magazines

I subscribe to magazines.  I like magazines.  I like articles and recipes and pictures of fashions I will never be able to wear.  But I don't generally care for advertisements that are designed to be annoying.  The ones with three pages of medical disclaimers or that are printed on a different thickness of paper so that they stand out more.  I always rip those out before I read the magazine.

refuse

I refuse to let others do the work for me.  I will be the change I want to see in the world.  Politicians aren't going to do it for me.  Other people who are too busy shouting aren't going to do it for me.  Think about your life and your community.  Change your one little corner of the world.  Then maybe you can move on and change another little corner of the world for the better.

secret

Everybody has a secret.  In fact, most people have many secrets, and they probably have more secrets than they realize.  Do you have anyone else who knows your secrets?  If someone knows all of your secrets, or even any of your secrets, are they really secrets anymore?  How many people have to know before it is not a secret anymore?

trap

Trap!  It's a trap!  Shut your trap!  Don't step in the trap.  Mind like a steel trap.  I just like to say trp.  Trap, trap, trap, trap, trap.  Is that cheating?  Am I supposed to be more eloquent in my riff on the fabulous sound of trap?  Kind of like tripe gone to the midwest or maybe south Boston where you can pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd or even deep south Louisiana.

methods

There are methods to my madness!!  Madness is genius in eccentric clothing, with out of style horn-rimmed glasses, perhaps wearing silk lingerie underneath.  And really, what fun is life if you can't be at least a little bit mad, whether or not you are methodical about it?

losses

Loves and losses.  Great loves and great losses.  These words just aren't doing much for me these days.  The word comes up on the screen, and my mind is pretty much just blank.  Nothing interesting comes out of my fingers onto the keyboard.  In fact, nothing much of anything comes out at all, but I am going to keep going and eventually a word will spark something, maybe small at first, but then it has the potential to grow.

principal

The principal runs the school.  I don't like this word.  I don't like it at all.  School and money.  No fun.  Nothing I want to write about.  Seems silly.  Reminds me of debt and high school, neither of which I much care for.

cabinet

"Oliver had never heard of a talking board before."  The cabinet talks to the president, right?  Advises him on all sorts of this and that.  National policy.  International policy.  Maybe even which tie he should wear to a particular press conference or event.  Or maybe he has a stylist for that.  World leaders as fashion icons with their talking cabinets.

props

Props can make a statement.  It is not only the actors who carry props, although Shakespeare would have us believe that all the world's a stage and everyone on it is an actor, so that would mean that everyone uses props.  Do costumes count as props?  Or is it only the accessories?

statement

Everyone wants to make a statement.  They want to stand up speak loudly and be heard.  Or maybe they want to be more subtle about it and project their statement with the clothes they wear or the books they read or the music that they listen to.  Everything you do is a statement -- the way you walk, what you eat, who your friends are, how you spend your time and energy.

gum

There is gum stuck on the bottom of my shoe.  Gum!  I wonder what kind of gum.  Tree gum?  Chewing gum?  Cushion gum?  I wonder if I could retread my sneakers with cushion gum and tread rubber.  I could get a fifty thousand mile warranty on them maybe.  Although the feet might not last that long.  I could run marathons.  I could run practically around the world.

holder

Place holder.  Napkin holder.  I don't like trying to write about this word.  All I can think of are the lyrics to "The Gambler" and that was hold 'em and fold 'em and whatnot.  Oh well, I guess you can't win 'em all and be brilliant every day.  Perhaps this is the price I pay for not logging in for a couple of days.

instructions

Don't you wish that everything came with instructions?  Cars, people, cats, dogs, goldfish.  And not just instructions, but instructions that you can actually read and understand.  No obtuse diagrams.  No endless pages in every language but the one that you speak.  Or maybe it would be better if we all came with all of the instructions for everything already downloaded into our heads.

suspects

All the usual suspects were crowded into the room -- the dog, the cat, the mouse -- but who was the guilty party? The parakeet eyed them all through a gigantic monocle. Who ate the cheese? Did the mouse spring the trap? Were they all in cahoots? Or perhaps avians aren't lactose intolerant after all.

patrol

I am the cat.  I am on patrol, keeping the yard safe from chipmunks.  I chase moths and watch ants.  The squirrels are a bit big, so I just keep an eye on them, but it's my job to keep those little buggers out of the house.  There are shrubs to prowl and chives to nibble.  Or perhaps I will just lounge here on the step.

stretcher

They took him out on a stretcher.  The damage was extensive, but the general thought was that he was strong enough to make it.  And at what cost?  Was his sacrifice worthwhile?  What if he did lose that arm?  Can you control a katana truly one handed?  What would happen to his balance, his energy, his life force, his chi?

sonar

Is that an acronym like scuba or laser?  Bats use sonar.  Hardly blind.  Can "see" better than you or I can on any given day, and it doesn't make a difference to them whether it is light or dark.  It's pretty cool, really, bouncing all of those waves off of objects.

decorations

Festivities.  Sparkly.  Tinsel or garland?  Twinkly lights full of color, unless you live somewhere that only lets you use white lights.  Not that white lights are bad.  Kind of like faded fireflies.  All of those lights glittering on the snow.  So cold outside and yet so much warmth and cheerfulness inside.

auxiliary

Reserves.  Additional.  Does that mean that the ladies' auxiliary provides reserves of ladies?  And are they volunteer, or do they have to be paid?  Do they set their own prices?  Or are they volunteers?  Roving bands of additional ladies committing random acts of good, kindness, revelry and perhaps rebellion.