November Leaves

I took advantage of the sunshine Saturday and walked the two-mile trek around my neighborhood (that's the shortest route around my "block"). The weather was an uncanny 71F — a good 20 degrees above normal. Just more weird weather in a year of unusual temps. August was cold and wet. September warmed up a little, but dipped down to freezing in October. Now November is roasting.

Not that anyone is complaining. Quite the contrary in fact. I opened my front window during the afternoon while finishing Thanksgiving cards and, for the third time this week, got out for a walk. The trees have all dropped their leaves, and most of those piled along the curb have already been collected, but — now a week after Halloween — many houses still sport pumpkins and other fall decorations, making for an enjoyable outing. I did take my camera along with me, but you know it will be a while before I get anything uploaded. Maybe before the snow flies. If not, there's always nextautumn. *wink*

Not much on the agenda for today. A trip to the grocery store, some reading, maybe watch the football game...not much else. Sometimes you just need a day or a long afternoon to kick back and do nothing.

CAS39

A card made for this week's "clean and simple" challenge, which was a sketch challenge. It was a great excuse to use my new turkey stamp! I have been looking for a decent turkey stamp for years, but everything was either two cartoonish, or more detailed than I wanted. You can imagine how ecstatic I was this fall when Stampin' Up issued not one, but two decent turkeys--this single stamp, and a 4-piece set that includes a turkey. Since some of the images in the 4-piece set are similar to others I have, I opted for the single bird. This is a simple card on white cardstock, with only a splash of color in harvest colors (ink and patterned paper).

Stamps: Gobble, Gobble (Stampin' Up)
Paper: White, Orange (Wausau Paper Co); Indian Summer Fall Stack (DCWV)
Ink: "Autumn Leaves" Kaleidacolor
Acccessories: Grosgrain ribbon (Joann's), Oval Punches (Marvy)

Friday 5: Grand Slam

Copy these questions to your webspace and answer them there. Don’t forget to link us from your website!


This week’s 5 honors the World Series (ack!).


1. According to the cliche, if you “spare the rod,” you “spoil the child.” Who in your life was probably spared A Rod while growing up? Definitely baby sis, and her youngest (spoiled ROTTEN by her paternal g'father) is just as bad.

2. In how many directions this week did you feel you were being Yanked? At least twenty.

3. On whom have you depended for relief this week? I guess we'll count the maintenance man here, who relieved me of a major leak under the kitchen sink.

4. Who deserves a standing ovation this week (or even a hip-hip Jorge)? Thing 2, who went to bat for me Wednesday when I got caught in the middle of a power struggle between Thing 1 and Thing 3. They turned a bad day to worse, so the pep talk was much appreciated.

5. When did you last have a taste of Champagne? New Year's Eve.

Thursday Thirteen 132: Really Old Classics

Yesterday's blog talked about the three book challenges to which I've committed myself, one of which is the Really Old Classics Challenge (pre-1600 A.D.). Here are thirteen "really old" classics taken from the suggested reading list that I have either read previously and might be interested in reading again (in bold), or am interested in reading for the challenge.

* Gilgamesh
* Homer: The Iliad, The Odyssey
* Aeschylus: Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound
* Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone; Electra
(I have read these four in both French and English, and two different versions of Antigone--the original and a "contemporary" version by Jean Anouilh. Also read "The Flies," a modernization of "Electra" by Sartre.)
* Euripides: Orestes
* Plato: Dialogues
* Aristotle: Poetics, Ethics
* Aesop: Fables
* Dante: The Divine Comedy
* Leonardo da Vinci: Notebooks
* Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte D’Arthur
* Sir Thomas More: Utopia
* Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene

BONUS:

* Michel de Montaigne: Essays
* Confucius: The Analects

What about you? Are there any "really old" classics you liked and would recommend?

LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:

(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Marcia * Adelle Laudan * Alice Audrey * Tracie
CM Torrens * Stephanie Adkins * Ella Drake
Journeywoman * Desi * Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi

Jill Conyers * Chubskulit * Brenda ND * Inez Kelley
Jennifer McKenzie * A Catherine Noon * Paige Tyler
Elise Logan * Vixen * Marice * Sophia Parkwood
Amy * Book Pusher

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE.

Book Challenges

So, I've been lured into three new book challenges. Granted, I haven't quite fulfilled the Casual Classics challenge set at beginning of the year, but I am working on it. Slowly. Three down, one more to go, and the title I have slotted for book four will also fill one of the new challenges below. Feel free to take the plunge and join me!


