Blog introduction

The initial impulse to write about words and word histories (etymology) initially struck me in the early 1990's when I was early in my teaching career at Green Mountain College.  I presented the idea of a weekly column to an editor at a local daily who rejected it as "too academic."  The idea has burbled all these years until now when I have decided to try out blogging.  My intent is to put up a new entry about once a week regarding words that have struck me in everyday usage.  The initial entry--after this introduction--is about the word "word."  I set up this blog back in September.  Only today did I think to Google "beworded" and found out that it is a word game application, but I am sticking with my title.  The prefix "be-" means surrounded by, so I chose my title to mean "surrounded by words."  Be-enjoy!

Birdie, birdie

My larger objective is to share my love of words, not of birds, in this blog.  However, I had an Annie Dillard moment the other evening.  From my screened in back porch, I glimpsed a bird land in the grass and flap about.  Concerned about the well-being of the bird, I gently poked it, a female goldfinch, with a stick.  The bird gave every appearance of death.  Ever the optimist, I hoped it was playing "possum."  I went about my business refilling my feeders and changing the water in the bird bath.  The little lady bird persisted in its pose of death. As we were heading out to attend a commemoration of Woody Guthrie's 100the birthday, I vowed to give the lady goldfinch a proper burial the next day.  The next day, the birdie body was gone.  At first, I was saddened that I could not dig a little grave and humanly grieve, but it occurred to me that by letting the bird remain part of the natural cycle, I honored its little finch life more appropriately.