Isabella Bird Miscellany

a place we've road tripped to - pike street market, seattle For all of you intrepid spring break travelers, road trippers toting children, stopping for more “I-need-to-go-pee” breaks than you can even remember, only to be followed by, “I’m thirsty,” I tip my hat to you, smirking to myself.  Are we there yet? I’m not really laughing at you, well, I kinda am, but only because I’ve been in your shoes and car.  It’s packed with books, a pile of toys, the favorite of which will inevitably get left somewhere along the way, DVD’s that you swear if you ever have to watch again you might just claw your eyes out.  And what about the snacks that are now permanently ground into the seats and carpet.  You’ll be smelling beef jerky, Capri Suns and the spilled pintos and cheese for days, pleasant, huh? In the spirit of levity and well-wishing and happy travels, I give you a little fish tale … Hey, ho it’s a grand day for a sea cruise; sand at my fins, water in my face, a few e

sweet-tart raspberries I love words and I’m mad about raspberries.  I know it seems like a really odd connection to make.  What in the world do thorny canes that ramble everywhere, growing blissful rosy, I’m-in-heaven berries have to do with words; made up of letters, syllables and sounds?  Uh, nothing except a very sweet memory. he pronounced the p There are many words in our language that have extra letters stuffed in; a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that actually belong somewhere else.  These spare jots have no voice, they don’t make a peep.   And what’s more, there are oodles of words like ...  know - crumbs - wednesday  champagne - island - gourmet - raspberries Why we do this is a conundrum.  I don’t get it.  Why not just spell everything phonetically?  Life would be easier and we wouldn’t make language faux pas – there’s two more silent letter words. From time to time, those quirky pronunciations become very endearing to us; the way kiddos say “Gamma”