This Habit is Hard to Avoid Right Now - Do I Need to Stop?
This past week, I’ve been spending far too much time watching political videos on YouTube than is good for me. Seeing our US Presidential race unfold fills me with admiration for what just happened in France, when politicians and people worked together to form a coalition capable of stopping a fascist takeover of the country.
And they did it in just one month.
Can we emulate them? I doubt it. Not unless we can get corporate and mega-donor money out of politics, have enforceable ethics standards on the Supreme Court, and somehow wave a magic wand so those who run for public office are more interested in the health of our democracy than in their own egos. And don’t even get me started on the media, who haven’t done their job properly for years.
All of this, of course, is a huge distraction from writing, but I’m pleased to say that I still managed to get more words on the page last week than in the previous several weeks combined.
Do I need to sign out of YouTube? What do you think?
What I’m Reading
The Case of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth
William Smith came back to London from WWII after being interned in a concentration camp. He has no memory of his earlier life.
One thing he is sure of, though, is that his name is not William Smith.
Nevertheless, he makes a life for himself. Until too many things go horribly wrong and he’s forced to take steps to find out who he really is.
Fortunately, he’s given Maud Silver’s name. She’s a private enquiry agent (yes, “enquiry” with an e), who looks like a governess and demonstrates incredible powers of observation and deduction.
William is finally able to cut through the trauma and retrieve his memory, but now that he knows who he really is, he may be worse off than he was before.
An intriguing mystery in the wonderful Maud Silver series.
Notable Quotes
Sarah had only known the man for two seconds. It was ridiculous, feeling disappointed in him already. That usually came later, in her experience.
- Murder at an English Pub by Alice Castle
Alright, ladies, raise your hands if you can relate to this! (Gentlemen, you might want to sit this one out.) As always, I love the snark.
From the same book:
. . . it was as though the place had been in the middle of an explosion in a soft furnishings factory. Every surface was awash with colours and merrily clashing patterns. The result was a feast for the senses, or a prelude to a migraine – depending on your personal taste.
I love bright colors, and I love to mix and match them. I recognize, though, that some people have different tastes. I don’t understand them, but I know they exist. As to whether the colors can give you a migraine, well, I’m open to information on that.
And in the “reflections on a misguided life” category, we have this quote:
Ten years in Minneapolis, and I had nothing but an English degree and a drinking problem to show for it.
- May Day by Jess Lourey
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Wise Words
Oh, boy. I just realized that, in my excitement to get a new puzzle in front of you, I never published the answer to the previous one. My bad. So, let’s do them both today. We’ll take the oldest one first.
On June 26, I presented you with this sentence:
Maybe I should have disabused / disavowed her of that notion, but I could not dash all her hopes.
- Murder on the Golden Arrow by Magda Alexander
The correct answer is… drumroll please … disabused.
According to Merriam-Webster, disabuse means:
To free from error, misconception, or fallacy.
Disavow, however, means:
to deny responsibility for; to refuse to acknowledge or accept
Since it’s pretty darn difficult to deny responsibility for someone else’s notion, that makes disavow an unlikely choice. (I understand that it may also be difficult to disabuse someone of a notion they hold, especially in politics, but it’s something that can at least be attempted.)
Congratulations to the players who chose disabuse.
On July 3, I posed the following puzzle:
There were definite signs of impending / portending rain as well, Phyllida noted.
- A Trace of Poison by Colleen Cambridge
Going back to our old friend Merriam-Webster, impending means
occurring or likely to occur soon
while portending means:
to give an omen or anticipatory sign of
While it’s often true that the skies give indications well in advance of any rain, I don’t think that quite qualifies as a portent. The better word choice here is impending.
Thanks for playing, and we’ll be back with a new puzzle next week.