A few months ago on a long summer road trip, I listened to the audiobook Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger. The subtitle says it all. Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts us All. Mr. Shellenberger's book is a cry in the wilderness these days. As climate change...

Debonair: charming and carefree; suave; gracious; urbane; nonchalant; having sophisticated charm We all admired the dinner guest with his laid-back, debonair attitude.   Debonair comes from the old French phrase de bon aire.  De bon aire in old French means “of a good...

Largess: Generosity in giving.  The opposite of avarice, greed, or stinginess.  As an adjective, largess is generosity with money.  Often, largess is a rather showy generosity.  The giver wants everyone to notice.  As a noun, largess is the money or gift itself.  ...

Inspired by all the swearing showing up in goal-setting books these days, I wrote a book on goals.  How to set them.  How to hit them.  All that.  Minus the swearing. Now, I am editing my way through the book. I am eliminating passive sentences, throwing out the word...

Mulct: As a noun, a mulct is a fine, a tax, or a penalty.  As a verb, to mulct is to take something of value by fraud or deceit.   Mulct is from the Latin word for penalty: mulcta. Got mulcted?  If so, someone took your money.  And, the money they took?  That’s also...

Obviate: to make unnecessary; to eliminate the need for something; to do away with; to prevent by effective measures.   Diet, exercise, sunshine and water obviate the need for most pharmaceutical drugs.   Obviate comes from the Latin word obviare “to block, to...

In preparation for a trip to France, I will be hosting a question and answer meeting in a just over an hour, on Thursday, October 20. Here is the information and the link to join the meeting: Topic: Trip to France Time: Oct 20, 2022 07:00 PM Central Time (US and...

I received this question: Maybe there's a place to ask questions, if so, could you direct me there? I have a couple kids using Vsual Latin 1. They've had some latin and I'm using this as some review. In chapter 11B - the translation portion, number 13 says "animalia...

Contrite: Remorseful; penitent; repentant.   A deep feeling of guilt for wrongdoing, combined with a desire to make amends. From Latin: contritus, “worn out, crushed, bruised”  Synonyms: apologetic, repentant, sorry Contrite shows up in one of the stanzas of Rudyard...

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In preparation for a trip to France, I will be hosting a question and answer meeting on Thursday, October 20. Here is the information and the link to join the meeting: Topic: Trip to France Time: Oct 20, 2022 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting...

Conundrum: a difficult puzzle or problem. A seemingly unsolvable problem. A conundrum is also a riddle with an answer containing a pun. In my research, I kept running across this example: What’s the difference between a jeweler and a jailer? One sells watches and the...

Ephemeral: short-lived, lasting or living for just one day.   Synonyms: fleeting, short-lived, brief, temporal Originally, ephemeral was a medical term.   Ephemeral described a sickness or a fever lasting only one day.  Over time came to mean ‘lasting a short period...