Stuart Aken's Blog, page 274

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Kaput

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Kaput: adjective – slang: worn out, dead, finished, made useless or unableto function, destroyed, broken.
'The armadillo you sold meas a pet yesterday is kaput; it is dead, no longer extant, finished, no use,defunct, incapable of any function, done for and generally no longer acceptableas a companion. What are you going to do about it?' (With apologies to MontyPython's Flying Circus 'Dead Parrot' Sketch.)
A question for you toponder: Should you get to heaven (in the doubtful event that such a place actuallyexists), will you get stuck for eternity in the clothes you were buriedin? 
1488 - Bartholomeus Diaz arrivedback in Portugal having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.1612 - Simon Marius was thefirst to observe the Andromeda galaxy through a telescope, thus hammeringanother nail in the coffin of those who believed in a flat Earth, anEarth-centric universe and the concomitant lies put about by the various holyauthorities of the age. 

Stuart's Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Jaded/Refreshed

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Jaded/Refreshed
Jaded: verb - exhausted, worn out; fatigued,tired; sated, dulled.
Refreshed: verb - gave fresh strength or energy to someone;reinvigorated or revived; made oneself fresher or more energetic by resting,walking, taking food or drink; relieved or cleared of; renewed.
'Years of gambling,drinking and womanising had left Reginald jaded and lacking in the lust forlife he'd so eagerly embraced as a younger man.'
'The final three days ofwalking beneath the searing sun of the dessert had left Giselle worn, drawn andthirsty, but a plunge into the cool clear waters of the oasis pool soonrefreshed her mind, spirit and body so that she felt revived enough to continueher journey.'
1287 – the Zuider Zeeseawall collapsed, causing the loss of 50,000 lives1911 – the South Pole wasfirst reached; Norwegian Roald Amundsen leading his party across the icywastes.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Jaded/Refreshed

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Jaded/Refreshed
Jaded: verb - exhausted, worn out; fatigued,tired; sated, dulled.
Refreshed: verb - gave fresh strength or energy to someone;reinvigorated or revived; made oneself fresher or more energetic by resting,walking, taking food or drink; relieved or cleared of; renewed.
'Years of gambling,drinking and womanising had left Reginald jaded and lacking in the lust forlife he'd so eagerly embraced as a younger man.'
'The final three days ofwalking beneath the searing sun of the dessert had left Giselle worn, drawn andthirsty, but a plunge into the cool clear waters of the oasis pool soonrefreshed her mind, spirit and body so that she felt revived enough to continueher journey.'
1287 – the Zuider Zeeseawall collapsed, causing the loss of 50,000 lives1911 – the South Pole wasfirst reached; Norwegian Roald Amundsen leading his party across the icywastes.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Insouciance

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Insouciance: noun - lack of concern, carefreeness.
'Gerald sauntered alongthe coast with an air of insouciance that spoke volumes for his ability to buryeven the most pressing of problems beneath a cloak of indifference to his realcircumstances. That he was in debt to the tune of several thousand pound, hiswife had left him for a more reliable and more attractive man, and his shoeswere letting in the sea water, seemed of little or no consequence to him.'
1577 - Sir Francis Drake sailedfrom England to circumnavigate the world1843 - "A ChristmasCarol" by Charles Dickens  was first published, selling 6,000 copies.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Insouciance

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Insouciance: noun - lack of concern, carefreeness.
'Gerald sauntered alongthe coast with an air of insouciance that spoke volumes for his ability to buryeven the most pressing of problems beneath a cloak of indifference to his realcircumstances. That he was in debt to the tune of several thousand pound, hiswife had left him for a more reliable and more attractive man, and his shoeswere letting in the sea water, seemed of little or no consequence to him.'
1577 - Sir Francis Drake sailedfrom England to circumnavigate the world1843 - "A ChristmasCarol" by Charles Dickens published was first, selling 6,000 copies.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Habitual/Unusual

