YOU OUGHTA BE A'WEARING......A "COOBER PEDY"

A REAL MAN'S HAT...from "DOWN UNDER!"

    *********************************

O my adventurous, afraid-of-nothing, outdoorsman---

     Who roams the world taking risks, competing,

and vying and never shirking

      dangerous challenges...

O WHEN---YOU ACCOMPLISH EVEN ONE OF 

     THESE FEATS...Yes, even ONE! 

You should be wearing....just read on:

---Hike all the way through the Grand Canyon...

---Climb Mt. McKinley...

---Walk the Appalachian Trail, one end to the other...

---Kayak thru the Bering Strait from Homer to Wrangell...

---Winter at Pt Barrow and have a wresting match

   with a Polar Bear...and win...

---Sail solo around Cape Horn thru the Roaring Forties

    in a small barque....

---Or you catch the biggest rainbow even taken

    from the Rio Grande Box...

---Or wrestle a twenty-foot Python on the "River of No

    Return," and you return...

---Maybe you've gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel...

---Spend the winter working at the South Pole, and

   do the famous New Year's Eve Stroke-of-Midnight-

  Au-Buffo-Run, outdoors at 60 below, 100 yards

  around the flagpole and back...

---Were shipwrecked in the far South Auckland Islands

   and managed to build a shelter and. come out alive...

---You have a hand-to-claw fight with a giant Grizzly up

    in the Yukon, and then outrun him...

---You spend a summer in hot Patagonia doing penguin

    research...

---You once walked clear across the 1600 mile Gobi

   Desert with a companion...

---You have encountered and defeated eight of the ten

    world's most poisonous snakes in Australia...

---You walk from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean,

    with two camels, a journey across the Outback of

    1700 miles...

My friend, wherever you hail from, or whatever your calling---

    If you've done any single one of these afore-mentioned

deeds...or similar unmentioned ones...then---

---You Oughta Be Wearing...a Real Man's Hat...

    A COOBER PEDY... from Down Under!

**********************

BY MIL

27 MAR 17

"CAN WE TALK..." ABOUT "ANNOYING EXPRESSIONS..." & WORDS ?

Being somewhat of a writer and lover of words, I was very interested 

on a recent night when a noted news commentator at the end of his 

show---in a semi-benevolently way, with some humor---but slightly

chapped---said: "There is one expression I hope I never hear again,

ever, in my life---it is 'at the end of the day.' "

I well-remember the first time I heard it...maybe twenty-five years 

ago and it was from a military Britisher, discussing an old 

campaign. I thought it was really a "cool" expression...at the time.

This news person set me to thinking of annoying expressions that

we today hear over and over, ad nauseum---ones that need to be

dumped. I made a quick list of my own frustrations in my Daily Lett's

of London Journal, which rests beside my Lazy Boy---for later 

reference...

But before I give you MY list, on a hunch I googled and found other

lists. It will be instructive to peruse them first.

OXFORD LIST OF TOP TEN ANNOYING EXPRESSIONS...

--------------------

1. At the end of the day

2. Fairly unique

3. I, personally

4. At this moment in time

5. With all due respect

6. Absolutely

7. It's a nightmare

8. Shouldn't of

9. 24/7

10. It's not rocket science

ANOTHER "ANNOYING" LIST FROM GOOGLE

--------------

1. It's counterproductive

2. On task

3. Can't even

4.Thanks for the heads up

5. Like, you know

6. My bad

7. Absolutely

8. Just sayin'

9. Awesome

One source disliked "With all due respect," just before you "lay

somebody out" with your reply.

He also disliked "proactive," "Not unlike," "We service our 

customers" rather than "We serve our customers." Another

expression he did not particularly care for was sort of setting

an interviewee up with the reply: Are you SUGGESTING?"

Most of you readers will have a list of your own to share with

us. Here's mine:

MIL'S TIRING LIST:

********************

1. "At that point in time..." from WATERGATE times, so incredibly

     thru with this one...when else would anything occur...but 

     "in time..." ?

2. "What goes around, comes around."

3. "Everything happens for a reason." It is personal but I intensely

    disagree with this popular one. 

4. "9/11" How did we get this? Why not 12/7 for Pearl Harbor?

5. "Frankly..." And "Very frankly..."  Unnecessary words, which
     show lack of skill.  The new press secretary used "very frankly"
     three times in one interview, but maybe he has been tipped off
     by now...

6. 24/7 is much overused.

7.  "Tell us in your own words..." To end with a touch of humor--

     In a SEINFELD episode, in a courtroom Newman was the 

     interrogating lawyer questioning Kramer (in the witness chair
     and positing, he says: "Tell us in your own words..."

     ...and Kramer says: "Whose  words would I use but my own?"

-------------------

MIL

10 MAR 2017

'O TO BE IN TEXAS...NOW THAT SPRING IS HERE..."

 

A PEACH TREE...AT "WILD PEACH"

              

The very essence of this Place

    deep in the heart of Texas

fairly cries out

"O to be in Texas...

      now that Spring is here!"

The trees have leafed...

     The grass is greening...

The sky is the bluest

      with its wispy clouds...

The birds (I'm sure)  are

      warbling their tunes...

....and the little peach-tree

      "shoot" of two years ago

is becoming a real tree

      "in its own right" and

will produce fruit for peach 

      ice cream by hot July

The brand new pink blossoms

     suggest beauty---as the

picture-taker with skill has

      framed them against

the reddish/pink barn

We can imagine--on this

      idyllic bucolic Place---

cows and calves grazing...

      chickens roaming

free and "puck-pucking.."

      Ancient oak trees of 

history adding another age 

      ring, and

Maybe there is a little lake

      somewhere around there,

edged by cattails, and with 

      jumping bass...

O yes! To be at that beautiful 

     peaceful scene on this day 

in spring...

     breathing the clear free air,

of  Freedom

     absorbing the beauty

and somehow sensing the 

     patriotism of American Texans...

is almost overwhelming.

HAPPY TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY

*************

TEXAS---MY NATIVE STATE,

Dawson County, Lamesa, Texas

BY MIL

3 March 2017

Photo by W.L.M.