a memory

It was unusually hot in Raleigh today...in the 90's in April. Among other things, we took a motorcycle ride on the BMW. As we were riding along, I spotted a little girl (about 6-8 years old) in her backyard, with her mom (I presume) looking on. She was in a hot pink bathing suit and frolicking in the lawn sprinkler. I couldn't help remembering doing that as a special treat when the weather was hot. It was funny, though, because I remembered that when we were little and begging to do that, we called the activity "getting squirted." That struck me as being funny and maybe a little esoteric. I wonder if other people in my generation called it that and if children in OTHER generations called it that. I'm pretty sure it wasn't just my siblings and I who used that phrase. At least the other children on Rock Creek Drive must have called it that too. Then I wondered if I called it that when my children wanted to do it.

Another idiom that I have been thinking about today is "making fun of." Last night at the Mudcats game, Jodi said to Courtney that I was "making fun of " Bob because his legs were too short for him to reach the wall with them as he stretched his legs to rest his back. As I was riding the motorcyle today, it occured to me that that is a great example to use to explain "idiom" to students. I could never think of good examples to explain that an idiom is an expression when taken apart into its separate words can't be directly translated to make the same sense as the words mean when combined. I remember one example that I used to use was "step on the gas" to mean accelerate a vehicle.

Well, those are today's thoughts from this wordsmith! Want to play word games with me?

I surely wish somebody besides me would post to this blog. It's pretty much a monologue, which begs the question as to why it exists.