Teens Gone Wild? Not so Much!

Teens really are doing it less, and being safer about it. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, a little less than half of all high school students in 2007 said they'd gone all the way, down from 54 percent in 1991. And 62 percent used a condom, compared to only 57 percent in 1997.

So what makes people think it's a Teens Gone Wild world? The media are one culprit, says University of Florida journalism professor Kim B. Walsh-Childers. She studies media effects on adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior, and co-edited the book "Sexual Teens, Sexual Media."

"It breeds an image ... that not only are they out there attacking all things that walk, but that they are totally emotionless about it. I think that's not entirely true."

Research is clear that TV influences teen attitudes about sex. Studies show that three-quarters of teens say sex on TV influences the sexual behavior of kids their age. Meanwhile, a Rand Corp. survey found that teens who viewed lots of sexual content were twice as likely to initiate sexual intercourse.

And sexual content there is: Another Kaiser study in 2005 found that 70 percent of all shows contained sexual talk or behavior. With so much of it out there, teens and adults alike may have a skewed notion of just how much sex is going on in real life, Walsh-Childers said.

"People who watch a lot of TV will tend to overestimate, for example, the percentage of people who have extramarital affairs," she said. "The joke is not that married people don't have sex, but that they just don't have it with each other."

Of course, it doesn't help adults' views when today's teens appear to be more narcissistic, baring their souls and more online and via texting (and sexting). But some of that may get more media attention than it deserves, further skewing things, Walsh-Childers added.

Besides, "if kids have started acting sexy, all we have to do is look at advertising," she said. "We start telling them when they are prepubescent that it's a good thing to look sexy ... like selling thong underwear for 10-year-old girls."

But don't expect things to get toned down in the TV ratings game.

"Let's be honest, the grand struggles over downloading songs to an iPod or which phone you might get, there's not as much interest in."

Source: "Dare to Ask" with Phillip Milano at Jacksonville.com.

"50 Ways to Feel Great Today"

About the book...

Feeling a little down? Maybe more than a little down? Here are 50 potential remedies. Changing how we feel often begins with a small thing. Listening to a beautiful song. Enjoying a sunset. Making a happy memory. This book helps readers discover how to beat stress, ward off worry, and banish the blues. 50 Ways to Feel Great Today offers medically and scientifically sound advice for giving a blah mood the boot. These time-tested ideas are simple and often low or no cost. While no "be happy" pill exists, the activities in this book equip readers to become their own helping hand. These authors are respected experts who offer sound spiritual and medical advice. This book provides techniques, strategies and physical & emotional disciplines to help you improve your overall health.

What I liked...

This book is well worth your time. It's filled with credible and valuable information to help readers age well and live well. And one thing I appreciated, author-to-author...there was plenty of research and statistics to back up the suggestions. Ideas to make life a little better were very do-able...simple things like brushing your teeth with your left hand or learning a new skill...to help create new pathways in your brain. Motivating, practical, useful, and uplifting, too!

BTW...50 Ways to Feel Great Today is available now at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Available January 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Tuesday's Musings

Congrats to Sherry G. and to Slegan for getting your names randomly picked for yesterday's Jenna's Cowboy giveaway. Ladies, if you'll send me your addresses, I will pop your copies in the mail asap.

And for those who didn't win this time...tomorrow's blog will have another giveaway! I know, I know! Two in one week! Just the way the blog tours were scheduled. But they are a lot of fun...I think I'm going to try to do a giveaway at least once a week.

One word to the wise...if you leave a comment as "Anonymous," please check back to see if you have won.

Some exciting news I received yesterday from Revell...The Choice just went into its 3rd printing! YAHOO!

I forgot to mention that the blog tour for The Choice is galloping along! Pop over to The Litfuse Group to see where it's headed each day. Lots of giveaways going on!

I'm speaking to an AAUW Author's Luncheon tomorrow so will be spending the day polishing my notes, polishing my shoes, double and triple checking things, hoping I remember everything I'm supposed to remember.

