About Me: THE COFFEE-GRINDER CHRISTMAS

In my senior year of college, I married my best friend. He was a graduate student on a stipend so we had little money. I had saved $15.00 for his one Christmas present and hoped to find a vintage coffee grinder with which he could grind the fresh roasted coffee beans he preferred.

I had had no luck and now it was Christmas Eve and I was taking one last walk in and out of shops in the antiques district of Baltimore.

I queried each proprietor and they invariably said I’d have to look myself so I went all the way to the back of each shop, tiptoeing to see on top of tall shelves laden with stuff, peering under tables and into dark corners, even peeking into “staff only” areas. No luck.

GUEST BLOG by SGT. SHERRILL on the CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE'S BLOG

In this season when we anticipate the birth of the Prince of Peace, this heartfelt poem by Sgt Sherrill expresses my own hope for the work that is going on in Afghanistan below the drones with the next generation - children so eager to learn and grow in whatever direction they are bent. What kind of education are they getting about the United States? Will the Central Asia Institute, Women for Afghan Women, other NGOs and the Sgt Sherrills of our military presence prevail or will the messages of the Taliban and our drones win the next generation? How will you participate in the outcome?

Behind the Wall
by Sgt. M. Douglas Sherrill, Jr.

I hear the voices behind the wall,...

The Kitchen Sink: CONSUMERISM

From my friend N.J.R.

Regarding the way things work......

Once upon a time there was a SAINTED but unsung hero who invented the shower.  Boy, it didn't take long for that one to catch on!  Soon, everybody was taking a shower, and our world was much improved.  Then, another guy came along who modified the shower head to make the spray adjustable......... Hmmmmmm....that really was an improvement and everybody got the new shower head.
 
Along comes another guy who gets the idea to sex the whole thing up by inventing a pulsing shower head.  Then, this whole thing evolved into the hot tub by putting the pulsing shower heads under water into an enlarged bath tub. Wow, that was popular too...and muy sexy. Then the conservationists got on board and the "water-saver" nozzles were invented, and that was better yet.


Well, THAT is how capitalism works....... and that is what has made America such a hugely productive economic engine.  THEN...

Parenting: THAT TONE OF VOICE

On one of the calls my son made from college, I was a bit late in picking up the phone and, unbeknownst to either of us, the upstairs answering machine recorded the whole conversation. We chatted amiably about this and that and then I remembered that I had sent him vehicle registration papers that he needed to fill out and return by a certain date. As I told him this news, he said, “There you go again with that tone of voice, Mom,” a frequent complaint. And I protested as usual, “What tone of voice?” “That 'gotta make sure my kid handles this' parent tone of voice that says you don't trust me.” 

I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought I was just emphasizing something important. I did think of him as responsible and thought I was just giving him a reminder.

As I was getting into bed that night, I saw the message machine blinking so I pressed the play button. I smiled, happily reliving our conversation until the part about the vehicle registration when there it was – “that tone of voice.” It did indeed sound like I did not trust him to do the job.

Gitalongs: ANGST REFINED

He came in the front door with a cheery “Hello!” looking spiffy in his business suit. His kids, wife, and I responded in kind. He set his brief case on a chair in the hall and came into the kitchen. In the space of one minute, he crossed the kitchen to his wife at the stove, gave her a noisy kiss, raised the cover on a simmering pot (“Ummm that smells wonderful!”), crossed the kitchen again to kiss me, said “Stay for supper. Be back soon,” and went upstairs.

When he came down 20 minutes later, he was dressed in casuals. We called the kids to dinner and had random conversation with them about the kids’ day at school and my friend's and my work in our gardens. After dinner, the kids were excused to do their homework. My friend said, “Abby and I were talking about all of us taking a trip to the Eastern Shore tomorrow.”

Oh, I'm sorry,” came his response, “but we have other commitments.”

“We do?” she asked, puzzled.

