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People use the term “curse words” to denote foul language, but that’s misleading. When the Bible says not to curse someone, it doesn’t mean to not use foul language. Side note: why one should refrain from foul language is a separate topic that will not be covered here.

Cursing is simply wishing something bad upon someone. That can be done without any “bad words”. I put “bad words” in quotes because what makes the words bad is the thought or meaning behind them. You can take any socially-acceptable word and use it in a curse and then it becomes bad. I prefer the term “rude words” or “vulgarities”.

The Bible gives the concept that cursing is the opposite of blessing. Most of the curses I’ve seen start with “may” (such as “may you have such-and-such happen to you”, or “may your situation/relative/health be something bad”), which to me makes “may” a curse word.

Honorable mention goes to the phrase “why don’t you” if it implies the recipient should do something harmful.

But most of the blessings also start with “may”, so “may” is also a blessing word. Everyone is familiar with the term “curse word” but I had not considered the concept of a “blessing word” until I just wrote that previous sentence.

Note that many people say “bless you” in response to a sneeze. I don’t consider that a blessing, although it is polite at least, because a curse implies ill-will toward someone and a blessing implies goodwill toward someone, and in general saying something in response to a sneeze is jut a habit with no real meaning. And if one does not respond to a sneeze, it is amusing to me how significant the lack of response is – the quiet just hanging there. For any other bodily noises, the instigator is expected to apologize or otherwise acknowledge his act, but for a sneeze it is the beholder who is expected to speak up. I’m doing my part to break that expectation, by not responding.

Another side note: the musical Fiddler on the Roof has a song in it called “The Prayer”. But I consider it misnamed. It should be called “The Blessings” because it is full of well-wishing for people. It is not a prayer because it is addressed to the people (“May God bless you, and grant you long lives”). A prayer should be addressed to God, not people.

I was going to look into if vulgarities followed the same path as euphemisms on the euphemism treadmill (or carousel of euphemisms, depending if you heard it from Pinker or Keyes first). But it seems for us Americans the set of words that are bad/rude/vulgar is fairly consistent, unlike euphemisms that have been both invented and then gone out of fashion within my lifetime.

Here are some more mini reviews of books. I’m going in order of when I read them.

First up: Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan

I have had this book on my shelf for quite a while. Beta liked this book back in early middle school and now he’s in college and I finally read it.

Great book. It’s right in my wheelhouse as far as types of stories go. It was good enough to stand on its own but, like most things these days, it is the first of a series. And not just a trilogy, it has several books. I read this first book – the Ruins of Gorlan – and then read the second.

The first book you could read by itself and probably be content with it. But the second book absolutely does not allow for that, as it has a cliffhanger ending that might as well have “To Be Continued” on the last page.

Next up: How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

I read someone else’s list of books they liked and this was on it. I had already seen the movie and wasn’t planning on reading the book, but that inspired me to try it

It’s a really quick read. It was not my style, the way it was written. It’s a lot more casual in the language and the way the story is told. Maybe what some people would call the voice of the author. It wasn’t bad, just not my cup of tea.

It was also apparent to me that the movie was a loose interpretation of the book. If you like the movie, don’t think to yourself that you’ll automatically like the book.

It wasn’t as different from the movie as The Iron Giant was – that one I think the movie studio just bought the name and ignored most of the book.

Next up: The Green Ember by S.D. Smith

I think the same list of books that inspired me to read How to Train Your Dragon also had this book in it. I haven’t read Watership Down because of its length, so when I saw this one I thought of it as a lightweight alternative to Watership Down. I can’t tell you how it compares to Watership Down because I still haven’t read that one.

But this one was fine – a very rabbity adventure. There are more books in the series, but I didn’t get into it that much that I felt like going on in the series.

Next up: Tripods by John Christopher

A different person mentioned this book in passing, and I looked it up and saw it was the type of book I might like, so I tried it. It was one book, then he wrote two more later to make it a trilogy, then he wrote a prequel.

I read the first book, and I got through it faster than I was expecting. I’m guessing it was written for a slightly younger audience than my usual picks. So then I decided I might as well read the rest of the trilogy. But I decided against the prequel. I’m not ruling it out entirely, but the trilogy is fine without it.

It often gets compared to War of the Worlds, and that’s a fair comparison as far as a one-sentence overview is concerned. The details are different, and the point of view is different, and the plot is different, and the style of writing is different. So don’t judge it too much if you’ve already read War of the Worlds.

Last up: Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

This one took a while to get through, and I’m still trying to figure out why. It was an interesting premise, and there were some slight plot twists that kept it fresh.

I think it was because there was too much angsty questioning by the main character that kept slowing the book down for me. I did get through it, and it did redeem itself by the end. And it did not leave me wondering about a book two or three because it had a strong ending.

The author does have some other books I might try; I’m curious if it’s her writing style in general that got in my way, or just this particular character in this particular story.

That’s it for this review. More book reviews coming up later this year.

This last week, when the nights have gotten much cooler while the daytime temps are still warm, I noticed a change in the various critters around the property. So I decided to take some pictures and share them with you, dear readers.

First up: a snake. Typical garter snake, but I bring it up now because I haven’t seen many snakes all summer but I saw three this last week. I’m assuming the snakes are out now because they need the sun. The nights are getting colder, so the cold-blooded snakes wake up groggy and when they see a sunny patch they go for it so they can absorb some heat.

It reminds me of maple trees in the spring, in that the sap runs when the nights are cool and the days are warm.

Next up: a cricket. I don’t know what caused the crickets to make their appearance recently, but there were a bunch of them. I didn’t get a good picture of them in the grass, but this one posed nicely on a concrete block.

Next up: a frog. Frogs haven’t recently made their appearance after being absent all summer, because I have noticed them since spring when the peepers announce themselves. And after the summer rains when they like to cross the driveway for some reason.

And now: a wasp. I did not get a good photo of this, because it was flying at me and I had been stung by a member of this nest the previous day. It’s the blur in the middle of the photo. The nest is in the ground, under the log. I found it accidentally when I was trying to clean up a log pile. They let me know they were unhappy that I was disturbing their nest. Only one of them stung me. The next day I walked carefully up to the spot and saw where they were flying in and out. They didn’t notice me until I started taking a picture, so just after I snapped this I ran away.

Last photo: a praying mantis. Actually a praying mantis and a wasp, but the wasp doesn’t really count because it is the mantis’ dinner. I was picking blackberries, and heard a buzzing sound to me right. I looked over to see where the wasp was, and I found the wasp in the clutches of the mantis, who was chewing away on the wasp. The wasp was waving his legs, trying to get away, but he was not going anywhere. Smart mantis, hanging out at the food source of his food source.

Honorable mention: hummingbirds. We haven’t noticed them all summer, but now we’ve been seeing them hanging out around our crabapple tree. Maybe just coincidence. I hear them as much as see them, with their loud, low buzzing wings. I don’t even try to get a picture of them, because they’re here and then gone faster than I can get my phone out.

Honorable not-mention: woolly bears. We haven’t seen any woolly bears yet. Should be soon though.

Here is a guest post I wrote for SCL back in the day (2011 in case you’re wondering). It wasn’t run because I didn’t actually write a full blog post for Jon, I just sent him an outline of ideas. But I decided to fill it out and present it to you today.

Not many activities outside of church use responsive readings. Some concerts you might get the singer pointing the microphone at the audience and getting them to sing along, but that’s not quite the same thing. The only other place I can picture a call-and-response type thing is a protest, where someone might be leading a chant.

That’s all I have on this one, I couldn’t figure out where to take this next or give it a good conclusion.