First up is the Really Old Classics Challenge. Yes, I know, I just said I still haven't completed the current classics challenge, and now I've gone and joined another. This one requires that you read no more than ONE classic written before 1600 AD between November 2009 and February 2010. Looking over the list of suggested readings, I discovered that I have in fact already read a few that qualify (some in both French and English), and realized that, aside from these works, I also have one not yet read in my TBR pile: Homer's The Odyssey. There you go, a book I can slide into January. And, since I intend to set myself the goal of reading at least four classics again in 2010, it will fulfill two challenges at once. Nice!


Next up is the Christmas Challenge — read at least three Christmas-themed books from 26 November 2009 through 31 December 2009. YA counts, children’s books do not. I had already gone through my TBR pile and pulled out a mess of Christmas titles before stumbling across this challenge, so this one should be easy to complete (and then some). Umm...yeah. You don't want to know how long that list is. There are books that have been languising in the TBR a decade or more. Sad, I know. And while I know I will not get through that entire list this year, at least I will make a healthy dint in it.


Last but not least is the Year of the Historical: A 2010 Reading Challenge. This challenge has no set book requirements, only asks that you read as many historicals as you can fit into your regular reading during the next year. Looking over the TBR, I realized that, if I read only one Johanna Lindsey a month, I will (finally) be caught up on her books. I used to devour her books, but realize the reason I fell behind wasn't because I tired of her writing, but because they switched from printing them in mass market pb to hardcover. A coup for her, but not for the reader. So, while I've continued to automatically buy each book, I haven't been so good at keeping up. This will be the year to do so!

There was a fourth challenge that intrigued me, but I have decided not to commit to it, feeling three are enough for the time being, but I will mention it in case anyone else wants to join. It's the Shelf-Discovery Challenge. This challenge asks that you look through the book by Lizzie Skurnick, then choose any six YA books mentioned in the book, whether it be one you want to reread as an adult, or one you missed as a teen, to read between 1 Nov 2009 – 30 April 2010. If you can't get your hands on a physical copy of the book, go to amazon.com and browse the book's table of contents; you can amass quite a reading list from that alone!


Let me know if you decide to join any of these. If these aren't your cuppa, but you like the idea of a reading challenge, check out A Novel Challenge. You're sure to find something that will suit you and your reading tastes!

Teaser Tuesday: Unhallowed Ground

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

She saw and felt the essence of evil, heard the rasp of its fetid breath, smelled flesh and blood and bone and the pungence of the earth as her fate stepped closer and closer still, drawing pleasure from her terror and her newfound knowledge...

She had not come to make a sacrifice.

She had come to be the sacrifice.

Monday Movie Meme: Mobsters

Share on your blog mafia movies that left their mark with you and link back to The Bumbles. And don't forget to visit your fellow participants to find their recommendations!

Here's my list, featuring one of my all-time favorite movies, followed by a couple of comedies featuring the mob. Hey, these guys beg to be laughed at, don't they?

*** The Untouchables (1987; Kevin Kostner, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia) -- Federal Agent Elliot Ness sets out to take out Al Capone; because of rampant corruption, he assembles a small, hand-picked team.

*** Married to the Mob (1988; Michelle Pfeiffer, Alec Baldwin) -- An undercover FBI agent falls in love with a recently widowed mafia wife seeking to start her life over after her husband's murder and who is also pursued by a libidinous mafia kingpin seeking to claim her for himself.

*** The Freshman (1990; Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick) -- Clark Kellogg is a young man starting his first year at film school in New York City. After a small time crook steals all his belongings, Clark meets Carmine "Jimmy the Toucan" Sabatini, an "importer" bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. When Sabatini makes Clark an offer he can't refuse, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining.

*** Mickey Blue Eyes (1999; Hugh Grant, James Caan, Jeanne Tripplehorn) -- An English auctioneer proposes to the daughter of a mafia kingpin, only to realize that certain "favors" would be asked of him.

*** Johnny Dangerously (1984, Michael Keaton) -- Set in the 1930's, an honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

Happy Halloween

Witching you a spooktacular holiday!

Don't forget to turn your clocks back
before you go to bed tonight!

Friday 5: At the Movies

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5!

1. What’s your favorite sports movie?
Oooh...tough one. So many great movies I could name -- Miracle, Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams...but I think my favorite is A League of Their Own.


2. What’s your favorite romantic comedy film?
Again, so many titles come to mind. Speechless, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally... I think at top of the heap, though, would be While You Were Sleeping.


3. What’s your favorite animated Disney movie?
That's a tie between Mulan and Cinderella. I love them both!


4. What’s your favorite non-Disney movie musical?
Non-Disney? There is such a thing?? Just... Kidding! Umm...lemme think a second... Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Carousel. The Music Man. No... Let's go with The Sound of Music.