Bread Crumbs: GRIEVING THE LIVING

Christmas, a season that emphasizes family gatherings, may be especially difficult for those who are grieving the living.

My friend, a spiritually grounded apostate, got a letter from her born-again daughter disowning their relationship and forbidding my friend any contact with her or her family of two beloved teenaged grandchildren and her son-in-law.

Another friend lost her son to drugs and yet another grieves loss of contact with highly successful children who have moved far away, make no effort to stay in touch, and chat only briefly when she calls them.

A couple I’ve known since we started raising our kids together nurtures their two adult sons who are marginally making it because of mental health issues.

I myself grieved the end of a marriage – the triple loss of a parenting partner, a once friendly and intimate relationship, and a social role. As in my first friend’s case, divorcees too may lose beloved family members and friends - people who “don’t want to take sides” or don’t know how to handle a “third wheel” in their social scene.

Wordage: PLACE GAME

This delightful wordage pastime was posted by qcghost.blogspot.com as Where I Have and Have Not Been

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots.
Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there.
I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

Politics: CLEVER HALLELUJAH CHORUSES

Every Christmas season Handel rolls over in his grave at the various revised renditions of his magnificent oratorio. The first one should make him grin, the second will make him spin!

From the Children and Townspeople of Quinhagak, Alaska

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=LyviyF-N23A 

***************************************************************************************************************
Hallelujah Corporations! An Excellent Rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus--


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g

The Kitchen Sink: THE MOST POWERFUL AMERICAN POET

What do you think is the most powerful, most influential poem ever written in this country? Which one has changed our American culture, our economy, our relationships, influences our state of mind and behavior whether we know it, like it, or not, and continues to impact our children's lives more than we may want to acknowledge?

Gitalongs: SELFISH ALTRUISM

When my father informed me that altruism was actually selfish, I was horrified!  He maintained that the only reason we do nice things for others is out of duty or to make ourselves feel good. It took me years to admit that, indeed, when I am intuitively and spontaneously pleasant and generous it’s because I like being that way. It makes me feel better to be that way. It makes me happy to see other people happy. My life is easier, more pleasant.

Is this realism or cynicism? I reluctantly concede that perhaps Dad had a point. Maybe the closest we can come to the total altruism of giving up our life for another -  as on a cross or the Titanic, or in military combat - is Enlightened Self-Interest? Are we only doing good to do well?

About Me: A MATTER OF MORELS

When I would explain to my 16 or 17 year old “children” something I thought they must do, or why I thought things “needed” to be done my way, my son would hear me out and then say, “Got it covered, Mom.” or “Don't worry, Mom, you raised me right, and now I get to decide this one.” or “Gotta trust your parenting, Mom.” When her turn came three years later, my daughter would say: “Mom, do I need to hear this?” or “I'm sorry you’re still having a problem on this, Mom, but I'm not worried about it, so you don't have to be either.” or “It’s just not my problem, Mom. Good luck working it out.”

I’d have been grounded for weeks had I addressed my parents in that manner! But my kids weren't being insolent. These things were said with quiet self-confidence and sincere, sometimes amused compassion and tolerance for the difficulty I was experiencing in letting go of my “parental entitlement” to meet their childhood “need for guidance." Wasn’t it my privilege and my responsibility to nurture them with advice? Mothering was a role I enjoyed and that I knew needed to be phased out at some point, but my kids were understandably more aware of the step by step process than I. They were usually gentle with me, but firm. We all knew I still had ultimate veto power but because they were responsible kids I seldom felt the need to use it.

Parenting: UNTYING APRON STRINGS

Instead of actually “cutting the apron strings,” my kids gently and firmly, even lovingly, helped me untie them. With love and good humor, they persistently peeled my single-parent mothering off their backs. For about three years each, they worked on developing new relationships with me. I did my best to reciprocate. Having insisted on and modeled mutual respect since small kid days, I was still able to put my foot down on occasions when I felt that the price of their bid for self-determination was too high, but only after very thorough discussions. If I regressed into intrusive “parental entitlements," they were sure to remind me that pulling rank was not how we did things..

