… and what a variety of responses there are.

This involves Facebook, a Friend and a bunch of Fanatics.

But more on that in a minute.

First let me tell you about a memory that came flooding back to me as I was sitting here contemplating the Word of the Day exercise of my friend.

When I was a young child my Mother would do a Word Of The Day.

The whole process involved her sitting down once a month with one of the volumes of the Children’s Dictionary set we had.

Specifically the Six-Volume Hardcover Set of “The Golden Book Illustrated Dictionary” for children.

I am not sure exactly where this set of Children’s Dictionaries came from originally … quite possibly from getting one a week for six weeks from the Kroger’s Supermarket where we shopped every Friday.

They did specials like that back then.

Each book was carefully laid out … complete with colorful illustrations designed for the young mind.

She would then carefully cut whole 8 1/2 X 11 inch pieces of paper into four parts … each one measuring 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 inches.

Onto each piece of paper, she would lovingly copy a word. From the Dictionary. The word … sylabicated … then phonetically sounded out … then the part of speech, mostly verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs and adjectives … then the definitions.

Just like in the Dictionary.

And then … each morning … like clockwork … she would present us, my younger brother and I, with a new word of the day.

She would read the word, sound out the word, explain the part of speech for the word … and discuss the meaning or meanings of the word.

And like little knowledge sponges, my brother and I would eagerly learn the new bit of information presented to us.

For the record, we did this from when I was in second grade till I was in fifth grade.

My brother would have been in … well he skipped first grade so technically I guess it was kindergarten, second and third grade. But he started reading when he was three so I’m thinking the grades don’t matter so much.

After each word was presented, it was pegged using plastic colored pegs … onto a large piece of peg board which had been painted white and hung in the kitchen for this very purpose.

Every Saturday, we would have the opportunity to show exactly how much we had learned over the course of the week.

One of us would go outside to swing on the old wooden swing hanging from the edge of the wooden porch. Back and forth … back and forth … trying to recall all the words that were on the bulletin board inside. When one was done, the other would swing.

If we both knew the word … and its spelling … and its part of speech … and its meanings … then the word was taken down from the pegboard. If not, it remained for another week.

Suffice it to say we learned a lot of words this way.

But back to my friend Kristi … who decided on April first to post a Word Of The Day. On Facebook. To which we were to respond. 

It is amazing how addictive it has become in just three days.

First day the word was “FOOL”

Responses included:

What the wise seek is in themselves, what the fool seeks is in others. Confucius
Led Zeppelin – Fool In The Rain
Started out with the dreams of a wise man and ended up with the heartaches of a fool
Wise men say, only fools rush in…
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” Henry David Thoreau
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Why do fools fall in love?
“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught in falsehood’s school. And the one man that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool.” -Plato
Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who

My contribution to the cause was “Owa tafoo liam.”

Yesterday the word was “ANGEL”

Responses included:

The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Abraham Lincoln
It’s just like heaven being here with you … etc … Angel Baby, my Angel Baby”
Don’t drive faster than your angels can fly. 
City of angels
Angels We Have Heard On High
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Ángele Dei, qui custos es mei, me, tibi commissum pietáte supérna, hodie illúmina, custódi, rege et gubérna.
Sarah McLachlan performing Angel.

My contribution was Just call me Angel … of the Morning.

Todays word was “THREE”

Responses included:

Three blind mice.
You shall count to the number three before throwing the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. 
Won’t you give me three steps, Gimme three steps mister,
Three Stooges
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
Three Dog Night and Three’s Company
THREE ON A MATCH.
Three bottles of beer on the wall, three bottles of beer…   Take one down and pass it around…
Three Coins In A Fountain.

My entry was Three of a Kind … probably should have made it three of a kind beats two pair, but I was lazy.

What can I say? I have interesting friends.

It’s a diverse group.

I can hardly wait till tomorrow.