes were such a startlingly brilliant blue one could never forget them.  (Yet with today's technology, tinted contacts and such, who knows what color anyone's eyes might be.)

The term iris may also be applied to a rainbow or a rainbow-like appearance in an object.  Also Iris was a messenger of the gods in classical mythology. 

Four-letter Words: G and H

I have a good friend for whom his word of choice for "g" would no doubt be golf.  He plays golf, and as he gets older his nearly-sole tv entertainment is watching golf.  But my four-letter word for "g" is:

gala.

This is a happy word, evoking balloons, bright ribbons, and sunshine.  Maybe even pinatas and cake!  It is a festive word.  Of course it is, for a synonym might be "festival."  Or carnival, jubilee, party, jamboree, or celebration.  Are these not all happy words?

Merely selecting this jubilant word for your pleasure today makes me glad.  Enjoy. 

*****

With so many wonderful 4-letter words starting with "h" it is a difficult choice indeed.  Hero, head, hymn, hues, holy.  See how tough it is!

 But on to our "h" word:

ha-ha.

In written communication this word is often used to express mild amusement, imitative of the sound of laughter, or even a brief way to say "just kidding."  But that is not why I chose the word. 

ha-ha (n.)  A ha-ha is a vertical fence built into a depression to prohibit access to an area by animals or vehicles yet not obstructing the view from the elevation above the fence.   

 

The word in this particular construct has always amused me, so to speak.  Ha-ha.  I hope you like it. 

We would do well to erect a ha-ha or two in our lives to keep undesirable things at a distance, yet a wall that does not obstruct our view of life's beauty.

Four-letter Words: E and F

This is a plural noun the singular for which has only three letters, but these come in pairs to humankind, so this is fair:

eyes.

These precious orbs are our windows onto the world, and they have been said to be the windows of the soul.  Perhaps two-way:  we look out, and to an extent others may look in.  What do your loved ones see when they look into your eyes?

To prioritize the value of the senses is inappropriate, I think, as we should rightfully appreciate and respect them all.  Yet it seems to me that sight is precious beyond my ability to express my appreciation for it.  And I do know that multitudes of people who have not the use of this sense have lived full lives and have accomplished much.

I am personally grateful to the medical/surgical community, for my sight has been maintained by multiple surgeries, at least six.  Thanks be to these dedicated physicians, and to the Lord who endowed them with the talent and the drive which placed them in their roles. 

The second word for today is:

fair.

  What a word!  It may be an adjective, an adverb, a verb, or even a noun.

Unfortunately the use I most often hear is an adjectival usage in which the speaker exclaims, "That's not fair!"  Depending upon the speaker and the circumstances I am likely to remark, "Fair is where the 4-H kids go to show their pigs."

It is certainly meet and right, fair, so to speak, to hope for justice.  But often it is the case that life is not "fair."  Thus we must call upon our resolve to do the right thing, regardless of the injustice.  And though it is not a four-letter word, "justice" gets bandied about in strange ways, I think.  For example, in the case of a loss of life due to murder, we often say we want to catch the culprit to "get justice for the victim."  What we really mean is, "We want revenge and the assurance the killer won't strike again," for there is no justice in the case of an unwarranted loss of life. 

 

Four-letter Words: C and D

I see today is the day for "C."  The word of choice is:

care.

This four-letter word is sometimes a verb as in "I, [we, they] care for you."  It may also be a noun as in "We placed it in the care of a conservator."

In the first instance the meaning is to attach importance to, or to be concerned for.  In the second it means to provide for the custody of, or the welfare of a person or thing.

This is a good word, not exactly warm and fuzzy, but perhaps that with a bit more steel, more resolve.

At the rate of one word a week this project would require half-year.  So we shall endeavor to "double up," at least on some of the choices.

The second word for this day rhymes with the first one:

dare.

