The KellyGram

Wisdom and Wit About the Wonderful and Often Wacky World of Words

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As I lifelong word lover, I subscribe to several ezines that focus on my favorite subject. Here are a few I think youll enjoy. Ive mentioned some of them in previous issues, but this is the first time Ive listed them in one place.

My good friend and colleague Barbara McNichol publishes an excellent monthly ezine called The Door Opener. For a free subscription, visit her website at www.barbaramcnichol.com.

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D., a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life, publishes a free weekly ezine called Better Conversations. To subscribe, or to check on other resources and articles he has available, visit his website at www.conversation-matters.com.

G. Armour Van Horn hosts a great quotation site called Quotes of the Day (www.qotd.org), where you can sign up to receive selected quotes every morning. Van, who also designs and hosts websites, does a great job of getting The KellyGram delivered promptly every month to our readers.

Every week, psychologist, marriage counselor and consultant Mardy Grothe, Ph.D., publishes an ezine called: Dr. Mardys Quotes Of The Week: A Weekly Celebration of Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations. For a free subscription, send a blank email message to: chiasmus-on@mail-list.com. You may also want to look in on his websites: www.drmardygrothe.com; www.chiasmus.com; and www.oxymoronica.com.

British author and prominent wordsmith Michael Quinion hosts and writes World Wide Words on the Internet. To check his site, and to subscribe to his free weekly newsletter, visit www.worldwidewords.org.

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TINGO NEW LINGO!

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Recently, Christel Hall, a long-time friend from back in our Southern California days, sent me this gem.

"Ive just added The Meaning of Tingo: and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World to my wish list on Amazon and thought you might be interested in taking a look at it for yourself." Thanks, Christel; its now on my wish list as well.

Book Description

"A garden of delights for the word obsessed: a funny, amazing, and even profound world tour of the best of all those strange words that dont have a precise English equivalent, the ones that tell us so much about other cultures priorities and preoccupations and expand our minds.

"Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means: I was rather too drunk last night and its all their fault"? That theres no Italian equivalent for the word blue? That the Dutch word for skimming stones is plimpplamppletteren? This delightful book, which draws on the collective wisdom of more than 254 languages, includes not only those words for which there is no direct counterpart in English (pana poo in Hawaiian means to scratch your head in order to remember something important), but also a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow and the longest known palindrome in any language ("saippuakivikauppias" Finland).

"And all right, what in fact is tingo? In the Pascuense language of Easter Island, its to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them. Well, of course it is. Enhanced by its piquant black-and-white illustrations throughout, The Meaning of Tingo is a heady feast for word lovers of all persuasions. Viva Tingo!

About the Author

"Adam Jacot de Boinods interest in foreign languages was first piqued when doing research for the TV program QI, hosted by Stephen Fry, and subsequently developed into a full-blown obsession. While compiling this book, he read approximately 220 dictionaries, visited 150 Web sites, and perused numerous other books on language."

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OOPS!

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The late Adlai Stevenson once said: "Journalists do not live by bread alone, although sometimes they have to eat them." Well, a couple of readers noted an error I made in last months issue and Im grateful to them for calling it to my attention.

The statement I made was this: Misusing "its" and "its" is perhaps the most common mistake we see, but the rule is simple: "its" always and only means "it is." In every other case, use "its." In fact, "its" is also used as a contraction for "it has." For example: "Its been a long day," or "Its been nice seeing you."

I apologize for the error; please pass the ketchup.

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GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS!

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Is 2006 the year youre finally going to finish writing that book youve been thinking about, and maybe working on, for so long? Why not? Lots and lots of others are doing so, but the years half over, so youd better get a move on.

The good news is that, according to R.R. Bowker, LLC, the worlds leading provider of bibliographic information, the number of new books released by U.S. publishers dropped by 18,000 in 2005, compared to the previous year.

The bad news is that the numbers are still very intimidating. According to Bowker, there were 172,000 books published in 2005 in the U.S. And Great Britain has now replaced the United States as the publisher of most new books in English, a total of 206,000 in 2005, an increase of some 45,000 (28%) over 2004.

To be successful in this very crowded marketplace, there are two essentials. First, your book MUST be very well-written and highly readable, and, second, you must be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time, energy and money to market it. It doesnt matter if you self-publish or use a traditional publisher, sales of your book will depend on Y-O-U.

I dont do book marketing, but can direct you to some folks wholl work with you. (Next month, well share some important information about a service you may find very helpful in this regard.) However, I can certainly help you, as I have many other authors, put together a book youll be proud to put your name on. Whether you need it ghostwritten, edited, proofread, or some combination thereof, Ill be happy to consult with you about it.

For the past 27 years, Ive worked with dozens of satisfied clients, and Id be happy to provide you with several references. I guarantee my work, and never charge a fee for an initial review or consultation. Call me at (480) 895-7617, or email me at bob@kellygram.com, and let me show you how you can look good on paper.

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FREE FAX SERVICE

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My colleague and friend, graphic designer Rob Varela, recently told me about a fax service thats available via the Internet and its free! If you have infrequent fax needs, as I do, and have been paying the phone company for a separate fax line, as I have, check out www.efax.com.

There are limitations to the free service. Its only for incoming faxes, the volume is limited, and youll be assigned a number in a different area code. For a fee, you can add outgoing fax service, a local number and a toll-free number.

I have no problems with any of the limitations. The saving of $23 a month is worth it. Im tired of paying for fax paper and film, plus phone company fees, primarily to get junk faxes from mortgage companies, realtors and stockbrokers. And, if I need to send a fax, Ill just plug my machine into my phone line.

My new fax number is (201) 829-7617. The last four digits are the same as my phone number and if someone wants to send me a junk fax via New Jersey and pay the long-distance charge, thats okay with me.

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SMILE AWHILE: BUZZWORD BINGO!

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For those of you who attend a lot of meetings, this Bingo game should make those meetings go faster! If you don't attend lots of meetings, consider yourself lucky.

How to play: Simply tick off five terms heard in one meeting from the following list and shout out BINGO! It's that easy!

Testimonials from other players:

"Id only been in the meeting for five minutes when I yelled BINGO."

"My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically."

"I feel the game has enhanced the overall quality of meetings per se on a quid pro quo basis."

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ODDS AND ENDS

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Back Issues:

All previous issues of The KellyGram, dating back to January 2003, are available on our website: http://www.wordcrafters.info/back_issues.html.

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Your privacy is very important to us. We assure you that under no circumstances will we share, distribute, publish, give away or sell our mailing lists or other information about you to any other party.

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Comments/Questions:

Your comments and questions are always welcome. Please contact us at bob@kellygram.com, or call Bob Kelly at (480) 895-7617.

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A FINAL WORD

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It is not so much consequence what you say, as how you say it. Memorable sentences are memorable, on account of some single irradiating word.

(Alexander Smith, 1830 1867)

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© 2006 by Bob Kelly. All rights reserved.