The Write Way

12 January 2007

The Boys' Own Last Great First Adventure

Greetings,

When I was a girl (Please ... we've had this discussion many times in the past, and you promised solemnly you wouldn't roll your eyes like that again ...) So, when I was a girl (... that's better), because I was a girl and an only child, my dad used to buy me Boys' Own Adventure Books at Christmas along with Blinky Bill, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and I Wanted a Pony.

Many of my solitary games involved knights on horses, Robinson Crusoe cubby houses in trees and rafting expeditions. The rafting games arose because there was a new house being built next door to us, and the builders had left behind one section of a paling fence that became a perfect raft when balanced on a few rocks I managed to roll into place. Because it was on uneven ground and odd-sized rocks, it moved just like a real raft and became the focus of many a happy adventure throughout one long summer holiday period.

So, as a rafter of some experience, you can understand why I was entranced with the story of two young blokes who were planning to cross the Ditch (the Tasman Sea) between Australia and New Zealand in a kayak.

Their kayak, understandably, had to be specially designed and after many months of research and testing, they finally launched it last week. It's been christened "Lot 41," because this was the lot number of our four-legged favourite, Phar Lap, when he went up for sale at the yearling sales in 1928. 

Our intrepid sailors, James Castrission and Justin Jones, are waiting for favourable weather conditions before embarking on their 2200 km paddle (that's just a tad under 1400 miles). You can see why they've chosen summer for their little jaunt, when you learn that only 10 - 15% of the waves should be nearly 4 metres high (c.12 ft), compared to other times when it can be up to 30% of them. Just to add that little frisson of excitement to the trip, however, is the knowledge that waves of around 10 metres (c.30 ft) are not unknown at this time of year.

What jolly fun, eh? Thirty metre waves pounding you on and off for 2200 km!

Read more about the expedition here. 

I bet they can't wait to get started, but then I bet they'll really (really) be happy to finish. All they'll want to do is hone in on their target of Auckland!

Ummm ... or maybe they'd prefer to home in on their target. This is one of those expressions that people mishear and then misuse. 

When you "home in on" something, you reach it, find it, hit it ...

When you "hone" something, you sharpen it with a hone, which dictionary.com explains is "a whetstone of fine, compact texture for sharpening razors and other cutting tools; a precision tool with a mechanically rotated abrasive tip, for enlarging holes to precise dimensions."

Some other expressions that cause problems include:

"another words" (in other words)

"drips and drabs" (dribs and drabs)

"sluff off" (slough off) Read more about our worrisome -ough words here. 

"take a different tact" (take a different tack)

"cold slaw" (coleslaw) Here are some other delicious food oddments. 

And some more words often confused.  

This week's quiz:

If you ever needed convincing that English has a word for every occasion - here's the proof:

abacinate, otolith,  taeniacide, gamomania, decanal, acatamathesia, dipleidoscope, kern, dreikanter, xerarch, 

1. located on south side of the choir in a church (not the north, east or west side)

2. instrument for measuring moment when an object passes a meridian (just that one moment)

3. three-faced pebble worn by wind (not four or five, but three)

4. to blind by putting red-hot copper basin near the eyes (not an enamel basin or tin or glass, but copper)

5. inability to understand data presented to the senses (as opposed to???)

6. growing in dry places (not wet or damp)

7. calcium concretion in inside of vertebrate's ear to aid in equilibrium (don't you wish you'd discovered this?)

8. killing of tapeworms (remind me to do a list of killer words)

9. part of typeface letter that sticks out beyond its body (OK, I can see the use of this one)

10.obsession with issuing odd marriage proposals (I just love this!)

And here are some definitions of interest to anyone who enjoys spending time on or in the briny:

Boat ownership - Standing fully-clothed under a cold shower, tearing up 100-dollar bills

Boom - Called boom for the sound that's made when it hits crew on the head on its way across the boat. For slow crew, it's called `boom, boom.'

Crew - Heavy, stationary objects used on shipboard to hold down charts, anchor cushions in place and dampen sudden movements of the boom

Flashlight - Tubular metal container used on shipboard for storing dead batteries prior to their disposal

Sailing - The fine art of getting wet and becoming ill, while going nowhere slowly at great expense

Zephyr - Warm, pleasant breeze. Named after the mythical Greek god of wishful thinking, false hopes and unreliable forecasts.

Last week's quiz:

atmark, larva therapy,  cosmoceutical, apronym, lexpionage, awkword, kanban, marron, twoc, fauxtography

1. a word which as an acronym has a meaning related to the meaning of the words constituting the acronym - APRONYM (The acronym for seasonal affective disorder, SAD, reflects the actual meaning of the term by spelling out the English word "sad", referring to the depression caused by the typical characteristics of winter - lack of light, cloudiness, rain, etc.)

2. large freshwater crayfish species Cherax tenuimanus native to the main permanent rivers in the forested, high-rainfall south-west of Western Australia - MARRON (These are just really big yabbies!)

3. cosmetic with active pharmaceutical ingredients - COSMOCEUTICAL

4. misleading photojournalism; photo manipulation using computer software, photo staging by press photographers, photo staging by others at the scene, and false or misleading captioning of unstaged photos - FAUXTOGRAPHY

5. the use of live maggots as anti-bacterial wound dressing - LARVA THERAPY (Hmmm ... I know they do a wonderful job in cleaning up wounds, but the thought of all those little bodies wriggling around is a tad off-putting!)

6. the @ symbol - ATMARK (written as a single character is a manuscript abbreviation of the Latin "ad", which means "at"; also known as snail, arabesque, monkey, curl, cabbage, twiddle, twist, a-twist, strudel, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, ape, cat, rose

7. the sleuthing of new words and phrases - LEXPIONAGE

8. to joyride, to steal a car - TWOC (Acronym of "Take Without Owners Consent")

9. word that is difficult to pronounce - AWKWORD

10. manufacturing strategy in which parts are produced or delivered only as needed; just-in-time (JIT) - KANBAN (Toyota Motor Company has been credited with developing the "kanban system" of manufacturing, which takes its name from the Japanese word for "sign" or "placard." In the kanban system, each shipment of parts used in making a product comes with a "kanban" (sign). When the stock parts reach a predetermined level, the sign is sent to suppliers, who deliver new ones to the assembly line.)

A Little Something Extra

Unless you've been captured by aliens and have only just been returned to Earth with no recall of your experience, you'll know about blogs! But maybe you don't know how you can use a blog yourself. This week's LSE explains why all writers need a blog ... 

" A blog can be many things and serve many purposes. When you have a book to promote, it makes sense to turn your blog into a promotional tool. Whether your book is a historical novel, a how-to gardening book, a memoir or a book of poetry, let your blog entries spread the word and you will sell more books. Here are five ideas for using your blog to promote your book ..."

Read Patricia Fry's tips about why writers need a blog.   

Word of the week: Drogue (n) a bucket or canvas bag used as a sea anchor; a canvas-covered conical frame, floating behind a vessel to prevent drifting or to maintain a heading into the wind; small parachute that deploys first in order to pull a larger parachute from its pack; truncated cloth cone mounted on a mast; used at airports to show the direction of the wind 

So now you know!

Oxymoron of the week: cheap boat

And here's a Latin phrase we can all use at some stage:

Balaenae nobis conservandae sunt!

[BEYE-leye-neye NOH-bees kohn-ser-WAHN-deye SOONT]

(Save the whales!)