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Fall through the cracks
Phrase: Fall through the cracks Summer is the time for patio and deck parties, strolling on boardwalks and crossing over suspension bridges. Sadly, it’s also the time when many coins, keys and earrings fall through the cracks to disappear forever into the dark world beneath the surface. Those, however, are only material things. They are…
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Rhyme or reason
Phrase: Rhyme or reason Often, looking back on history helps us make sense of events that, at the time they occurred, seemed to have no rhyme or reason. I read on Twitter today that The Tokyo government will, when releasing the numbers of people who tested positive for COVID-19, also release the number of people…
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Connect the dots
Phrase: Connect the dots Remember those connect-the-dots puzzle games you’d get in colouring books when you were a kid? I always enjoyed doing them, especially the complicated ones where the numbers went up to over 100. I remember Christmas or Easter-themed colouring books with Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer or rabbits. They were great fun. I…
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Turn a corner
Phrase: Turn a corner Ladies and gentlemen, with the chance of seeming premature, I think it may be possible to say that we have turned a corner, at least in this first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It should be safe to say we have passed the critical point now, and things are on the…
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Panic buying
WotD: Panic buying Fear is one of our primal reactions to a perceived threat, and it causes us to do strange things, such as panic buying. Often, when we feel fear, we are unable to think clearly, which results in our actions not making sense. Most recently, we saw people all around the world panic…
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Lead time
Word of the Day: Lead time If you look up lead time in a dictionary such as the Cambridge Dictionary, it will give you a boring definition of what it is: ‘the time between the design of a product and its production, or between ordering a product and receiving it.’ If you think twice about it,…
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Educated guess
WotD: Educated guess Two things in life are vital to being successful: knowledge and experience. If a person possesses both of these things in the correct amounts, they should be able to make educated guesses about the future and prepare accordingly. An educated guess is much different than a pure guess. An educated guess is…
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Hit the spot
Phrase: Hit the spot Many things hit the spot: an ice-cold beer on a sweltering summer afternoon, delicious kimchi nabe on a cold mid-winter evening or ice cream whenever you want ice cream. These are just a few of the things that, for me, hit the spot. Whenever something hits the spot, it’s what you…
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Finesse
Word of the Day: Finesse Finesse is something you don’t notice until you see someone who has it. In the Wednesday Email for subscribers, I introduced the phrase use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Well, finesse is the exact opposite of that. Finesse is the ability to deal with a situation or person skillfully…
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Retail Therapy
WotD: Retail therapy Retail therapy sounds good right about now. Shopping used to be fun. You’d go into a store, browse their offerings looking for a hidden gem or wait for something to jump out and scream ‘BUY ME!’. These days, going shopping is more like a dance with death: Currently, there’s very little retail therapy and too much retail…
Got any book recommendations?