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Habitual/Unusual
Habitual: adjective - of the nature of a habit;fixed by habit; constantly repeated or continued; customary, constant, usual,continual.
Unusual: adjective - not usual; different from orcontrary to what is expected or usual; exceptional, uncommon, unconventional.
'Henry shuffled across thefloor in pursuit of Adrienne, his habitual expression of hunger and need writlarge on his eager face in way guaranteed to ensure his failure as soon as sheturned to face him.'
'Sheila, noted for herconformity and generally nondescript manner of dress, had taken the unusualstep of attending the gathering dressed as a Bunny Girl, which was all the morenoticeable since the rest of the guests had decided on more formal wear for thefuneral.'
1884 - 1st cricket Test Matchwas played at the Adelaide Oval1901 - Marconi received the first transatlantic radiosignal from England to the US

Writing Contest Information

Image via WikipediaIf you have ever thought of trying your hand at a writing contest, please click on the 'Writing Contests' tab above. There, I list the details of hundreds of writing competitions along with the link to the appropriate website.
Most of these are international and open to everyone, but check the details for any restrictions.
Some of the contests are free and online. You don't have to spend a penny (or cent) to enter these and you might just win £1,000s or $1000s simply by entering. What have you to lose?
And if you run a contest yourself and it isn't included, please use the 'Contact Me' link in the Welcome to let me know and I'll include it.

The Green Thing

Image via WikipediaI received the following as an email from a friend and, instead of gumming up the works by sending it to all my friends by email, I thought I'd spread it via the blog.


Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

Remember: Don't make old People mad!

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.


I find my sympathies lie with both camps. As a Greenpeace supporter since the 1970s, I've long had a 'green' awareness. And, as a child of the post war years, I used to attend the local cinema 'free' simply for the price of 9 jam jars to be recycled. So I understand all of the above. The young, on the other hand, are not responsible for developing all the labour-saving devices that have evolved from our love affair with consumerism and technology. These have all come along at the hands of our generation or that of our children. The continued exploitation of the Earth's resources continues with the current generation who merely follow the example we have set. So, whilst it might be true that we did many things to re-use items and resources in our younger days, it is equally true that we did nothing to prevent the decline of such recycling and we did a great deal to ensure the success of the modern throw-away economy.
Lets's not blame one another for the state of the modern world. Instead, let's actually do something about it, by ensuring we avoid the worst excesses of consumerism and embrace the best practices of the ecologically sound.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Hachiman

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Hachiman: another in myoccasional, and probably self-indulgent, series designed to show the religiousthat there's more than one god worshipped in this inexplicable world of ours.All these deities exist in the minds of those who hold them holy, but none ofthem is real or any more special than the others.
Hachiman is the Japanese godof archery and war, combining elements of both Shinto and Buddhism. He's definedas the god of warriors, safeguarding and protecting them. Also divine protectorof Japan and the Japanese, his name means God of Eight Banners; a reference tothe eight heavenly banners signalling the birth of the divine Emperor Ojin. Thedove is his symbolic animal and messenger.Hachiman has long beenworshiped by peasants, as the god of agriculture, and by fishermen hoping he'dfill their nets with fish. In the Shinto religion, legend identifies him as theEmperor Ojin, the son of Empress Consort Jingu, C3-4 AD.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Gaiety/Sadness

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Gaiety/SadnessGaiety: noun - cheerfulness, mirth, frivolity, merrymaking.
Sadness: noun - the condition of being sad. Sad: adjective - sorrowful, mournful.
'Between evocative crashingof breakers on the sand, the hungry cries of the seagulls, and the lightsoughing of the onshore breeze, Jake could hear the gaiety of the beach party heapproached, as they played, laughed, danced and ate around their driftwoodbonfire.'
Personal note: I think it'srather sad that, as writers, we've lost the use of the word 'gay', which wassuch an evocative adjective for which there is no real synonym. Nothing againstthe gay community; just a tinge of regret that they chose that particular wordas a label.
'Walking the shore, just outof reach of crashing breakers, feeling the lonely cries of gulls and allowingthe offshore breeze to tangle her blonde tresses, Faith felt the deep sadnessof her separation from all that she knew and loved in the world.'