FIVE WORDS AND A PHRASE

MOILMoil means pretty much the same as toil, which is nice because these words rhyme.  Except that moil isn't used very often nowadays, and it can mean some other things that toil doesn't mean.  So anyway, the first meaning of moil is hard work or drudgery.  And it can also be a whirling, churning, or eddying.  An archaic meaning of moil is to wet or smear.You can also use moil to mean confusion, turmoil, or trouble.  In...

Read More

MIKE: A CIVIL WAR DOG

We don't know what breed Mike was, but there is one picture of him, and we can see that he was a fairly small dog, and he was either black or brown.  Mike belonged to a Vermont blacksmith named Patrick Colligan, who was born in Ireland in about 1840.  There are lots of other ways to spell Colligan, and here are some of them:  Calaghan, Callighan,  Calighan, Callogdhen, Callaghan, Callaghen, Colloghden, Calleghen, Colloghen.  Which...

Read More

A MARINE AND HER DOG

Once upon a time, in 2003, a young woman named Megan Leavey joined the Marine Corps.  She enlisted after she had first tried going to college and then quit.  Her parents were very unhappy about her being a Marine, because she was the only child they had.  But Megan said, "Dad, I have to put myself in a situation where I can't quit and get to see what I'm made of.  That's the only way I'm going to grow up."So Megan's parents stopped...

Read More

CANINE DISTEMPER

If you have something called distemper, it might sound like you are just in a bad mood.  But distemper is actually a horrible, awful disease that can KILL YOU, so if you have it, you have an excellent reason to be in a bad mood!Our word distemper started out as the Middle English word distemperen, which meant to upset the balance of humors.  Messing up the humors was a bad thing, because people back in those days thought that...

Read More

THE VASE WITH THE UGLY PEOPLE ON IT

A couple of weeks ago, Mom was in a thrift store, and she found a really goofy piece of pottery that somebody made by hand.  We think it is maybe supposed to be a vase.  Or else you could drink out of it, like a glass, except that it isn't made of glass.  It's not a mug because it doesn't have a handle, and mugs are supposed to have handles.  So it's likely a vase.  Or I guess it could be a pencil holder.Anyway, the weirdest...

Read More

THE OWL AND THE PUSSY-CAT

Most people have heard this nice story about the Owl and the Pussy-cat who were in love with each other, and how they sailed away together, and after a while they got married.  The whole story is told in a poem that was written by a man named Edward Lear.  Maybe your mom or dad read this poem to you when you were a child.  Or maybe you read it to your children or grandchildren.  Anyway, in case you forgot exactly how it goes,...

Read More

I'M SAD ABOUT MY FRIEND HANK

Do you remember my basenji boyfriend, Hank?  He lived with Aunt Cheryl in Austin, Texas.  Well, yesterday Hank had to go to the Rainbow Bridge because he was very sick.  I am really, really sad about this, but I think Hank and Gabe are playing together now, and maybe they are also playing with our three little foster kittens, Janey, Jilly, and Jeeves. Hank was 14 years old.  He found out he had Fanconi Syndrome when he was 4 years...

Read More

POPULAR NAMES FOR HUMAN BABIES IN 2011

 The Social Security Administration just announced what the most popular baby names were in 2011.  There were a few surprises, and a few not-surprises.  First of all, one surprise was that Isabella isn't the most popular girl's name anymore.  It got beat out by Sophia, and Isabella is now in 2nd place. In the boys' name list, Jacob is still number 1, but suddenly the name Mason has leaped into 2nd place.  In order to get...

Read More

WHAT DOES GOD LOOK LIKE?

When Mom was a little girl, she had a picture in her head of what God looked like, and she thought everybody else had this same picture of Him.  In Mom's head, God looked tall and thin and old, and he wore a white powdered wig, just like George Washington did.  God stood up in the clouds, which was where Heaven was, and in front of Him there was a conveyor belt.  Everyone said that God made babies, and Mom knew that people made things...

Read More