Again, our word may be either a verb or a noun.

dare (v,) " They dare to participate in the pentathlon."  The word in this case indicates courage, boldness, fortitude, on the part of the one who dares.

dare (n.)  "I would not undertake that on a dare."  Our word here is indicative of a challenge.

A great four-letter word is "dare," because we must face up to life's challenges in order to succeed, nay, even to survive!  Dare to do well; dare to choose the right. 

Four-letter Words: B

Today's word is:

best. 

 Best is an adjective, the top-level in the hierarchy good, better, best.

When I was a child I spent many hours lying on the floor, propped on an elbow, with a Sears, Roebuck catalog opened in front of me.  This was the sort of entertainment available to young people of a certain stratum and in a certain time.  No smart phones, no television,  A different world.  But not an unpleasant world.  Wish Book, we called it.

Sears, in its attempt to be all things to all people, offered products of almost every sort and in a wide range of price availability.  For instance, a page might feature a certain item say, electric iron.  Mom certainly needs a replacement for the flatiron she heats on the wood-burning kitchen range now that we have electrical outlets in nearly every room in the house!

Sears has the answer:  A "good" iron, 94 cents; a "better" iron for $1.94; the "best" iron, $2.99.  But even Sears jumped the shark on occasion, for, What's this?  One more "premium" choice at $3.88.

This, of course, begs the question, "When is best not the best?"  Perhaps when someone else makes it?

You get the idea.  Everyone wants the "best."  But in the event the budget will not stretch that far, even our entry-level product is "good."

Our language has developed to cover exigencies when the "best" is not in the cards.  We might say we are "settling" as in fitting our means, yet not keeping up with the Joneses.

There are some things for which second-best is not an option, though.  These would be things not obtainable at retail.  For example, don't settle for second-best when choosing your mate.  Don't settle for less-than-your-best in the performance of a task.

Four-letter Words: A

The "Four-letter Word" series was scheduled to appear on Fridays.  Because I slipped "N" into last Friday's slot we will insert this one on Wednesday in place of the Pineville tales which may resume Monday if the muse favors us with another idea.

For the letter "A" the word I have chosen is:

able.

"Able" is an adjective meaning competent, equal to, prepared to, having the opportunity to, accomplish an end.  To say one is able implies that he is intelligent, skillful, accomplished, or talented.  Able is a powerful word and conveys confidence in the recipient of this descriptor.

Miss Lillian Bateman, my senior English teacher in high school  was given to nautical references, just one of her many fascinating tricks in her repertoire.   Often when she called on me she would favor me thus: "Mr. Lacy, Able Seaman, please explicate on the reading of the previous paragraph."

When she signed my yearbook she addressed me just so.  I think to this day that the lady was making a sincere attempt to educe the confidence she felt I had buried within me.  Other students had their pet designations, but to the best of my recollection I was the only one on whom she bestowed the adjective "able."  BTW there were many kids in that class brighter than I.   Too bad "bright" is not a four-letter word.  Have to look elsewhere for the next post.

Four-letter Words: N

This is Good Friday.  We kicked off the four-letter word series last week with "L" for "love."  To do this alphabetically, today's post should be "A."  I am unpredictable, however, and we are skipping to the first letter in the second half of the alphabet, "n," and the word is:

nail.

Jesus died the cruelest and most insulting death we can imagine.  We observe Good Friday in commemoration of the sacrifice of His own life to atone for our sins.  He died for us that we might live.

The nails were driven through His hands and feet to hold him to the rood.  Yet it was not the nails that held Him there, but rather His unimaginable love for us that forced him to give His life.  Make no mistake.  His life was not taken from Him, He gave his life.  He cried to the Father, "Not my will, but Thine be done."  He gave all in the will, not of self, but of the Father.

I am thinking as I worship this morning of the thud of the mallet as the nails were driven, the agony of  my Lord, Creator of all things, as he suffocated there on that hill we call Calvary.

The greatest Love of all.