beezer

beezer adj. excellentAs you can imagine, I subscribe to the OED online. I bought a small version of the dictionary for $40 and it came with a free subscription. It's fun to play on the site and today I found a way to look up British / English words. "Beezer" is a British adjective meaning excellent and I just love it because it's so happy sounding. It really embodies "so very good" in a way that "excellent" doesn't. Excellent has the connotation of excelling or beating someone or something else. Same thing as outstanding - I feel like it has to be so great that it "out - stands" the rest of everything.Beezer reminds me of Beezus Quimby from the Beverly Cleary books that I absolutely loved as a kid. She was the next door neighbor of Henry who had the annoying little sister Ramona. However, I think it a bit ironic because Beezus was the wall flower older sister who was out shined by Ramona. So this is probably a bad reference for recalling the meaning of beezer...good books though.The problem with looking up British words is that when you say them with an American accent they sound completely un charming. I found myself saying beezer with a fake British accent which is pretty sad. But when I said it with my normal accent, it just sounded like some thug frat boy language. Imagine it in a Boston accent - beezah! (I almost want to go to Boston and start a trend.)Anyway, back to beezer's counterparts - excellent and outstanding. Does something have to stand out amongst everything or beat out all else to be considered very, very great? Do we decide what is wonderful only through comparison or can something be intrinsically great just because it is - with out reference to something else that has or had existed? I don't think it can. Which would mean if we are constantly striving for excellence we are in constant competition...and where is the day to day happiness in this?When I think about an excellent day it doesn't depend on just one element. To me a beezer moment could be a rainy morning where the Keurig machine spit out an unexpectedly sublime cup of coffee and I enjoyed hearing the raindrops hit the windowpane in such a way that they sound musical. Maybe I picked up a Harpers and flipped to a poem I didn't expect to find while sipping my coffee and found a new poet that quickly became my favorite. Even on the small scale - even if I am talking about just a beezer 5 minutes - is it not excellent because it was better than the five minutes before? Or the 5 minutes I had at exactly the same time yesterday morning- perhaps it was sunny but my coffee sucked and I stared off into space worrying about what the day beheld...Today I shall use beezer to humble my competitive nature. Competition is good...great perhaps, but it's where you set the bar. If you set it high - perhaps someday you will reach the height of beezerness. But what's the point if the road to get there is miserable and unhappy because you are constantly trying to out do yourself. It could be a century of unhappiness and disappointment before you get to your excellence.I'll take my excellence in small doses each day. Minute to minute and hour to hour...and when things get gradually more and more wonderful I'll have had a beezer journey instead of just one excellent day.

muliebrity

muliebrity n. womanly qualities; womanhood  

Muliebrity

by Sujata Bhatt

I have thought so much about the girl

who gathered cow-dung in a wide, round basket

along the main road passing by our house

and the Radhavallabh temple in Maninagar.

I have thought so much about the way she                                             5

moved her hands and her waist

and the smell of cow-dung and road-dust and wet canna lilies,

the smell of monkey breath and freshly washed clothes

and the dust from crows’ wings which smells different –

and again the smell of cow-dung as the girl scoops                             10

it up, all these smells surrounding me separately

and simultaneously – I have thought so much

but have been unwilling to use her for a metaphor,

for a nice image – but most of all unwilling

to forget her or to explain to anyone the greatness                                15

and the power glistening through her cheekbones

each time she found a particularly promising

mound of dung –

Many times when I begin these posts I will use a Google search to get myself motivated or to generate some ideas. I had never read this poet before today, but I can say that this poem captures the full meaning of the word. When I chose the word, I started thinking about what makes a woman "womanly" - outside of physical appearances and the ability to bear children. Is there a grace that women possess simply because they are just women? What exactly makes a woman "womanly"?

 There is a huge difference between being pretty, pink and girly and being womanly - and it has nothing to do with body weight. I find it interesting that our society labels clothing for females above a size 12 a woman - and everything under her as juniors or misses. As if having a larger ass means you are more mature and matronly. However, it raises an interesting point about the relationship between female anatomy and this idea of womanhood. Larger breasts and hips used to be what defined beauty. A young lady was deemed a woman once she passed out of puberty and developed the trademarks of her sex. Even until the 1950's, "t & a" were essential to being considered the height of womanly beauty. Today there is no doubting that the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren were women - not girls. I'm not going to make the analogy to our current societal predilections of beauty - you already know what there is to say about that. I just think it's a little sad that the feminist movement is most likely to blame for this drastic change.