One of our more difficult win-win solutions came the first year my daughter had her license. She wanted to drive some friends to a New Year’s Eve Party in my car. She was an excellent driver, a very responsible person, no highways would be involved, and she promised to have only two beers in the four hours she'd be there. I was concerned that she would be distracted by rowdy, drunken friends or hit by someone else on this night of drinking. I was scared silly for her safety and told her why. She heard and understood my concern and we worked on it together, both explicitly aware that my trust in her honesty and good judgement was the bedrock for her growing freedoms.

Poetry: GIFT

 

I would give you strength,

But you are too strong already.

Then let me give you of my weakness,

That you may rest a moment from your earnestness,

Lean against the walls you build, and play with river lights.

A poem written by my grandmother, Florence Mariah Piper Way to her husband, Charles Henry Way.

During the depression, my grandfather, an architect out of work, cleared his fields of boulders and rocks and built over a mile of mortarless rock walls around his fields and garden. I wonder if this poem was written in reference to his labors or his quiet reticence.

GIFT a poem by Florence Mariah Piper Way (1880-1952) is published by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Da Kine Stories: HAWAIIAN METAMORPHOSIS

During the 16 years I lived and worked in Hawai’i during the 1990s, I observed many of my Hawaiian friends, acquaintances, and people I met in recurrent meetings and activist gatherings as they were going through what I came to see as a personal, social, cultural and political metamorphosis. This painful process is a response to the renaissance of Hawaiian culture that sprouted in the 1960s and has been growing and flowering ever since. Hawaiians I have known seemed to move from their culturally innate aloha through hurt and rage to a mature life-choice to live aloha. That choice is the most important step they make in reclaiming Hawaiian culture and the most difficult.

What is amazingly sad is that, to this day, most of the world is still ignorant of the history of the Hawaiian Islands, the suffering of generations of Hawaiians, and their exemplary response to injustice. This is true in spite of the fact that people from all over the world enjoy Hawaiian vacations and come to live permanently in the Aloha State. I submit that even the following very inadequate thumbnail sketch is preferable to perpetuating that ignorance.

Bread Crumbs: HELP FROM OVER YONDER

I sat with my sister-in-law, a woman in her forties, as she succumbed to uterine cancer. During this final transition, I fussed about trying to help, washing her face, giving her sips of water or a bit of Popsicle to clear the taste each time her body purged. She suddenly stood up from her La-Z-Boy.  I rose to steady her but she barked at me impatiently, "Ab, you've got to let me go!" 
 
She rearranged herself in her chair and cried out, "HELP me!"  She wasn’t talking to me. Then she said "Okay" and paused with her eyes closed, “okay,” pause, “okay,” four times - each “okay” more calm, more determined than the last. And then she was gone. ‘Though her body still purged, I sensed the moment she left.

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed, Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed below, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.


E-dress or Edress  (e`dress)  - (n) contraction of "e-mail" and "address" designating a piece of internet contact information

‘Druthers (‘Dru`thers) - (n) contraction of “I’d rather” used to designate a preference (e.g., “We could come Tuesday or Wednesday. Let me know your ‘druthers.”)

Commercemas (Com`merce`mas) - (N) name of the modern quasi-religious commercial celebration that begins on November 1st each year in America engulfing the religious holy days of All Saint's Day and Christmas, the secular American holidays of Veterans Day and Thanksgiving, and the religious seasons of Hannukah and Advent

Gitalongs: THE FIVE GIFTS OF THANK YOU

1. I notice that you did or said something that pleased me and that brings me joy.  
2  I say “thank you” to you and that gives your kindness our shared recognition.  
3. You receive a portion of my joy. 
4. You experience the personal pleasure of having your gesture recognized.  
5. We share together a happy interaction that adds to the balance of positive human energy available at that moment on the planet and in the universe.

