Sonoma Country Life

Word of the Week - Curling

Although the winter Olympics has brought the wonderful world of Curling to the forefront of international focus of late, it continues to surface as a frequent topic of inquiring conversation here in the more common non-curling circles. Nine times out of ten, no one seems to know much about it at all.

After a quick search online, I was rather surprised to discover that there is in fact, such a thing as a Curling Club right here on our doorstep in Northern California wine country. Now, really, who would have thought?

Curling, it would appear, upon slightly closer scrutiny, has come a considerable distance from the 16th century when tough Scots slid loafies (rocks) on  frozen lochs and highland marshes. Nowadays the game has conveniently moved inside on specially prepared ice with spiffy, polished 42-pound granite rocks.

The sport surfaced as an Olympic medal competition in 1998 at the Japanese Nagano games, though Curling in the U.S. can be traced all the way back to the 1830s. Scottish soldiers and settlers were said to have brought the peculiarities of the game to Michigan. Spreading north into Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and beyond, it remains, by all accounts, quite the thing to do within the Curling Heartland of America.

It has been estimated that there are more than 15,000 curlers and 140-plus clubs in the United States alone, predominantly in the north central part of the country, though it has extended in recent years to 20 or more enthusiastic states.

Clubs are continuing to form due to the sports' slick Olympic popularity - around the globe more than a million people consider themselves curlers. Mind you, over 90% of the one million are of Canadian background.

Scots made the most of record freezing temperatures this winter with a once-in-a-generation curling tournament on Lake Menteith:

Word of the Week - Furlough

What exactly does Furlough mean? We've all seen it on the school boards around Petaluma this past week and made various action plans to take advantage of (or in some cases, cope with) a couple of extra days with the kids off school, but you have to admit, it's a bit of an odd-bird as a word, isn't it?

Hence the return of "Word of the Week" which was on hiatus, or maybe furlough for a few months, here at Sonoma Country life, popular though it was.

According to the fountains of knowledge, a furlough is a layoff, especially a temporary one, from a place of employment.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Dutch verlof, modeled on German Verlaub, of West Germanic origin and related to leave.

Chatting on the phone this Sunday morning to my sister, Lindsey, herself a teacher in the UK, she was quite reasonably baffled by my report that I'd used this past week's furlough to fit in a quick trip to the snow with the younger two of my three boys.

"What's a furlough?" she asked. Equally reasonably astonished that city-wide school staff received not a penny's pay for these dates that were slashed unceremoniously from the academic calendar to make some small amends for the general state of affairs here in California, it was most definitely a cross-cultural ahem moment. Sad really, isn't it?

Except for the fact that seemingly half of Petaluma's school-aged community threw some degree of caution to the wind and wound up keeping one another company on the cheaper slopes of the snow-tipped Sierras!

Couldn't resist this snapshot (taken with the expert lens of my co-navigator, Gail F on a Mums-and-sons snowboarding, furlough fun-break) of the welcoming sight of an empty parking lot at the Tahoe Donner resort.

 

A private, mid-week resort experience at least until we'd made it into the snowboard rental area, in which we were pleasantly reunited with dozens of fellow Petalumans clearly on the same savvy mission.

Gail took some spectacular photos, several of her shots (being an artist at large with camera tucked into her ski jacket) taken as reflections on the cafeteria window.

Fantastic driving conditions made this a fair-weather skier's dream-come-true. That and the fact that after 19-years of parenting, I have finally accomplished a status-quo of everyone able to stand on two feet from top of the chair lift to bottom of slope. No mean feat let me tell you. Patience is a virtue.

 

  

 

Word of the Week - Bellibone

Taken from the French 'belle et bonne", this week's excellent word of the week, Bellibone, is, in fact a woman of exceptional beauty and goodness. Bet yo didn't know that.

Definitely one to add to the everyday vocabulary fellas, though you may be advised to follow up any brandishing of this term with its actual meaning, as it doesn't sound quite as flattering as it is!

One of the most bodacious of our P'Town 'bellibones' celebrated a splendid shindig under the late August skies this afternoon, providing me with a perfect little pic for the blog.

Word of the Week - Aristology (Noun)

Time to bring "Word of the Week" back to Sonoma Country Life now that school is back in session and we are all called to kick-start the brain cells after summer's excuses!

Came across the word "Aristology" , which means 'the art of cooking and dining'. Derived from the Greek "Ariston" meaning 'breakfast or lunch' and logos 'study'.

Used frequently in the 19th Century but rather rudely usurped by 'gastronomy'.

Word of the Week

Monday marks the all new Sonoma Country Life Word of the Week as an effort to improve our collective knowledge of obscure, entertaining and downright weird old remnants of the English language!

Let's start with the highly topical selection of Boondoggling, which is a delightfully odd American expression pertaining to useless government spending of the 1930s.

Bored with Bushisms? Boondoggling is a true U.S. classic created around the American government's attempts to combat the Great Depression.

Where on earth did Boondoggling derive from in the first place? Apparently from the Scottish word Boondoggle, which means to score a marble without actually winning it free and clear.