Happy liturgical new year! on.soundcloud.com/3Q13mLN2DHii...

You’re never too old to learn new words! Today I discovered “enochlophobia”—literally “in crowd fear”. A good word for introverts.

Your Thanksgiving Day #etymology fun fact: “pea” is a back-formation from “pease”, the original name of the plant, misconstrued as a plural. “Pease” (from “pisum”, the Latin name of the plant) survives in the nursery rhyme that begins “pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold.”

One of my family’s Thanksgiving Day traditions was trying to read through Art Buchwald’s classic holiday column without cracking up. I think we failed most years. Here it is, in case you would like to take up the challenge. #thanksgivinghumor sandyschopbach.blogspot.com/2012/11/le-j...

“I am The Cat, and everything here is Mine. Especially you.” (Hence the unmade bed. 😻)

Powerful words for our times – written in 1906. From all that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen, from all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men, from sale and profanation of honour and the sword, from sleep and from damnation, deliver us, good Lord! –G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936)

This bag matches my eyes, so it’s mine now. You can’t have it. #everythinghereismineanyway

Oh, I forgot. Veterans Day. Plural. No apostrophe. #copyediting

Time to make the biscuits. She is very focused. 😻

Is it a football game or an auction? #proofreadingmatters

Happy Meowloween from Leo, who reminds you to keep your kitties – especially black kitties – safely indoors on Halloween. #petsafety

They are not impressed by #NationalCatDay because they know that’s every day.

Today’s product. #homemadebread #challah

Leo’s expression when I told him #blackcatday wasn’t every day of the year. I don’t believe it either, buddy. 🐈‍⬛😻

For #WorldBreadDay, a loaf of pumpernickel just out of the oven.

Red panda blep! This is Gimli, who normally lives at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston but is hanging out at Stone Zoo in Stoneham while his habitat gets upgraded.

Leo contemplates the arrival of autumn. #photogeniccat

Oof. Pulled out the flannel pajamas last night. And being a soft Southerner by birth, I am not ashamed to admit that I caved and turned on the heat. #newenglandweather #crispy

I had one of those moments today where the word I knew I wanted was firmly stuck in my brain while my mouth was insisting on going rogue. My brain wanted "cufflinks" but my mouth wanted "handcuffs". I mean, what ...? #useyourwords #whenEnglishmajorsgobad

Happy #SaintFrancisDay! 😻

In the space of a few hours this morning, we have gained an archbishop and lost a legend. Prayers of different intentions for Sarah Mullally and Patricia Routledge. #churchofengland #hyacinthbucket

#churchcat in his natural habitat(s). #catswithjobs

Today feels like a good day to make soup. #comfortfoodseason

A proper Episco-cat studies the daily readings. 😻 #churchcat

When your surname looks like it’s also an adverb, you have to expect headlines that make people do a double take: “Braves Claim Brett Wisely”. (Wisely is an infielder with unexciting career statistics, so time will tell if it actually was a wise move.)

It’s 78° outside and the heat is on in this Orange Line train. #itsstillsummer

Çılbır (chill-bur) is a Turkish dish consisting of a poached egg served over garlicky yogurt and drizzled with spiced butter. Very simple, very filling, very delicious.

My all-time favorite doxology: Let every creature rise and bring peculiar honours to our King; angels descend with songs again, and earth repeat the loud Amen. #churchnerd #verypeculiar

File this under “the writer couldn’t resist”: Last night a rookie pitcher named Connelly Early made his major-league debut. The Boston Globe’s beat reporter wrote, “Early arrived right on time”.

Red-tailed hawk cleared for takeoff. I am thrilled with this shot because I’m usually not quick enough to capture them in flight.

I turned on the local news yesterday morning and the first thing I heard was the traffic reporter saying, “We’re looking at a possible Storrowing.” At 6am on a Sunday morning, no less. #peakboston #labordayweekend

TIL that chocolate dessert hummus is a thing and I’m just not convinced. Maybe it’s delicious, but my mind can’t put together “chocolate” and “hummus”. 🤷‍♀️ #strangefoodcombinations

Shapes, lines, and one shiny black cat. #artsy

#Funwithnames, major-league baseball edition: pitchers named Junk (Marlins) and Bummer (Braves). And from the retired ranks, a pitcher named Putz (which is a really rude word in Yiddish).

Friday morning with this little prince. 🐈‍⬛😻 #churchcat

“Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?” “So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober.” — Dorothy Sayers, “Gaudy Night” (1935).

Thanks to this fabulous channel, I have now learned that there is an industry term for ambiguous headlines (e.g., “Stolen painting found by tree”): “crash blossoms”. I love it. Thanks, @jesszafarris.bsky.social and @robwords.bsky.social! youtu.be/Q_A1OtVd8RA?...

It’s August. Disney World is running Christmas-themed TV ads. STOP IT.

When I was working, my inability to stay awake past halftime of #MondayNightFootball was a gentle joke among my colleagues. I’ve been retired for three years, don’t have to set an alarm anymore… and I still can’t stay awake past halftime. 🙄😁

Your archaic word for the day is “breadwright”, literally “bread maker”. (Also the name of @kingarthurbaking.bsky.social bread maven Martin Philip’s fabulous website, which only elevates his cred with this bread-loving word nerd.) #OldEnglish

I’m watching the Kidscast version of the #LittleLeagueClassic on Sunday Night Baseball. This teens are SO much better than the adult crew!

Always make sure your cat is fully charged. #solarpower #blackcatappreciationday

They know me well at the coffee shop… #unapologeticcatlady

#InternationalCatDay? Pfft. They know that’s every day, thank you very much.

Pensive girl at dusk. #fluffycat

😳

"Vicissitude" and "vicar" share the same Latin root, "vicis", meaning "change" or "succession", ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "to bend". So be nice to your clergy. They don't have an easy job. #etymology #wordnerd

Etymological beauty: “anemone” literally means “daughter of the wind” in Greek. (Hat tip to @robwords.bsky.social and @jesszafarris.bsky.social in their fantastic podcast “Words Unravelled”.)

Black cats are hard to photograph, they said. You need all sorts of lighting and filters, they said. Phone camera, natural (indoor) light. Bonus pic of toe beans, because he displayed them so nicely. 😻 #blackcats

And I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it. 🤣 #somanybooks