Today's post is brought to you by the letter U

After reading bella's latest post, and considering posting a totally typical response that focused purely on one tiny and irrelevant aspect of said post, I got to thinking, and decided to create a whole post on the topic here instead.

But enough with the preamble.

There are a couple of words that contain the letter U that I've never been sure how to pronounce. One of them is Pulitzer and the other one is culinary. Are they pronounced PYU-litzer and CYU-linary, or PULL-itzer and CULL-inary? When I speak them myself, I favour the former, even though when I hear them spoken in the media, they are often pronounced the latter way.

Enter the internet! What a great tool. A quick check of the American Heritage Dictionary on Bartleby.com tells me that Pulitzer is pronounced both ways (plt-sr, pylt- ), but the pronunciation you can listen to says it with a short U (listen here). Likewise culinary, the word is phoneticized both ways, but pronounced with a long U.

Not satisfied with the American Heritage explanation I went to what for me is the final word on these issues, the Oxford English Dictionary. Its pronunciation guide shows (pjultz(r); in U.S. also pltz(r)) and (kjulnr, k-), which did satisfy my sneaking suspicion that, in the former case at least, the American pronunciation is not the "officially" correct one, though as in so many things, it has become the predominant one. Of course, Joseph Pulitzer himself, though foreign-born, is, ultimately, an American, so who's to say the American pronunciation is incorrect?

And that, my friends, is your phonetics lesson for today.

lunatism

I wish I had a better camera because if I did I would have taken photos of this month's full moon, which is currently occurring, which you can see from my moon phase thingy if you're reading this on the day I am writing it. Otherwise, you'll have to take my word for it.

Driving home from work last night (well you know, like 5pm), coming eastward down the hill I had a brilliant and unobstructed view of the most beautiful wintery moon. She was silvery gold, occasionally obscured by wisps of clouds that tiptoed across her face, enhanced by the crisp dryness of the evening air. The radio kept talking about all the terrible traffic and accidents that were plaguing the evening commute, and blaming it on the moon. I wouldn't disagree, since I am superstitious about the effects our friend in the sky has on us, and I also was occasionally distracted and enraptured by her beautiful face that was directly in my sightline.

Then, this morning as I drove to work (again in darkness, around 7:30am), there she was in front of me again, preparing to go to her western resting place. This time she was very hazy, her vision blurred by morning low clouds, but her brilliance could not be concealed and she lighted my way up the hill once more.

This dry December is a treat for those of us who revel in the spectacle of the heavens, the beauty we cling to in this otherwise bleak, dark time of year.

snowbaby

I liked posting that knitting post with a photograph so I'm making another post just to showcase a photograph. I'm not a fabulous photographer or writer like Bella but it's kind of fun to do :)

A week or so ago we got a bunch of snow, which is pretty unusual for Vancouver, especially this early in the season. My daughter J and her friend E (who comes over on Tuesdays and I take them both to Girl Guides ) made this little snowman before dinner. They asked me for a carrot and wouldn't you know, just the day before I'd bought regular carrots (instead of the little snacking carrots which I usually buy). They used carrot rounds for eyes and gave it a proper carrot nose, and I gave them a piece of red cabbage for a smiling mouth. It was so cute I had to run out and photograph it. And now I'm sharing it with you, fair readers.

knitting

it's kind of all the rage these days, isn't it? Well, contrary to my nature I decided this would be a good time to pick it up (generally I'm somewhat behind, or utterly ignorant of, these trends). Actually my daughter J decided she wanted to learn, so I learned too.

it took me 3 hours to do this:

which means it's not the most efficient process in the world for me, yet, but I confess I find it quite enjoyable. The basic stitch anyway. I was also thinking that it would be a great way to pass the time on an airplane, and started looking forward to the flight I'll be taking later this month. But then I realized, I don't know whether the airline will actually allow knitting needles on the plane! I wonder if I should try to find out beforehand, or just take my chances.

connections

wow, I just figured out that this girl has her blog linked to mine. I'm not sure why, but Hey Girl! How you doin! .. and thanks :)

I think she is the first person who I didn't know from "before," that is to say "elsewhere" on the internet or IRL, or both, who has linked to this here blog.

energy

One of "my" staff, that is, one of the employees to whom I act as supervisor, asked me this morning if he could use vacation time so he could exercise during the day. Exercise! He said that he can't seem to find the time to maintain his regimen, and with it being winter and all he can't jog after work the way he used to.

For some reason, this irks me. I don't have an issue with him requesting time off, in fact I told him that if he wants to simply take an hour off in the afternoon he can just tack it on to the end of his shift rather than using vacation time.

Maybe I'm just bent because I'm not committed to any kind of exercise program despite my incessant whining about how I need to lose weight and I'd love to get into some kind of shape.

Or maybe it's because this guy is already kind of a dervish, an extremely high maintenance staff member who paces around this slow-moving, quiet environment like a caged lion when he's not powering through some meagre mindless task. Maybe I'm afraid that exercising in the middle of the day will only make his energy level rise, which would make him even harder to deal with.

Whatever it is, for some reason it's trippin me out.