Words to the Wise 

* Palindrome – word, a verse, a sentence, or a number that reads the same backward or forward. Easy to remember examples:

– Phrase: Able was I ere I saw Elba.

– Names: Hannah and Otto

– Numbers: 1661 and 2002

* Rumbustious means boisterous or unruly. Example (from Jaffery by William J. Locke): “The rumbustious ogre has a hitherto undescribed, but quite imaginable, gap-toothed, beetle-browed ogre of a wife.“

 * Blatherskite is silly, babbling speech that doesn’t mean anything. Example (from TheWashington Post): “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for whom the word ‘blatherskite’ could have been invented, says mankind stands ‘one minute to midnight,’ and without commensurate action, ‘the anger and impatience’ of the world will be ‘uncontainable.’”

Readers Write… 

 Comments on the “Employees’ Feelings” essay:

“Great essay today!” – FM

“I thought your essay on ‘caring too much’ was honest and brave. I hope it doesn’t get you into trouble!” – JJ

“Just wanted to say that I absorbed so much about receiving criticism and giving criticism from watching you in action. [These days] I find I have very little patience for people who put ego and too much feeling in their copy or projects, and I try not to put any into my own work…. I think it’s been a tremendous benefit to my career here. So, thank you for that on-the-job training.” – RLM

“You are such a hypocrite! You care more about your employees’ feelings – and do more for them – than any boss I’ve ever known!” – SS

Comments on the “Book Recommendations for 2022” issue:

“Thanks for the list of books, Mark. Probably more than I will get to, but many of the descriptions were intriguing. I’m motivated to start!.” – LS

“Just finished looking at your ambitious reading list for 2022. Good luck with all those titles! And many thanks for turning me on to ‘Shtisel.’ It is superbly written, beautifully acted, and masterfully filmed. The best series I’ve seen in years… I’ve become an evangelist for the show.”  – AG

“You mentioned that you had dyslexia as a child. I wonder if I had (or have) it too. How did you find out?” – SA

Answer: When I was young, I never recognized it. Reading was difficult. That’s all I knew. I once took a speed-reading course that my father was teaching. It taught me how to skim, and I found that much easier than reading word by word because I didn’t have to deal with the switching, which, again, I didn’t actually notice. Much later, when I was in Africa, I was tutoring a child that I suspected was dyslexic, and her mom ordered a test for her. I took it, and that’s how I found out. But by then, I had ways of coping and was determined to be a reader. I’m sure many of our coevals had the same experience.