Greetings,

Well ... have I ever had a brush with fame recently!

He's no longer a hirsute man. 

But he does have a great story to tell his grandchildren when the time comes - and he even has video evidence.

So there we were, coming to terms with seeing our first born dressed as a Blonde Bimbo on national television and trying to decide if we'd let on to the rest of the family what he'd been doing, when I received this email from one of our Merry Band in New Zealand, and discovered that I'd had my second close encounter with TV-Land:

"The Tong Master has appeared on New Zealand Television. The programme is
a blokey/matey sports show called Lion Red Sports Cafe. They reproduced
your piece, "The Tong Master", word for word in the item. It was acted
out by the principals of the show who captured the essence of your piece
as only someone in New Zealand or Australia could.
I enjoy your weekly emails thoroughly.

Arohanui, Pene Brown."

Whoa ... I'm getting my hair done because everyone knows that these things always come in threes and I reckon that the third will be me being interviewed after I win the $16 million in Lotto tomorrow night!

I can count the amount of times I've won anything on one hand ... actually on one finger ...

Chuckle ... 

Oops - I mean I can count the number of times!

You use amount words to refer to quantities of things that are measured in bulk, and number words to refer to things that can be counted. 

If you're lucky enough to win Lotto, you'll probably spend less time at work and do fewer jobs at home because you'll be able to afford to employ a number of people to do a huge amount of the work for you. They'll perform many of the tasks you hate and do much of the dirty work for you.

See?

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This week's quiz: 

Match each word with its definition below:

tourniquet, immigrate, irrigation, emigrate, plumage, tributary, famine, ancestor, aggravate, ford

1. to grow worse

2. a bandage twisted to stop the flow of blood

3. a great want of food

4. a system of carrying water in canals

5. to leave one country to settle in another

6. a shallow crossing at a river

7. the feathers of a bird

8. one from whom a person is descended

9. to settle in a new country

10.a stream flowing into a larger one

Still on the subject of our Word of the Week (schlimmbesserung) , Markus writes:

"I used the word very often in connection with our IT help desk services.
They want to help you but beware when they come to help you! When they touch
your computer, they very often "verschlimmbessern" your problems ... Anyway,
I would never say "schlimmverbessern" but "verschlimmbessern". Please mind
the German spelling "schlimm" with "mm"."

Markus Muth (Germany)

And John Emrys adds his tuppence worth from Canada:

"I've always used it to describe things going screwy on a shoot, as in turning to the camera assistant and remarking, 'Will this flischmorgle ever get shot?' "

I also have to pass on John's brilliant Lateral Thinking Machine which, he says, he first came across at the home of an early mentor:

"I was at his house one day, when I noticed something that looked like a cross between a Rolodex and an eight-inch diameter billiard 8-ball. Where the numeral 8 normally appeared, there was a plastic window.

"Looking through the window, I could see small strips of plastic about 1/4" by 1", with a single word printed on each. I asked him what this thing was, and he replied that it was a 'lateral thinking machine.'  He had it made by an artist he knew.

"The ball was suspended between these two stands, and contained 8,000 words.   He walked me through its use.
'Okay, think of a problem.  Got it?  Now give the ball a few turns to mix the words.  Now, press the latch so it spits out whatever word is closest to the opening above the eight.  Okay?  So, what is the word?'

" I replied that the word was 'moose.'

" 'Excellent.  Apply the word to your problem.'

" Something I'd been working on for months, and unable to solve, suddenly became clear.

" It tends to be how I think all the time, now."

I just love this story ... and having been on the receiving end of some of John's email, I can vouch for the fact that he really does use this method of thinking :)

Last week's quiz:

Match each word below with its synonym from the list:

bellicose, armistice, conscription, lachrymose, venal, refractory, vituperate, perfidious, lugubrious, pusillanimous

1. tearful LACHRYMOSE

2. intractable REFRACTORY

3. berate VITUPERATE

4. cowardly PUSILLANIMOUS

5. warlike BELLICOSE

6. treacherous PERFIDIOUS

7. levy CONSCRIPTION

8. mournful LUGUBRIOUS

9. truce ARMISTICE

10. unprincipled VENAL

(Psychology professor in neuropsychology intro course)

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