On the day that the 2023 Thanksgiving turkeys were pardoned,  the White House Christmas tree was delivered, both occurrences  serving as  harbingers of the approaching frantic Christmas season.  But the signs of Christmas had begun to show up back in October when some  stores brought out their tinsel and toys. Like the eager children we were—for  some of us a long time ago—Christmas can’t wait. It  has  become a season, with the family holiday of Thanksgiving only a bump in the road on the way to December 25. Some people may be turned off by all the commercialism surrounding Christmas,  with the “getting and spending” as William Wordsworth would say,…

  Like the  other months of the year, November has a large number of celebration days, but except for Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day, those other days have a lighthearted touch,  seem somewhat bland, or are even trivial.  Nothing says November like the gorgeous colors that shout to us from neighborhood  yards, roadside hedges, and hillsides. Turn a corner on a street and you’re met with an explosion of vibrant, variegated color. All this riotous beauty exists in the fall of the year to stimulate our senses.  Individuals as well as groups travel long distances, especially to New England, to enjoy the natural glory of the season.  People who live…

  PHILANTHROPY: phi-lan-thro-py (noun) Synonyms:  benevolence /generosity/altruism Definition: “An act or gift done or made  for humanitartian purposes; goodwill to fellow members of the human race.” Sometimes a word suggests that there’s much more to it than meets the eye, showing itself in a different light from the usual definition. This is true of philanthropy. When you think of the word philanthropy, what comes to your mind?  Very likely some of the biggest, most powerful names in our world, going  back to Alfred Nobel and Andrew Carnegie up to today’s Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, all of them individuals whose contributions have made a lasting impact on  society. These top tier…

I was almost through reading a book I was enjoying when  I came across a sentence that made me stop and read it again.  “A child should know that they are loved.”  Yes, that was what it said.  “Child,” a singular noun, was paired with a plural pronoun.  The author was a well-respected magazine editor and writer of several books and scads of articles. How did he blunder like that? I did a little checking and found that it was no blunder. A lot  of people are treating the  language like that these days. English teachers have always taught—yea, preached—that a pronoun is a substitute  noun, and that a singular…

I’m sure you’ve noticed the  two-letter word that has made its way into  nearly everyone’s vocabulary and is increasing in popularity daily.  That  word is AI (Artificial Intelligence). The importance of  Artificial Intelligence dominates conversations  today, but we don’t have to  know much about technology  in order to be familiar with AI.  We deal with it when we  call customer  service  at our bank or at our cable provider or even at our doctor’s office. Insstead of getting a live  customer “servant,” we get a  voice that offers us the Main Menu and tells us  how  to  respond to its prompts. If you tell it the last four digits of…

On my way back home from running an errand not long ago, I saw a fence where I hadn’t seen one before.  Curious Kate that I am,  I started looking around as I drove and saw that there were quite a few fences already ensconced in our neighborhood.   I knew that a number of the barriers  had gone  up around backyards and sideyards, but I had suddenly become aware of seeing  some new ones, a few of them running the length of  the sideyards. Thankfully, none of them are across the front. There’s still the clear space of lawns. We don’t have deer here in this neighborhood  as we did…

  From time to time,  certain words  or phrases pop up in our language usages, catch on with the public, and stick around, at least for a while.  One such phrase in recent times is “walk back.” I think it originated with journalists who have used it when a politician or some other  prominent person  retracted or “took back”  something they said. Applying the  negative words to  the individual  made him or her look guilty of equivocation or weakness or even outright lying. Well, I don’t know what it says about me, but I had to walk back one of my pronouncements. For years I was adamantly against having  any…

  If you listen to the news on television and the radio or read the newspapers, you’ll agree that people are worried about the state of our planet. The Earth doesn’t seem to be able to hold up in its present condition.  Scientists are sounding the alarm, holding conferences and summits to discuss the problem and get the word out,  mostly to those they think are causing the problem. The dire warnings hinge on climate change. The United Nations and world leaders are collaborating on strategies  to  help preserve the planet and life on it. Well, one billionaire who foresees  a terrifying scenario for humanity on Planet  Earth  wants to…

  It’s that time again—time to put the spotlight on women. It seems that thinking about  women in a deeply  consequential way is reserved for one day in the year. The rest of the time, it’s business as usual. But there doesn’t need to be  a lot of hyperbole about women, their specialness, and their gifts to humankind. Nineteenth century society did that already. At that time, women were considered delicate and precious,  genteel creatures incapable of participating in public life.  They were unique beings to be kept under wraps, their anatomical parts not to be seen or spoken about. In this regard, you may read with amusement  linguist Albert…