I still haven't gotten over the day I went merrily off on a speaking gig. Seconds before I was to be introduced, my friend Peggy noticed I had a velcro curler attached to the back of my blazer!

Nor have I forgotten the event when I was told I was speaking at 1:00, so I zipped outside at 12:45 to brush my hair and check my notes...came back in a few minutes later to discover a deafening dead silence had filled the room. They were ahead of schedule, had already introduced me and I was nowhere to be found!

Am I the only one that such mortifyingly embarrassing things happen to? Please feel free to top my stories!

"Jenna’s Cowboy" Review and Giveaway!

About the book...

This charming romance is Book #1 in the Callahans of Texas series, and brings readers a touching love story set in beautiful west Texas. Jenna Callahan has a young son and rewarding work on her father's ranch. She's content. But she never expected to see Nate Langley back in town--the first guy she noticed, the one her father sent away all those years ago. And she never thought the attraction they felt would be as strong as ever. Jenna's cowboy has some healing of his own to do, though, after two tours of duty in the armed forces. With the help of good friends, strong faith, and a loving family, he hopes to put the horrors of the past behind him--and become the man Jenna deserves. With an emphasis on simple acts of love, Jenna's Cowboy gives romance readers what they want most: a love story with a Texas touch.

What I liked...

Sharon Gillenwater has created an engaging and gentle romance while painlessly educating readers about the serious condition of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She’s also provided a glimpse into how people heal: through compassion and understanding, time, and the healing touch of a caring community. A wonderful book that honors our soldiers and opens our eyes to the lingering problems they might endure as they adjust to civilian life.

GIVEAWAY! Thanks to the fine folks at Revell for sending me two copies of Jenna's Cowboy to share with my lucky bleaders. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail (suzanne at suzannewoodsfisher.com) today and tomorrow to be included in a random drawing.

BTW...Jenna's Cowboy is available now at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

A Holy Experience: The Year of the Yes

My friend Kathy introduced me to a blog by author Ann Voskamp called A Holy Experience.



Ann has a unique gift with words and photographs, combining the two into visual poetry. She's a homeschooling mom of six, a columnist, a contributor to many devotionals, with a book in the works. If you haven't visited her blog yet, I encourage you to check it out. Bet you'll mark it as a favorite. I have!

Here's a sampling of one of my favorite posts, used with Ann's permission:



Snow falls outside the window, whispers.

I lie on her bed, listening to white. In the grey, night changes into a sweater of day and branches of the bare lilac slips on lace.

She cups into me. She's listening too. Her and I, we often lie together in the early and plan.

"Mama?"

"Mmmmm..." I murmur into her nest of curls.

"Mama... today... could I..." she turns and those eyelashes, gold whispers, brush my cheek. Her hands embrace my face and her breath falls warm, desperate.

"Oh, I just know..." Her eyes, dark stars, entreat. "I just know you are going to say No."

In her eyes, I can see mine and I am known for no.

No, you can't and no, that's not a good idea and no, put that away. For no, we aren't going and no, let's not and no, not now. (Oh, sweet child... and to think when they first laid you in my arms, you were all my yeses!)

She can't know of the all the other ones I only speak to myself, about myself, for myself. No, you can't be that -- no, you can't do that -- no good, no chance, no hope. (Oh, to be gentle with self. Grace always embraces...)

Or the ones I try to veil, the ones I shamefully stomp at God? No, I don't want this! No, I'm not doing that! No, don't change this, no, leave that alone, no, don't muck this up, no, no, no! (Oh, but You said yes to me before time began, yes to me in Christ with the arms nailed wide...)

What we speak to others, is what we speak to ourselves, is what we speak to God.

I have wrecked whole decades with that two letter "no" that falls from the end of my tongue, steady drip of a faulty tap. With two-letters of the heavy iron, I've crushed child-dreams... my dreams... God-dreams. What that one word hasn't broken. We walk wounded and I can't think how God bears the scars.

