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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 8

2/26/2014

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PictureMay 1, 2011, Majuro Atoll
(99–112)

👀 Observations
Included this week was coconut and coir, a fiber from coconut husks. I learned a tremendous amount about the coconut while we lived in the Marshall Islands. I learned how to husk and clean and crack and grate. It's a remarkable amount of work. And a remarkable food. You can even use it as a float if you've capsized.

There were lots of good sounds in this section: clump, clunk, cluck, clink, clomp, clonk, clop, click, clank, clap, clang, clack. That's an impressive array of sounds.



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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 7

2/19/2014

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PictureCangue: an ancient Chinese punishing device
(85–98) We're going to go a little shorter this week. I've got Madame Bovary and The Crying of Lot 49 to read.

👀 Observations
So much cheese and so many carriages:

Cantal (a hard cheese of France), chedar, cheese, cheshire (a hard English cheese), and chevre (a cheese made from goat's milk). Caseate: to become cheesy. Caseous: cheesy.

Cariole/carriole (a small, open carriage), caroach/caroch/caroche/carroch (a stately carriage), carriage,
carryall (a light, covered carriage), chaise (a light carriage).


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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 6

2/12/2014

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PictureCaltrop: a spiny plant
(Pages 71–84)

Already experiencing some technical difficulties . . . I've had to tape pages back in three times and we've just begun with the letter C.

👀 Observations
Going purely by availability heuristics (and you must know that this method of judgment fascinates me. It happens in advertising and religion all the time), there seems to be an uncommon number of words about antelope (there were four more this week), badgers, edible fish, coarse grasses or weeds, perennial herbs, animal diseases, heraldry, and armor that protects the neck. Therefore, these things must be of particular import to the human experience.

Of course, another great word that has come up frequently is nonsense:
buncombe, bunkum, bushwa, bushwah.

Other words of visual interest:


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Reading the Scrabble Dictionary: Week 5

2/6/2014

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Picture
Bolide: an exploding meteor
(Pages 57–70 this week)
⚛ Units of the Week
    Bicron: one billionth of a meter
    Billion: a number
    Binit: a unit of computer information
    Bioherm: a mass of marine fossils
    Biomass: an amount of living matter
    Birr: a monetary unit of Ethiopia
    Bittock: a small amount
    Bolivar: a monetary unit of Venezuela
    Boson: a subatomic particle

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