Every expression of the “gratitude attitude” is a step toward world peace and mends a hole in the universal energy field. Saying "thank you"gives five gifts to the universe and, according to the ideals of all faiths, makes the gods of all peoples happy.

The Five Gifts of Thank You by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Crusty Sayings: PEANUT BRITTLE

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:
 
Families are like peanut brittle; it takes a whole lot of sugar to hold all those nuts together.      Virginia A.Tracy

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or to correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Bread Crumbs: EDITORIAL BY ROBERT LOVE

Executive Editor of THE WEEK: The Best of the US and International Media; All You Need to Know About Everything That Matters, November 11, 2011, Volume 11, Issue 540, WWW.THEWEEK.COM

THE WEEK“Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” These were Steve Jobs’ last words before he slipped the bonds of earth on October 5, 2011. We know this because we heard it from his sister, the writer, Mona Simpson, who was with him in his final hours and described them in an eloquent eulogy published this week in the New York Times (...). Like the rest of us, Simpson had no idea what Jobs was seeing when he uttered his last words, but she invites us to ponder their meaning in the context of his life. She speaks of her brother’s “capacity for wonderment,” and his last words seem apt and authentic for an enthusiast given to phrases like “insanely great.” It is tantalizing to think that in his final moments of consciousness, Jobs was privy to a wondrous vision of the other side. Maybe he beheld a beckoning mist, as Emily Dickinson did: “I must go in, the fog is rising.” Or the “shifting sands” seen by writer L.Frank Baum, who wished to cross over to the Land of Oz. Thomas Edison, to whom Jobs was often compared, said of his final destination, “It is very beautiful over there.”

We value last words for their honesty, their wit, their advice from eternity’s doorstep. Once in a while we get a grand summation, as we did from Errol Flynn: “I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed every minute.” Or an adieu, per Lord Byron: Now I shall go to sleep. Good night.” George Harrison left us with five simple syllables: “Love one another.” Oh wow. In the end we will find out what Steve jobs was talking about. Meanwhile its somehow comforting to know that he was impressed.

About Me: MY ANGELS

My grandmother was a devout Episcopalian who said Morning Prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer every morning since way before I knew her. We often had long philosophical and religious discussions as we walked the beach when I was a teenager. She would wonder aloud how I could have so many questions when, as far as she was concerned, her Book of Common Prayer and the Bible took care of all the deep matters that I was so curious about. I think it was a bit of a generation gap as well as different personalities.

Once, when she came to visit my home in later years, she offered to dry the dinner dishes I was washing. “Oh, no thank you,” I responded. “God dries my dishes.”

“Oh my!” she said. “Don’t you think God has more important things to do than dry your dishes?!”

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed above, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.
 
Ignorrance ( ig`nor`rance) - 1 (n) the capacity to avoid distraction of focus (e.g., “When he's reading, he is capable of great ignorrance.”); 2 a willful lack of attention, especially by a child (e.g., “Her ignorrance falls just shy of defiance.”)

Aguessment (a`guess`ment) – (n) tests and efforts by medical practitioners to determine and explain the various processes of diseases and aging (e.g.,“This Cat-scan and blood work are inconclusive. We’ll send them to our specialist for her aguessment.)

Transectional (tran`sec`tion`al) - (n) 1. a singer of one voice singing another voice (e.g., "Our chorus is short on tenors so I need some transectional altos and baritones in some parts of Mozart’s Requiem."), 2. a worker who has jobs in more than one department of the business (e.g., “The guy on the backhoe; he’s transectional. Two days a week he does filing and mans the phones in the office.”)

Da Kine Stories: RUNAWAY

One evening in the spring of 1989, while on spring break from her senior year of college, my 22 year old daughter wistfully remarked. “I sure would like to live and work in Annapolis, but it’s too expensive.”

“Not for you, I replied. “You can live at home.”

