Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Final Winter Writers Clearance

Most Fridays, I toss out the things I've come across during the week which I think might make, if not an entire meal, at least a fortifying snack for my blog readers. You can play too, by passing along links, events, or anything you think other writers, readers, and book lovers might want to know about. Just leave it in the comments section.

• Word geeks, rejoice. Coming soon is Wordnik, a "dictionary" that sounds so far beyond what any currently available online dictionary can offer in interactivity, flexibility, cross-referencing, history, examples, and tips. Its erstwhile visionary and chief lexicographer describes it here. I'll leave you with this thought: 4 billion words. Yes, with a B.

• For those who are thinking ahead, early discount registrations is ending soon for several major annual multi-day writers' events, including the American Society of Journalists & Authors Conference, April 25-26; and Book Expo America, May 28-31, both in New York City.

• In the spirit of her memoir, My Mother's Daughter, Rona Maynard, the former editor-in-chief of the popular Canadian women's magazine Chatelaine, is posting stories from readers over at her website, all chronicling the mother-daughter bond.

• It's always interesting to me (if not exactly enlightening) when the mainstream press attempts to parse the literary publishing world for the general reader. The Daily Beast tried it here the other day.

• I'll admit, I'm not all that knowledgeable (or involved in the support) of the wider world of arts and culture beyond the literary -- a combination probably of upbringing, limited exposure and the fact that only just very recently did I come to understood (and a bit reluctantly at that) how the word "artist" applies to me. Now that I've come to know many different kinds of artists (many whose work bridges writing and some other art form), I've been trying to make up for lost time, which is why I've been exploring Arts Journal, the Daily Digest of Art, Culture & Ideas.

•April is National Poetry Month, and so next month I'll host several guest posts from poets. I'm particularly interested in the intersection of poetry and prose, and in the impact which reading and writing poetry can have on one's nonfiction writing. Meanwhile, you can sign up here and the Academy of American Poets will send you an emailed poem each day of the month.

Have a great weekend. And let's see if we can all get Spring to cooperate and arrive on schedule, shall we?

Twitter, Tweet, Twitterpated

One of my clients is using Twitter to lure in more website visitors, so they'll get interested in subscribing and/or buying products from the site. An editor friend is taking a break to read through the Twitter postings of friends every hour or so, to keep from going insane while doing tedious edits on a scientific manuscript. Me? I'm wandering around Twitter every so often to get a feel for this newest social/business communication tool. Occasionally I also Tweet.

So, it being Sunday night, and having just wrapped up plans for a class I'm teaching tomorrow morning, and my brain feeling a little lazy, here's what just occurred to me: In the movie, when Bambi emerged from hibernation to discover he'd started growing antlers and no longer felt like a little boy, and instead starting falling in love with Faline, all the other little animals said, "Aw, he's twitterpated".

So, what'll we call falling in love w/Twitter?

P.S. If you feel about Twitter the way I did six weeks ago (What the??), then click here for the details - clever & quick.

Of Bathwaters, Babies and Tight Sleeping -- not what you think!

I love discovering the original meaning of expressions, sayings and words we routinely utter without ever knowing why. The real, and often surprising origins, often leave me speechless, and I usually encounter them in the oddest of ways.

A few weeks ago my husband and I took our sons to a local historic site we had long known about but never visited (think Manhattan residents who rarely even glance at the Empire State Building) – Historic Speedwell, birthplace of the telegraph system that first made Morse code workable. In addition to the ironworks and other industry-oriented buildings, is a restored home and in one of the bedrooms was a round, stout hammered metal tub with a lip seat on one side and on the other, a spout. Bathtime, according to the teenage docent, consisted of filling the tub and then each family member, in descending order of age, took their turns washing. When finally the youngest child, usually a toddler or older baby, finished, the tub was tipped, the water draining from the spout.

Careful: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I immediately brightened, having now an authentic scenario to conjure when I used that expression. The boys predictably didn't find this so interesting; which shows my age I suppose more than any literary bent.

Next was another bedroom, set up to resemble one shared by several children, and the docent peeled up the straw-stuffed mattress to reveal ropes crisscrossed frame to frame. She picked up an odd looking wooden thing, called it a key, and demonstrated how, about once a week, those ropes needed to be pulled taut to ensure a restful and supportive night's sleep.

Thus: Sleep tight.

Both a practical expression: tighten the bed ropes or your back will be sorry – and a sincere sentiment: hope you have a comfortable night's sleep. See guys, I said to the boys: it doesn't mean pull the covers around tight after all.
They seemed both intrigued and abashed.

I felt really smart about my new Sleep Tight knowledge until last week when I read The Kitchen God's Wife, in which Amy Tan conjures pre-World War II China, and relates the lovely custom of snugly wrapping small children for sleep individually in their own personal quilts, even when sharing a bed. Nowhere in Tan's text does it suggest the Chinese have an expression for "sleep tight" that refers to this tradition, but don't you think it's possible?

And now, please feel completely free to leave a comment about how wrong I (and the folks at Speedwell) might be on all counts. Because if there's one thing I know, and love, about language, is that very often, there's more than one explanation, more than one way to skin a cat, that it's sometimes six of one and half-a-dozen of another, that….well, you get the idea.

What's your favorite unusual origin of a common expression?