ThatGrrl

A phrase more than a new word for me. But, as read in the Instagram account of Jennifer Garner (US celebrity) of all places. She's been making some cooking video posts and this was a French phrase she used in one of them. I looked it up and found:

The preparations to cook, having the ingredients ready, such as cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components that are required for the menu and recipes ingredients measured out, washed, chopped and placed in individual bowls; and equipment such as spatulas and blenders prepared, and oven preheated.

My Mother taught us to cook this way. It makes things much simpler. No finding out you are missing an ingredient at the last minute, for one thing. I use the same idea in process of elimination way as I cook so things are put away and I don't have everything to clean up at the end.

Jade Walker posted a quote on Facebook:

"It's not the news that keeps upsetting you. It's what's happening that keeps upsetting you." - Dan Slott

I disagree. Its the way the news is being reported, with lies and propaganda (misinformation, or whatever that trendy word is these days), that's upsetting me. How the news is reported does matter. People are influenced by body language, tones in speech, and the words chosen. The news should be reported without bias, plainly, a little on the flat side. News is serious, not a game, an upsell, or a campaign. Editorials were used to give an opinion about the news.

When did all the news reports become so biased. Like marketing campaigns instead of news reports.

I was peeling carrots and I asked my nephew to get me a kettle to put them into. He said it was a pot. I didn't really care what he wanted to call it. Just get it so I can make dinner. I was visiting at his house, his Mother's house. But he went on about it, correcting me.

In fact, I still don't know which is perfectly correct and I don't very much care. I will still, likely, say pot or kettle and mean the same thing. The word is trivial, the meaning was pretty clear.

But he was hung up on the nuance of pot versus kettle. He was not helping me peel carrots, potatoes or get dinner cooking. Which mattered more? I think he would have figured out the lack of importance in the nuance if he had no dinner.

But, a lot of people seem to get hung up on trivial things, like nuances these days.

I do think the word matters and getting it correct matters, but it depends on the circumstances. There are times when communication needs to be clear, when communication is very important and there are times when you just want something to boil the carrots in.

This quote is about the break between having the dream and living with it. But, you can read so much into a few words.

I’m a fan of writer Ann Patchett, whose book, Truth and Beauty, is one of my favourites. This week, thanks to the website, Brain Pickings, I came across a fantastic Patchett quotation that hit very close to home, especially the last line:

“The journey from the head to hand is perilous and lined with bodies. It is the road on which nearly everyone who wants to write — and many of the people who do write — get lost… Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.”

The stark disappointment of words is something I know a little too much about. So often the idea in my head, which initially seems so good, falls apart once I begin to try to assemble the words on paper. Suddenly my remarkable idea becomes frustratingly ordinary.

Source: Lindy Mechefske

This quote makes me think about writers having to kill their babies. That was a quote I read about editing your writing. Your words and phrases being taken out of existence. Deleting unnecessary wordage. Editing.

But, I find in life, the idea of editing things or deleting them, or exterminating... there are lots of good words for it... is an important skill to have. All things but in moderation. If you can master that in life you will save yourself a lot of stress, have more space (physically and mentally) and save money too.

Of course, no one should literally kill babies, or other children. At least let them get to adulthood, or the age of 20, and be guilty of something on the extreme side, first. Its ok to be a little dramatic, just not too literal about it.