“Oh I would LOVE to live at home! But not with my MU-THER”

“Great! You take care of the house and I’ll go to Hawai`i.”

“Would you really?”

“Would you really?”

“Deal!”

Gitalongs: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WAKE

If your words, silence, action, or inaction purposely or inadvertently interfere with or hurt another, it is up to you to restore equilibrium as sincerely and quickly as possible, immediately taking the time required to do so – a quick apology for a bump, a full scale pick-up-dust-off for a knock-down. Defense and denial are wastes of time and pervert human interaction and harmony.

You are Responsible for Your Wake by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For Permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Politics: AN OPEN LETTER TO OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN STRATEGISTS

Dear David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Jim Messina, et al,

I get ten pleas for money every day, but asking for money is not enough! Your grassroots are parched and burned out just trying to survive. We need HELP from YOU in working to re-elect President Obama!

HOPE IS NOT AS STRONG AN EMOTION AS FEAR SO MUST BE COMBINED WITH EVIDENCE TO BE NOURISHED AND EFFECTIVE.

A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS AND WE ARE SICK OF WORDS.

Here are some suggestions from a grass roots campaigner for Obama who doesn't want to lose! HELP US restore hope, counter Republican spin and get Barack Obama re-elected. He has done both wonders and blunders so let’s maximize the former and minimize the latter and strive to circumvent campaign rhetoric. Give us concrete facts in concrete form, please?

The Kitchen Sink: CRUSTY SAYINGS

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:

It takes a child to make a man out of a boy. P.H.Harrison,Jr. 

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or to correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Parenting: POOR PARENTING CAN TEACH GOOD PARENTING

As I was growing up there was one thing my parents tried to practice with me that I vowed never to do to my kids. Raised by authoritarian parents themselves in the early 1900s, they felt entitled to immediate, unquestioning obedience “because I'm your mother,” or “Because I said so,” or “ No back-talk from you, young lady!”  When I was caught smoking at age 14, my chain-smoking father chastised me:”Do as I say, not as I do,” and he meant it. Hmmmm - what’s a kid learn from that?

I have always had a strong need to understand and personalize what I am expected to do and why. This enables me to take full responsibility for my actions. I felt these parental pronouncements to be very disrespectful so they provoked more questions and usually led to arguments, sometimes punishments.

The Kitchen Sink: CHRISTMAS 2011 - THE BIRTH OF A NEW TRADITION

As Christmas commercialism bears down upon us, popping up from behind the displays of leftover Hallowe’en candy, this item is making the rounds on email. A friend sent it to me and didn’t know who wrote it. I found it again by Google Search at Post A Day 2011/ Wordpress Challenge.  Kudo’s to whomever wrote it and thanks for the sanity. I share it here as a thoughtful way to make Christmas giving in 2011 a more personal, relevant and American experience.  Just don’t forget: Thanks-giving comes first. Enjoy:

Christmas 2011 - The Birth of a New Tradition

NOTE: NO OFFENSE: you can Insert your Country for the same gift giving New 2011 Traditional Ideas

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

Poetry: GIVEN TO

by Ruth Berbermeyer

I never feel more given to
than when you take from me –
when you understand the joy I feel
giving to you.

And you know my giving isn’t done
to put you in my debt,
but because I want to live the love
I feel for you.

To receive with grace
may be the greatest giving.
There’s no way I can separate
the two.

When you give to me,
I give you my receiving.
When you take from me, I feel so
given to.

-

Song “Given To” (1978) by Ruth Bebermeyer
from the album, Given To.

The Kitchen Sink: CRUSTY SAYINGS

With apologies to whomever may have said this before the source cited:

“It takes two people to create a work of art - one to paint and one to tell him when to stop.”     Snowden Hodges


My friend Snowden is Head of the Art Department at Windward Community College and an established Hawai`i artist. His remark applies equally well to writing.

