Friday thoughts...

What I can't understand, among many other things, is this fascination with Johnny Depp and Amber Hoozit.  Americans of all social strata are devouring every word and image they can find about the squabble between those two actors. It makes no sense to me, but I do understand what some people say about it being easier to focus on those two individuals than on the Russian invasion, the price of everything, the scarcity of infant formula, the possibility that we could all be exposed to monkey pox...I get it.

Reality is tough, and that's why a great many people enjoy fiction - or nonfiction that seems like fiction, such as this courtroom drama that has so many enchanted. I always quote from Alan Alda, who said he didn't like fiction because "you can tell, they're just making it up as they go."

In a world where there are so many FACTS to learn and enjoy sharing, why spend time on non-facts? Facts such as, "Man is the only animal that laughs, and has a state legislature."  

It's true, so true.

It's also fun to have a fact that you want to share but you have to wait until the right time. For instance, you don't just want to walk around telling people, "You know that word 'dour' that we see used to denote someone who's always gruff and stern? Well, it's not pronounced 'dower' to rhyme with sour or tower. It's a homophone for 'door.' So just say, 'Mitch McConnell always seems very dour' and say it the same as the 'door' you'd like to close on Mitch's mean face."

Dour.

This all came to mind because Patti LuPone and Stephen Colbert were trying to figure out how to say the word the other night on Colbert's show. Neither seemed to know. So now, if you meet Patti LuPone, you will have something to use as a conversation starter.

You could go on to tell her that the word comes down to us from the Latin "durus," meaning hard. I mean, you could, but by then her security people will be whisking you away...

And you could tell the guards that we got the word "whisk" from the Norse word "visk," meaning a "wisp of hay, something to sweep with," but they, likely as not, will not be interested. 

Some things, we keep to ourselves.