I drive around with my son a lot and I see these bumper stickers everywhere that say "Save the Tatas." I know breast cancer is a devastating disease and one that I might have to face in my lifetime if statistics say anything, but these bumper stickers offend me. It's like having a bumper sticker on my car for testicular cancer that says "Save the Sacks" or "Don't Bust My Balls." I doubt the man with testicular cancer would find it funny. It's not that I think that breasts have super powers, but God did give them to only women so we should probably honor them. We have Playboy, the plastic surgery industry and Victoria's Secret to exploit them already. Can we please not degrade them further by calling them "tatas" on the same vehicles we shuttle around the future of women of America in?

There is something more to womanhood than boobs, though. A certain grace  (regardless of how clumsy they are) that women possess in their movements, actions and auras. Maybe it's in our eyes or the sway of our walk or the fact that we can give birth to a child. I'm not quite sure there's any way to pin exactly what it is down, and I think that it's better that way. We need to keep it secret so no one exploits it and gives it a goofy name.

youse

youse pron. you (usually more than one person)

I am absolutely amazed that this is an actual word in the OED. It really shouldn't be. They should have a note in there somewhere about Italian Americans or New Yorkers. I am almost tempted to start using this word in my vocabulary as I have heard it enough in my life.Here is a list of media where you can find the proper usage of "youse:"The SopranosJersey Shore (Ronnie especially uses this word often.)A Bronx Tale Rocky I or IIYou can also head to Federal Hill in Providence, RI or Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn if you want some active usage of "youse." Just stand on the sidewalk and wait for someone to walk by.I have also located a poem by e.e. cummings using this word...not that I am convinced that this is an actual word...I can't trust a poet who doesn't even use proper punctuation. I don't usually like e.e. cummings but I actually enjoyed this one:mr youse needn't be so spryconcernin questions artyeach has his tastes but as for ii likes a certain partygimme the he-man's solid blissfor youse ideas i'll match yousea pretty girl who naked isis worth a million statuesNow youse stop sitting at your computer and go get some fresh air!

rodomontade

rodomontade n. boastful or inflated talk or behaviour

Dorothy Parker is one of my favorite poets because of her sarcasm and cynicism. She has the ability to wrap these two qualities into a rhyme. This word reminded me of her poem 'Braggart'...Braggartby Dorothy Parker The days will rally, wreathingTheir crazy tarantelle;And you must go on breathing,But I'll be safe in hell.Like January weather,The years will bite and smart,And pull your bones togetherTo wrap your chattering heart.The pretty stuff you're made ofWill crack and crease and dry.The thing you are afraid ofWill look from every eye.You will go faltering afterThe bright, imperious line,And split your throat on laughter,And burn your eyes with brine.You will be frail and mustyWith peering, furtive head,Whilst I am young and lustyAmong the roaring dead.Rodomontade is one of my least favorite things in the world. I find braggarts to be the most insufferable of all individuals. I like the poem above because it captures the caustic emotions that one feels having to listen to a rodomontade.In pondering the act of bragging and its relation to narcissism, I've come to thinking upon self esteem. Every one these days talks about how self esteem is so very important to living a happy life. Attending Catholic school in my younger years led me to believe that self esteem was very similar to pride...even hubris if taken to extremes. I was taught to avoid too much of it and to strive for humility. However, too much humility can make you a pretty sad kid, unless of course you are a saint (which is rare.)So how much self esteem is the right amount? It's not a good thing to have none at all as you become a door mat and most likely depressed. Having too much makes you an insufferable narcissist. Like everything else in this world, we have to walk a fine line and find the balance. The world needs braggarts and narcissists as much as it needs martyrs and saints. Without the contrasting personalities we would not be able to appreciate the truly good and the shockingly evil. Everyone needs both the angel and the devil on their shoulders.