5. What’s your favorite stranger-in-a-strange-land / fish-out-of-water movie?
This is the easiest question yet: French Kiss. The soundtrack is awesome, too!




Thanks for participating and have a celluloid weekend!

Thursday Thirteen 131: Eplegaarden

As mentioned last week here and here, my sister, niece (aka The Bug) and I made our third annual trek to Eplegaarden, an apple orchard and pumpkin patch close to me, on 17 October. It was a little windy, overcast and a bit chilly, but we still had a good time. This was one of the best years for pumpkins and apples. Pumpkins are large with a deep orange color, and the apple trees so heavy with fruit their limbs scrape the ground, making it easy for little ones to help in the plucking. Here are thirteen pictures from our day (and you'll note I cleverly slipped in a fourteenth in the header above).



It was a really good year for pumpkins, apples...


and squash. They had wagons full of gourds in assorted shapes, colors and sizes.


The annual measuring


Eagerly traipsing up the hill to the orchard (sure, she volunteered to pull it when it was empty!).


Look how plentiful this red delicious tree is--and this is a small tree!


Concentrating on those golden delicious...


This looks like a good one!


Look how the boughs of this golden delicious tree droop to the ground!


Shh...don't tell my sister I snuck this one in! And yes, she is indeed eating one apple while plucking another (tasting is allowed, within reason).


One more Gala, I think...




There were still plenty of grapes clinging to the vines, too!





LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Adelle Laudan * Elise Logan * Stephanie Adkins * Tracie
Ella Drake * Marcia * Sarah at His Unfailing Love
Bacolad * Alice Audrey * Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi
Betty * Barbara * Harriet * Janice Seagraves
Mary Quast * Jennifer McKenzie * Paige Tyler
Mariposa * Yvette Davis

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Autumn display outside my grocery store.

Teaser Tuesday:

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

He bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. He had sensed rather than heard it: Someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind him. Harry squinted at the bleak alleyway. If only it would move, then he'd know whether it was just a stray cat—or something else.
~Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
By J.K. Rowling

Monday Movie Meme: Surprise Endings

Argh! Don't you love days when the computer refuses to cooperate with you? I tried posting this three or four times from work today, but for some reason the work computer was really boggy today. Ah well...better late than never, right?

So around these parts we are getting ready for Halloween. But we've already covered horror movies. There's always candy on Halloween, but we've already talked about movie snacks too. Of course those little ghosts and goblins planning to ring our doorbell for the candy will greet us with a chorus of Trick or Treat! We always avoid the tricks by giving them the treats. But we do enjoy tricks when they come in the form of a shocker movie ending. Share on your blog movies that you thought you had all figured out which then left you with your jaw hanging open in wonder at the final scene. Don't forget to link back here at The Bumbles so we can share recommendations and visit your fellow participants!


When I think surprise endings, there are two movies I instantly think of:

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) -- Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

and

The Sixth Sense (1999) -- A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist. Was this not one of the best-kept secrets in movie endings ever??

Another weird movie with a surprise ending was Identity (2003). And when I say it was weird, I mean really out there. The plot: Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rainstorm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.

Thursday Thirteen 130: What's in My Fridge

I'm feeling completely uninspired this week, so...I thought I'd go with the mundane "what's in my fridge." Considering how sparse it's looking these days, this list was all too easy.

+ Gallon of 1% milk (skim is too watery)
+ Two cartons of juice: Apple and a Dole juice blend (orange strawberry banana)
+ Leftover pizza from last Friday - this needs to be thrown out, but I don't want it to smell up the house
+ Butter
+ Eggs
+ Apples - LOTS of apples. See Sunday's post.
+ Potatoes - is there a more versatile food? You can fry it, bake it, boil it, broil it, mash it...there are so many different ways to cook it!
+ Bacon - I don't often buy it, but was really hankering for some lately. I think it's the chilly fall weather.
+ Cheese - cheddar and American
+ Pork chop - thawing for Thursday night's dinner
+ Pickles - half a jar. For some reason, I only seem to eat them in summer
+ Ketchup
+ Sundae toppings - three kinds (fudge, caramel, strawberry - the latter is GREAT on pancakes and waffles)

Bonus: A bottle of wine - received as a gift that I have yet to open



LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Alice Audrey * Adelle Laudan * Journeywoman * Ella Drake
Kristen * Tracie * Colleen * Shelley Munro * Ms Menozzi
CM Torrens * Stephanie Adkins * BrendaND * Dawn
Inez Kelley * Zora Stout * Jennifer McKenzie * Elise Logan
Janice Seagraves * Rosetta Stone * Jeanne St. James
Paige Tyler * Jana * Melissa

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE

Teaser Tuesday: Ghost Hunters

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


This week I've plucked one off the TBR pile that has been languishing there three years now, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum. I purchased it at the 2007 Wisconsin Book Festival, after attending a reading by the author. Listening to the prelude and talk of her research behind the book intrigued me enough to want to read it, which I meant to do last October, except I suddenly could not locate it. I made sure to dig through the TBR pile for it this year!

