Yesterday I got to thinking about how I describe this blog as my Lisa-the-Writer blog, not my Lisa-the-Single-Girl blog or my Lisa-the-Domestically-Impaired blog. You’d think this theme would limit me, but it doesn’t.
For example, yesterday kicked off the holiday season with three social activities: an annual brunch, an open house, and a potluck dinner. Apparently, a day featuring nothing writer-related, right?
Nah. Especially when you consider that we writers can generate mini-worlds out of nothing in particular.
For example, I could detail a conversation I had with K– and J– during brunch (peach blintz, Black Forest omelet, German pancake, sigh) about how blogging could get in the way of my real writing, which could then lead to a discussion about procrastination and distractions…
Or, I could spin a tale about the holiday open house at Baker & Spice in which I ran into many fellow regulars who are real-life characters. There’s The Professor, who is writing his treatise on the theory of everything and who sometimes balances on one foot. There’s B–, who loves his stockings and has nicer legs than I do. There’s BigD, the philosopher fantasy writer who knows how to pluck a chicken. There’s the barista who said she was “addicted to cadavers” (once again: context is everything) and who wouldn’t mind being a fictional character — but only if I renamed her Genevieve and gave her red hair…
Or, I could ponder a point of language that was brought to my attention during the holiday potluck when R– asked: Why is it plastic toy, iron horse, steel bridge, but wooden chair? Why isn’t it wood chair? Asked while looking at me, the writer, for insight. I could only shrug, unfortunately, but it roused my writer-geek curiosity…
In truth, saying that I write a Lisa-the-Writer blog is almost the same as saying I write a Lisa-the-Person blog. Obviously, I’m not only a writer; on the other hand, I am rather single-minded these days.
2 comments on “Lisa the Writer”
Hey, thought I could throw some light on the “wooden” question as I studied English Language at college in the UK. At school we are taught that languages follow strict sets of rules, and while this is basically true it ignores the fact that languages evolve over time and circumstances.
A similar but better understood question to the “iron/wooden” one, is the “animal/meat” question. Why is a chicken a chicken, a duck a duck, but a cow is beef and a sheep is mutton?
The animal names are from the old Saxon (Germany/Denmark/Netherlands) language that we Brits used after being invaded by the Saxons around 450AD, but the meat names are derivatives of the Norman (French) language after they invaded in 1066 and their language slowly mixed with ours. The poor Saxons raised the animals (cows/sheep), but when they served the meat to the rich Norman lords they used the Norman language (boeuf/mouton)
This kind of mixing is going on all the time without us even realizing it. Look how Spanish and English are slowly mixing together with TV catch-phrases like “Hasta la vista baby”, “Yo quiero Taco Bell”, or food names like “Chimichanga”. There’s also Chinese influences like “Manga”, “Anime”, “Wonton” etc.
The only languages that strictly follow their own rules with minimal evolution are the “constructed/artificial” languages like Esperanto or computer programming languages.
I always knew you were a smarty pants! By the way, sorry for accidentally hanging up on you during brunch yesterday. Still not so good with cell phones…