Christy Chase's

Merry Christmas

Those two words have a nice sound, don't they? The weather at this time of year can be cold and snowy but the warmth in that phrase can warm you. It's a time for family, friends, food and giving, especially giving. This year, all is well as my daughter, who was in New Zealand last Christmas, is home once again. The best gift of all! We're in the midst of wrapping presents and watching our favourite Christmas movies. The weeks leading up to the holiday have been delightful ones (apart from the aftermath of getting our H1N1 shots) and I'm sure Christmas will be even better. So Merry Christmas to you and yours and a Happy New Year, too!

Sigh

My daughter and I were listening to CBC radio on the way to work this morning. The news was on and the announcer was wrapping up a story about trade between Canada and India. And the announcer said something about the way "Canada and India does business." Does, singular, not do, plural. I'm still cringing as I write this in the afternoon.

Remembrance

Sometimes pictures convey what words can't. Lest we forget.

The Bard

Let's hear it for William Shakespeare. I consider him one of the best wordsmiths of the English language. And since July, I've been getting better acquainted with his talent as I've been working with the Borelians on their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's been great fun watching as actors immersed themselves in Shakespeare's words in order to interpret them for a modern audience. But, trite as this sounds, his subjects really do transcend time and place. What he and his audiences found funny centuries ago, we still laugh at. The Borelians' creative team has delivered a stunning world for the actors to play in and they've created magic with the words . The play opened last night and we heard some great comments from audience members. If you want a great night out, please consider heading to Port Perry for this show. It runs until Oct. 31, with performances tonight, two tomorrow, matinee Sunday and more performances next Thursday, Friday and matinee Oct. 31. www. borelians.org (This is an edited script so it's not too long to sit through.) You won't see me on stage. however. I'll be backstage helping ensure what you see on stage is the best it can be.

Fall versus autumn

Here I am after too long of a break. But I'm back in time to talk about autumn. Or fall as we like to call it. Apparently, fall is a North American English usage, almost exclusively. Everyone else goes with autumn. Probably becaus e it really is fall here, especially in the last few days. The leaves are in a hurry to drop from the trees right now. According to my research, autumn comes from Old French, fall from Old Germanic. Fall, autumn, it doesn't really matter to me. I just like the season. The picture was taken at Meech Lake during an autumnal visit to Ottawa earlier this month.

Summer

Where has it gone? Here it is the end of August already. I must say I've enjoyed the cooler weather we had for most of the summer. Heat and humidity don't agree with me. I've spent quite a few evenings watching one of my favourite shows, So You Think You Can Dance - I even tied for first in our newsroom pool for this. Now it's SYTYCD Canada. And after that, the American one returns for a rare fall showing. My daughter and her boyfriend scoff at me for watching but it's fun. And fun to pick who's going to get voted off each week. Do I think I can dance? I know I can't so don't ask me.

Two words

And both linked.
Cronkite: Walter Cronkite died last week, a legend in newscasting and reporting. On CBS for years, he talked to Americans, and Canadians too, about a host of major issues, such as the Viet Nam War, race issues in the States, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the space race. He was trusted, plain and simple. The voice of authority. Integrity, plain and simple. While my family never watched his evening newscast, we did tune in to him for things such as the Kennedy coverage and the space/moon missions. I grew up watching him report on those important events and perhaps something rubbed off, landing me where I am today. A great newsman.
Moon: Speaking of landing, today is the 40th anniversary of man’s landing on the moon. (Or should that be a man’s landing on the moon? Oh, what’s a word or two among friends.) As a kid, I was intrigued with man’s ventures into space and was a big reader of science fiction. (Still am.) I was glued to the TV whenever there were any flights and vividly remember Apollo 8s mission and the view of our planet from so far away. I was fascinated with it all and astronaut was the first thing on my childhood list of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Many people today will remember watching as Neil Armstrong stepped from his LEM onto the moon’s surface 40 years ago. Not me or my sister Susan. Our memories of that event were different. We were camping in a trailer on PEI, with my parents and our brother Dan, without TV. Listening to the moon landing on radio just wasn’t the same. After watching all the missions leading up to it, I was rather upset to miss the big one. But it was a good vacation and I’ve got great memories of that, including seeing the Anne of Green Gables musical and the car and trailer getting stuck in the red mud at the camp site.

Green grass of home

When I'm out walking, I like to check out the many gardens I pass. I love seeing how flowers and plants develop over days, weeks and the months of summer. Lately, though, I've been looking at people's lawns. Some people go all out to keep their lawn green, weed-free and shaved like a new recruit's head. Others take a more natural approach, allowing grass to grow longer and the odd weed to creep in. In my opinion, the so-called perfectly groomed lawns  are over-rated. Yawn. And definitely not environmentally friendly. According to the dictionary, lawn is an alteration of a medieval English word, launde, or glade, from an old French word meaning heath or pasture. Yawn, on the other hand, is from the medieval English word yanen, an alteration of the old English yonen or yenon.

Word countdown

According to Global Langauge Monitor, which tracks English usage and words, the number of English words will hit 1,000,000 on June 10. That's its best guess. The word is expected to come from China or India. Here's the link www.languagemonitor.com/. One million words. How many of them do you use?

Spring

Spring is one of my two favourite times of year, the other being autumn. I love spring for its moderate temperatures, its sunshine after a hard winter, the colours and smells of lilacs, irises, tulips and lilies of the valley and that wonderful, bright green of leaves as they sprout on the trees. Chartreuse, in other words. That's one of my favourite words. The word spring has that bouncy, optimistic feeling to it that the season brings with it. And, despite the rain and cool temperatures, it's nice to see an older type of spring this year, one that lingers and takes its time before it springboards  into summer. So I plan to enjoy what's left of the season. Spring.