About the book: A Pulitzer Prize-winning author tells the amazing story of William James's quest for empirical evidence of the spirit world. What if a world -renowned philosopher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard suddenly announced he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, the illustrious William James led a determined scientific investigation into “unexplainable” incidences of clairvoyance and ghostly visitations. James and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. What they pursued— and what they found—raises questions as fascinating today as they were then.

The opening paragraph:

No one saw the girl die. It was just a little too early, a morning still too dark, first light barely warming the edge of the sky. The night frost yet shimmered on the ground, a faint ghostly silver. It was barely 6:00a.m. on a late October morning when sixteen-year-old Bertha Huse stepped out into the quiet.

Sounds nice and creepy for an end of October, almost Halloween read, no?

Monday Movie Meme: Westerns

This week's theme is Westerns. Be sure to link back to The Bumbles and don't forget to visit your fellow participants!

My dad was big on westerns and WWII movies, so this was a pretty east one for me. Here are a few titles that immediately came to mind:

Stagecoach (1039, John Wayne); A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area.

High Noon (1952, Gary Cooper); A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962; John Wayne, James Stewart); A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed.

Maverick (1994; Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner); Bret Maverick, needing money for a poker tournament, faces various comic mishaps and challenges, including a charming woman thief.

Tombstone (1993; Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton); A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.

Cat Ballou (1965; Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin); A woman seeking revenge for her murdered father hires a famous gunman, but he's very different from what she expects.

How the West Was Won (1962; Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck); A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the nineteenth century--including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

City Slickers and City Slickers II (1991/1994 ; Billy Crystal, Bruno Kirby, Daniel Stern, Jack Palance); Business men spend their vacation learning how to work a ranch and drive cattle. In the sequel, they return in search of Curly's gold. The first movie will be on TVLand this coming Saturday.

SC249 -- Organic Grace

Man, was I tired last night. Chasing after an almost 5-year-old through an orchard on a blustery fall day will do that to you. Sister and The Bug were up yesterday and we made what has become our annual autumn pilgrimage to Eplegaarden, an apple orchard and pumpkin patch only a few miles from me. It was two weeks later than we usually go, and despite heavy overcast skies and a bitter wind, there was a pretty good crowd for a cold October day. We first traipsed up the hill for apples. I had heard it was a really good year for apples and oranges, but even so I was surprised at how heavy with fruit the trees were. Some of the boughs were so laden with large, red apples the boughs drooped on the ground. It took no time at all to fill their ten-pound bag almost to overflowing with red delicious, golden delicious and gala apples.

We next embarked on a short hay ride around the farm. "Hay ride" is actually a bit of a misnomer as there was nary a blade of hay to be found in the horse-drawn wagon, but we had a good time nonetheless. The Bug made friends with a little girl about her age while waiting for our ride, and both girls got to help handle the reins. After our ride, we next went through "Harold Potterson's Hallowed Haunts and Harried Hunts." Pretty cheesy, but the little "wizards and witches" seemed to love it, especially the inflated haunted castle and maize maze. The latter had shorter corn stalks than one usually finds in a corn maze, so that the smaller kids wouldn't be two scared in their search for the "goblet of fire" -- which turned out to be a black cauldron filled with black and orange nylon ribbons. There was also a "quidditch" field and a game where you threw apples and tried to knock a sucker out of Dudley's hand. As I said, rather cheesy if you're an adult, but the kids all seemed to have fun.

After two and a half hours out in the cold, I was glad to return to the warmth of my apartment (and since they finally got the heat regulated round about last Thursday, it has indeed been toasty warm in here). I climbed into my pajamas, then into bed with a book to try to get warm. Around 7pm I was going to watch a movie, but quickly abandoned that idea. My next door neighbors had guests, one of whom seemed to be turning somersaults off the furniture and ramming into my wall. Whatever happened to teaching kids manners and consideration for others? I understand small children have a lot of energy (some more than others), but seriously--is it fair to make your neighbors suffer your child or young guest's bad behavior? So, instead of the movie I wanted to watch, I ended up back in the bedroom reading and working on the computer for a couple hours, then watching a movie on TCM in here at 9:30pm, one I had not seen before, The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Good movie. Boats, sabotage and mystery...what more could one want in a movie?


