The theme of the month is things for which we are thankful, and I get to kick it off today. Needless to say, I've been wracking my brains, trying to come up with an idea for this post. No luck.
I tried exploring the word itself. Here's what Merriam Webster on-line has to say about "thanks."
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thanks noun pl \ˈthaŋ(k)s\
Definition of THANKS
1
: kindly or grateful thoughts : gratitude
2
: an expression of gratitude
Examples of THANKS
Origin of THANKS
plural of Middle English thank, from Old English thanc thought, gratitude; akin to Old High German dank gratitude, Latin tongēre to know
First Known Use: before 12th century
Rhymes with THANKS
Manx
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Not too helpful, is it? And the only rhyme they could come up with is "Manx"? What about "spanks"? Or "banks"? "Blanks"? "Flanks"? "Franks"? "Hanks"? I could go on . . .
It's a weird word, anyway. T-H-A-N-K-S. Six letters, and only one of them a vowel. We can reduce it, one letter at a time, and have a real word at every step. Watch: Thanks, Thank, Than, Tan, An, A. We can scramble the central letters around and come up with Ankh, the Egyptian cross, the symbol of eternal life:
Surely that is something to be thankful for. If you believe in it.
But maybe I'm getting a little too far off topic. Let's go back and ask, What am I thankful for?
I'm thankful for free clip art that makes it easy to illustrate blog posts like this:
But what am I thankful for in real life?
Too many thinks to mention.
One thing I know I'll be thankful for come Tuesday is an end to the negative political ads. Hallelujah! I'll be able to watch tv in peace. And I'm not even going to mention the robo-calls. Right now, suffice it to say that I despise everyone who is running. I'll be glad when the campaign is over. [And yes, I am going to vote, but I won't say for whom -- this is not a political blog, after all.]
So let's get back on topic. Search your heart and let us know: What are you thankful for this fine month of November, 2010?
11 comments:
I'm also thankful for too many things to mention -- though I may indeed address some when it's my time to blog next week. In the meantime, a small thing making me happy and thankful is my new travel coffee mug that keeps my coffee hot for four hours -- without having to plug something in. Contigo, $20, available at Target --
I'm also thankful for too many things to mention and like Pat, I will probably address some when it's my turn to blog in a few weeks.
For now though, I agree about clip art. It does seem to make a post a little more entertaining. Although I haven't really used it much myself yet. I guess that I should start, since I like it. :-)
I enjoyed reading your analysis of the word, "thanks."
At the moment I'm thankful for November. Our family had a hard October and I'm looking forward to a new and better month.
Right now, I'm thankful for my fellow Working Stiffs! Even though I've never met some of you in person, I feel like "yinz guys" are part of my family.
I, too, will be thankful the negative ads will be over. At least until the next campaign. Sigh. The sad thing is that many voters believe what they hear in the ads, when ALL of them contain lies. I'm voting too, but I'm probably one of the few who actually checked the facts. And don't get me started on the idiots who pull the lever for "vote all democrat" or "vote all republican" because that's their party and they can't think for themselves.
And, no. I'm not telling who I'm voting for either. Working Stiffs is strictly non-partisan!
Amen, Joyce. It's not as if the facts are hard to check on-line.
I'm glad you liked the word analysis, Laurie. Although I prefer words that sound strange and look kind of funny (like "google"), "thanks" was fun to play with.
But, Pat, does that cup keep the coffee too hot to drink forever?
And Linda, I hope whatever's going wrong for your family has turned the corner and is starting to go right.
I'm gonna take the 5th right now and wait for Friday, although I too am thankful for a whole lot of things. The weather's been lovely lately, the kids are healthy, Halloween went off without a hitch - no one got sick, unlike last year - and despite the fact that I can't settle down to work on any writing (too many ideas to pick one), don't have much cause for complaint. Good post!
I've just returned from a two week visit to south Louisiana, seeing relatives. As a result, I have writing material for YEARS to come--and I am thankful.
Welcome home, Ramona!
Clip Art! I've looked at a lot of sites and they all scare me. I should have written about this last month. They are all so intrusive. They seem to want to attack you like a leach. Closing these sites is a haunted house tunnel.
So, do you have a site you feel is safe? I've never even made it to a place I'd want to try and cut and paste, because they all want you to download tons of junk, and/or only send you to a selling place.
I always admire those of you who put it up, but I can never find how to do it.
Oh well. My verification word is vulfgh--sounds like a brain fog, so seems appropriate.
Patg
Patg-
I'm pretty minimalist when it comes to clip art. I google "Free Clip Art Thanks" or some such topic and click on the sites that come up. If the site asks me to join or pay, I move on to the next site - free clip art should be free. If I wanted "clip art for sale" or "clip art free to members only" I would have specified that in my google! I access the internet from a Mac with iPhoto, so when I see something I like I just right click and drag it into my iPhoto file, then put it into the blog post by clicking on the photo icon and taking the image from my iPhoto file.
Good luck in illustrating future posts with truly free clip art!
I am thankful for healthy children. I am thankful for the dirty clothes and dirty dishes I have to wash. I am thankful I have food to cook.
I am thankful that my 12 year old can now babysit my younger two children which gives me the freedom I longed for these past 12 years.
I am thankful for the few people in my life who have very different beliefs than me and yet they respect my views without trying to change me. I do the same for them and it's a beautiful thing. (It is sad how rare it is to find people who really do want to co-exhist.)
I am thankful that I met David and he led me to you all. Much peace and love to you Gina!
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