My first blog post, an observation

Well, here I am in the land of blogs for the first time ever. It's an exciting world I think and a world wherein I can ramble on, as I am wont to do.

I want to observe about words today. English, challenging and heartbreaking though it may be as a language (I'm only glad I was born speaking it and did not have to learn it as a second language), also lends us some lovely opportunities for manipulation, play, and creativity. Take this one, for instance:

The word DISTRAUGHT. This is a useful word, quite descriptive. It's a rather poetic word when you look at it, much more interesting than, say, UPSET. Now look at the two syllables of this useful word. When I did, it made me think that if there is a DIStraught, there must be a traught! There must, at some point, have been a use for the word traught, a use that meant something along the lines of the opposite of upset. Don't you think? And if you don't, do you at least think that it's a nice thing to think about a world that includes the word "traught"?

Another example is from the film "Playing by Heart", where Sean Connery's character tells Gena Rowland's character that she is overwrought. She responds that she is, in fact, perfectly wrought and is even, considering the circumstances, a little underwrought. I say cheers to the witty writers of that script for playing with words! And I encourage you all to do the same.

Observer