Some Sundry Things

I've had a number of things flick across my mind recently, none worth an entire post—but all worth mentioning.

First ... I was thinking this morning about how slowly I now dress for the day. And it reminded me of the years I was going to the health club, and how young, healthy men would do almost all their dressing in the locker room standing up. From stark naked to ready to leave ... standing up. 

That changes as you age. Now I do virtually all of my dressing while sitting down. I stand up only to pull my pants up.

TMI? Too bad. It’s time you learned what to expect!

Second ... a word popped up on one of my word-of-the-day online calendars, a word I’ve never seen (I don’t think), a word with a very specific meaning that I could have used now and then ...

chosisme

 

PRONUNCIATION:

(sho-ZEEZ-muh) 

 

MEANING:

noun: A literary style which focuses on description of objects, not on interpretation, plot, characterization, etc.

 

ETYMOLOGY:

From French, from chose (thing), from Latin causa (case, thing). The idea is associated with the writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. Earliest documented use: 1960s.

 

USAGE:

“‘How are things?’ someone asks the author at a party. That sets him off. How are things? You mean, in what way do things exist? How should I know? What, even, is a thing? I’d better write a book about it. And so he does: a book of short meditations on everyday objects, a contemporary exercise in happy chosisme.”

Steven Poole; How Are Things?; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 5, 2005.    

Third ... I woke up often last night trying to remember the name of one of my very bright Education professors I had at KSU Back in the Day. I knew there was a Z in it. But just could not remember the rest of it.

But in dawn’s early light, here came the name, drifting effortlessly into my memory. Dr. Robert Zais. A razor-sharp mind—his, not mine (obviously).

I remember once, early 1970s, he drove me (in his VW Beetle) down to Cincinnati to some kind of conference. My brain was drained by the time we got back to Kent!

Don’t know if he’s still with us or not ... don’t want to check, either.

Fourth ... I told you there wasn’t enough in any one of these three topics to merit a full post. But as I was writing (leaving things out), I realized there most definitely was.  Oh well ...