Posts by Pat:
Oh No! some more word play!
I can’t help it! You know that words are my weakness!
Can you wrap your head/tongue around this tongue twister on a familiar story?
Here’s an overwhelming tongue twister take on the tale of the prodigal son. See if you can get through it without stumbling!
“Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his fond father to fork over his farthings. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless friends.
Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows-in-folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.
‘Fooey, my father’s flunkies fare far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing facts.
Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly, ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor.’
But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.
The fugitive’s fraternal faultfinder frowned on the fickle forgiveness of former folderol. His fury flashed, but fussing was futile.
The farsighted father figured, ‘Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive is not found. Unfurl the flags with flaring, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune.”
(found in a 1999 newsletter!)
Here’s a challenge! Try making your own tongue twister on a favorite story! Any letter will do for your focus!
Maybe the hoppity hare and the tired tortoise?
(Now aren’t you glad you didn’t have me for your English teacher?!)
Information is not wisdom
You do not need to store, stockpile or even keep a lot of information around. (Unless you want to wallpaper the house or insulate your garage!) If you can’t use the information today or it’s not integral to your most important project, you can chuck it in the garbage. And if it’s hard for you to chuck it, maybe it’s smarter […]
The notoriety of Walla Walla!
Back in 2013, there was an article in our local paper that I just found stashed in my files. I hope you find it as much fun as I did! It said: Our area is famous for the Native American tribe from which it derives its name, for the pioneers who settled in our beautiful agricultural WW […]
When “why” is the wrong question
Our brain loves to solve problems. It functions beautifully to figure out how to make a pumpkin pie, sail across oceans, or build a house. It’s a wonderful tool for creativity. But if we are trying to understand ourselves, find a way out of suffering, it can derail us because our minds get caught in […]
3 lessons from a squirrel +1 extra
Squirrels are a lowly rodent to some people, but to admirers they are high flying acrobats, fuzzy tailed philosophers, scampering tree huggers, and resourceful survivors. (The are also awfully cute!) Here are 3 (+1 extra!) life lessons we can learn from our squirrel friends. We all know the easy one: to save for the future! The […]
That elusive balance
The opposite of stressed is calm and balanced, right? Work, kids, life, money, time, energy…if we could just balance it all. But balance is actually a state of constant motion. Think of a tightrope walker, a plate spinner, a bicycle rider, or a gymnast on a balance beam. If they stop moving, just stand still, […]
What is the Ben Franklin effect?
You may know a lot about Benjamin Franklin-for example, that he invented bifocals, graces the $100 bill, and experimented on electricity with a kite and a key. But you may never have heard of the Ben Franklin effect that was even cited in Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” In a nutshell: […]
More word play!
Oxymorons are fun to play with! (after all, I am an ex-English teacher!) Ever wondered about such phrases as… icy burn? fight for peace? definitely maybe? How about … government organization? act naturally? open secret? Why do we use phrases that don’t seem to make logical sense? For one reason, they are fun! Oscar Wilde […]
Serenity or Senility Prayer?
We all know the basic Serenity Prayer, but have you tried one of tweaked ones? Here are some…and you may know of others! My favorite one (which I couldn’t find an image for) is “God, grant me the serenity to accept there are things I’ve no time to read, time to read the things I […]
Book Power!
Enjoy this delightful poem originally written for the 50th Anniversary of our National Children’s Book Week in 1969. I like it! BOOK POWER by Gwendolyn Brooks BOOKS FEED AND CURE AND CHORTLE AND COLLIDE In all this willful world of thud and thump and thunder man’s relevance to books continues to declare. Books are […]

