It's been a while...

We've just passed through that dreaded part of the semester, the place where everything needs to be done NOW. The students are sick and tired, the instructors, too.  We are overwhelmed by papers, lectures, committee work, research deadlines, and conference presentations. But, that shouldn't be an excuse for not writing here. In fact, it should be a reason for writing.

I've never thought of myself as a "writer" and was shocked with my short-lived success as a blogger on salon.com.  I don't think I have the wit or stamina to keep up a regular writing schedule.  I often joke that I could never write an academic book, I don't have that many words in my head or fingers. 

But, I am fascinated with words and over the past few years I've learned a few new ones that I enjoy.

Apodictic: "Whether or not that 'memory' is veridical is probably impossible to determine, but its role in giving coherence and continuity to existence does not depend on the memory being apodictic."

Gnomic: "Mysterious and often incomprehensible yet seemingly wise.  My son found this in a novel and asked me about the meaning. My first response was that it must be related to gnomes, but we looked it up and loved the definition. Who would ever have thought of such a word?

Bricolage: French origins. It might loosely be translated as “tinkering” or “do it yourself.”  In French a bricoleur is a tinkerer.  It has this sense of creativity attached to it, of being able to make do with the things at hand.  In art it can refer to a type of mosaic or sculpture that uses a variety of objects. The term seeped into cultural studies, and refers to the use of an object for an unintended purpose. 

The word seems like a perfect term to describe my dad. He is able to fix anything and to creatively solve any problem.  I've always thought of him as a great example of a Rennaissance man--well versed in literature, history, religion and philosophy; plays the piano; can describe the finer details of steelmaking; can rebuild a car engine; and built our house.  I remember him telling me that when our washing machine broke he studied the electrical schematics and figured out what was wrong, that it never occurred to him that he could hire someone to fix it.  So, finding a fancy French word to describe him was fun.