-
Glacial pace
Word of the Day: Glacial Pace My birthday is coming up, and I’m going to be 46 years old. I suppose that puts me squarely in the middle age bracket. I haven’t gone through the midlife crisis thing yet, though. I’m not sure when that will happen, but I’ll write about it when and if…
-
Draw a blank
English Idiom: Draw a blank Love’em or hate’em, we’ve all had a senior moment or two. Some of you may draw a blank when you try to remember your most recent senior moment. That’s OK, though. If you can’t remember it, then it wasn’t important anyway. To draw a blank means you get no answer…
-
Take you at your word
English Phrase: Take you at your word Trust is in short supply these days. People will hardly believe what you do, let alone take you at your word. When someone takes you at your word, they believe what you say without having to prove it. We lie so quickly and effortlessly these days that we…
-
Live and learn
Phrase: Live and learn If you are a regular reader of these posts, you already know about the school of hard knocks. Well, live and learn is Hard Knocks for Dummies. We can’t attain all our knowledge from books. Sometimes we can only learn from experience. It’s rare to find Mr. or Mrs. Right the…
-
Put pen to paper
English Phrase: Put pen to paper Slowly but surely, testing systems are changing in Japan, and students will need to learn how to put pen to paper. In Japan, one of the most popular ways of testing students is through a multiple-choice test. They rarely have to write short essays, book reports or papers of…
-
Make the cut
English Idiom: Make the cut Make the cut is an idiom. Therefore, we can assume the meaning of the words together is different than that of the words individually. When someone makes the cut, they meet the requirements necessary to join or become part of a team or company. When a company is hiring for…
-
Failing to plan is planning to fail
English Proverb: Failing to plan is planning to fail You may think this one is pretty self-explanatory, but often it’s the common sense things that require the most explanation. Failing to plan is planning to fail may be a quote, but if it is, I cannot discover who said it. What I can tell you…
-
The cat is out of the bag
Idiom: The cat is out of the bag Well, we have an interesting one today: the cat is out of the bag. It’s interesting because it has nothing to do with furry cats, yet the cat still comes out of the bag. The modern meaning of today’s idiom is that a secret is no longer…
-
Punch above your weight
Idiom: Punch above your weight Writing a post a day is not easy. There are times when I think I’ve taken on too much and am punching above my weight. I had never wanted to be an author, publisher or even an English teacher. Originally, I wanted to be a carpenter, but I became a…
-
Sentient
Word of the Day: Sentient Humans, well, at least most humans, are sentient. This means that they can feel and experience feelings or emotions. I say most humans as a joke. Sometimes it seems that some people have no feelings at all because of the cruel things they do, but that’s beside the point. Some…
Got any book recommendations?