While waiting for Sis and The Bug to arrive this morning (naturally they were later than they said they would be...shocker!), I whipped up a couple fall birthday cards, again using last week's sketch, SC249. I can't believe I'd not used this set before today. It was a free hostess set I got last year. I randomly stamped the flower across the bottom and around edges of top portion of the card base in More Mustard. I also sponged around the edges of the image panel with the same color.





Stamps: Organic Grace (Stampin' Up)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper); Yellow, Patterned (DCWV)
Ink: More Mustard
Accessories: Brads

SC249 -- Winter {Friend}

Seems appropriate, what with the cold temperatures (20 degrees below normal!) and our first snow sighting last Saturday. I don't even want to imagine what winter is going to be like. *shudder* This card fits last week's sketch challenge, SC249. And yes, I know I did the last two out of order. Deal with it!

Stamps: Winter Friend (A Muse Artstamps), Winter is Calling (snowflakes, Stampin' Up)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper); Red, Green (The Paper Co); Patterned Papers (DCWV)
Ink: Basic Black, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Markers (La Plume), Red Brads

SC250 -- Fall Birthday

A fall birthday card following this week's sketch, SC250. The three stamped panels are popped up, and ink was sponged over the green background for a "shabby chic" look.

Stamps: Fresh Cuts (Stampin' Up), Birthday wishes (Savvystamps)
Paper: White (Wausau Paper), Green and Orange (The Paper Co), Designer papers (DCWV)
Ink: Really Rust, Basic Black
Accessories: Raffia, Punches (Marvy)

Thursday Thirteen 129: Vocabulary--1984

While recently reading 1984, I noted that this book has some great vocabulary words in it. Without further ado, here are thirteen plucked out of the book to add to your roster of words. Examples of usage are taken direct from the novel.




1. anodyne (adj): relieving or lessening pain; soothing
eg: "It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant."

2. etiolate (vt): 1. to cause to be pale and unhealthy 2. to deprive of strength, weaken
eg: "Already, on the walk from the station, the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin."

3. persiflage (noun): 1. a light, frivolous style of writing or speaking 2. such talk or writing
eg: "When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage."

4. spurious (adj): not true or genuine; false, counterfeit
eg: "In his capacity as administrator, it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones..."

5. diminution (noun): a diminishing or being diminished; lessening; decrease
eg: "And even technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty."

6. execrate (vt): 1. orig., to call down evil upon; curse 2. to speak abusively or contemptuously of; denounce scathingly 3. to loathe; detest; abhor
eg: "The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense."

7. expropriate (vt): 1. to take (land, property, etc) from its owner, esp: to take for public use or in the public interest, as by right of eminent domain 2. to transfer (property) from another to oneself 3. to deprive of ownership; dispossess
eg: "It has always been assumed that if the capitalist class were expropriated, Socialism must follow."

8. inimical (adj): 1. like an enemy; hostile 2. in opposition; adverse; unfavorable
eg: "It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction."

9. pedant (noun): 1. a person who puts unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning 2. a narrow-minded teacher who insists on exact adherence to a set of arbitrary rules (pedantic, adj)
eg: "A sort of intellectual warmth, the joy of the pedant who has found out some useless fact, shone through the dirt and scrubby hair."

10. inviolate (adj): not violated; kept sacred or unbroken
eg: "Now he had retreated a step further: in the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate."

11. abstruse (adj): hard to understand; deep; recondite
eg: "But there were other days when they settled down to their work almost eagerly, making a tremendous show of entering up their minutes and drafting long memoranda which were never finished--when the argument as what they were supposedly arguing about grew extraordinarily involved and abstruse..."

12. sinecure (noun): any office or position providing an income or other advantage but requiring little or no work
eg: "He even had a job, a sinecure, more highly paid than his old job had been."

13. premonitory (adj): forewarning; foreboding
eg: "A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage."


LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:
(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)

Journeywoman * Tracie * Elise Logan * Adelle Laudan
Ella Drake * Alice Audrey * Stephanie Adkins
Cambria Dillon * fickleinpink * Mary Quast * Colleen
Inez Kelley * Shelley Munro * Annallee *Angeleque Ford
Ms Menozzi * CM Torrens * Jennifer McKenzie
Hootin' Anni * Happily Retired Gal * Calico Crazy
Janice Seagraves * Jeanne St. James * Paige Tyler

You can find more Thursday Thirteen participants HERE.