Crusty Sayings collected by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use or correct a source contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Gitalongs: THE WANTS/NEEDS GAME

We become adults when we finally get it that, once we pubesce, there is no one on the planet whose job it is to meet our “emotional needs” except ourselves. In the first place, there are no such things as emotional “needs”--- “wants”  a-plenty, but no needs. A need is something we cannot remain alive without. The needs list is short: food, water, shelter from prolonged exposure to hostile elements, and sufficient warmth to maintain functional body temperature. We can live without any emotional interactions at all - as hermits and recluses demonstrate - and still enjoy emotions. The only emotion we actually need in order to survive is fear which, in appropriate doses, warns us of real or imagined danger.

It’s okay to have emotional wants. Emotional experience enriches our lives. And it’s okay to ask for help from a friend if we're feeling stymied, lonely, or vulnerable, and want to connect on some emotional level. But when we try to control (expect, demand, and/or manipulate) others to meet our wants by insisting that our wants are needs we are being dishonest and childish - refusing, or somehow unable, to grow up. That is a recipe for frustration because, aside from the protective/instructive aspects of raising kids safely,  the only person one is entitled to control is oneself.  And that effort is challenge enough!

The Wants/Needs Game by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Bread Crumbs: ALWAYS UP FOR A PARTY?

I worked with a woman who seemed desperate to do a lot of nothing. Her family hired me to "keep her active." They were distressed that she was “giving up.”  When I visited, she was blandly disinterested in whatever I suggested. The house was always immaculate, the TV was always on - but the only thing she watched with interest was The Dog Whisperer.

She was a different person when any of her family stopped by – animated and eager to please – agreeing with whatever they suggested. When they left, I would prompt her to follow their latest suggestion. “Not today,” she would say. “I’m too tired.” It quickly became clear to me that she had no intention of fulfilling her family’s desire for her to act younger than she felt. She only made that effort when they fulfilled her hunger for their company.

The Kitchen Sink: A RICH FINANCIAL DIET, Part I

I am a retired social worker who loves to travel. Two thirds of the IRA that I funded at $600/month while working was wiped out by Wall Street back in 2000 something. I now live on Social Security, a small pension and the annuitization of what was left of my IRA. Fifteen percent (15%) of my modest monthly income goes for health care. I am better off than many of my fellow sliders on the slippery end of the well-under-$50K slope because I spend every dollar twice.

I love to travel and I have several tips on how to live a champagne lifestyle on a soda-pop budget. These tips require some steady income, maturity, intelligence, discipline and vigilance, but these are traits we all need to develop.

The Kitchen Sink: A RICH FINANCIAL DIET, Part II

How did you do with Part I? Those suggestions really take more thought than time, once you get to know your spending needs and put a rhythm to your finances. Now we move to my favorite part - gaming banks and airlines. Spend Every Dollar Twice.

I repeat: 19. Take advantage of credit card offers, sign-up rewards, and benefits. 

This is actually the secret that turns my soda-pop into champagne. But it takes good impulse control, planning and vigilance. As you know, the credit card industry counts on you to overuse the convenience of deferred payment that they offer in hopes that you will carry debt that earns them exorbitant interest and makes them lots of money. If you fall prey to their ploy, you can pay way more than double what your purchases cost over time. I get a kick out of exploiting the banks' and airlines' eagerness to have my business.  And they thank me for it.

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed above, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.

Ignoromnibus (ig`nor`omni`bus) - (n) a person who knows nothing about everything and doesn’t know it (e.g., “That new freshman loves to show off, but he’s a real ignoromnibus.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant) - (n) a monologue that continues despite demonstrations of boredom by the audience (e.g., “Today I had to listen to a twenty minute ignorant about the President being a foreigner.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant - (adj.) 1. an argument that overlooks a preponderance of available evidence (e.g., “Politicians often make ignorrant assertions.”); 2. someone who is willfully inattentive (e.g., “She heard you; she’s just being ignorrant.”)