True, it's the mantra of national campaigns, "Just say No." It's what is suggested you learn to say in an effort to simplify your life in the face of constant demands on time: "Learn to say No." Well and good.

But I look straight into her, mirroring straight into me, and I know this is the year: I am done with "no".



The Babe in the manger's but a few days old, He who gave Himself His own name, for He knew, He knew: Emmanuel, "God with Us." The Babe has a name, name that breathes the wonder-hope. But the new year about to birth, it still needs christening.

With the palm of her hand resting on my cheek, it comes to me, what I'll name my new year:

This is the year of Yes.

When 2009 came swaddled in January, I had looked upon it and it named itself like a child often does: The year named itself Communion. My hours, my days, my heart, they needed not more things, more stuff, more consumption. I needed communion. After 365 days, I yearn for more -- not more consumption, but more communion.

And Yes is my 2010 answer to His invitation to come into Communion.

Yes, as in:

"Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Luke 10:21

"Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." John 21:16

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ." 2 Corinthians 1:20

Yes, let this moment be just as You intend it! Yes, Your will be done not mine! Yes -- You propose, ask for my life and an eternity to love-- and I say Yes!

This is the year of yes, to look in the mirror and say, "Yes, He made you this way and it is very good! Yes, you can try! Yes, be creative! Yes, laugh and yes, give it a whirl, and yes, it's really okay, don't be afraid!"

This is the year of yes, to kneel down and peer into eager faces and say, "Yes, you can, yes, that's an ingenious idea, yes, make that, yes, yes, yes!"

Does No ever really need to be said? Isn't there always something else to say yes to?

Yes, honor, yes, love God with your whole heart, yes, submit to one another, yes, say YES to Love and Christ and Grace, and Now and YES!

Every commanded 'shalt not' ultimately asks us say Yes to God.

Could I try?

I don't tuck a stray curl behind her ear. I hold it. I hold a wisp of curl and she peers into me and I laugh and we rub noses.

Snow falls and I whisper with winter and the good gifts coming down from Father, "Yes! I say Yes!"

She squeezes my face tight. "Really, Mama?"

"Yes, we will find something to say yes to!"

She giggles glee.

We slip out of bed and into a fresh new year.

Into the year of Yes.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain

Storm #5 is due in today...this river of rain just doesn't let up! I tried taking a walk yesterday when I thought the rainclouds were breaking up and ended up running home, soaked. We've been getting thunderstorms, too, which is very rare. A tornado was sighted, too!

Earthquakes we can handle. Thunderstorms?! Tornadoes?! Not so much.

I was speaking to a Moms Together group at church yesterday morning, and just as I quoted a comment Jesus had made, a bolt of thunder blasted the room! I thought that was kind of cool...a little reminder from Mother Nature about Who's really in charge!

When I got home, I checked the mail and found a large manila envelope with my favorite return address on it. In it was a signed, sealed and delivered 3-book contract with Revell! It's been in the works for a while, but I don't like to announce anything until it's a done deal.

As soon as I looked through the contracts, I checked my e-mail and there was one from my editor informing me that deadlines on some other writing projects have been moved. Up. Way, way up.

So I did what any logical writer with pressing deadlines would do. I baked cookies and made a big batch of granola.

Top 12 Things to Know About Guide Dogs for the Blind

Most of you know I have a soft spot for Guide Dogs for the Blind, my favorite charity. Love the dogs, love the people behind the dogs. This is a little bit of interesting info about GDB that I thought you'd like to know...


1. Number of Active Teams: 2,200

2. Number of Graduates a Year: Around 340

3. Average Life of a Guide Dog Team: Over 7 years

4. Annual Cost of Veterinary Program: $2.6 million per year

5. Breeds and Numbers of Dogs: 160 dogs in breeding colony/900 puppies in homes
More than 80% are Labrador Retrievers. Lab/Golden Crosses, and Golden Retrievers are also used. Around half become Guide Dogs

6. Length of Training: Length of Training for Dogs: approximately 3 months
Length of Training for Students: between 2–4 weeks



7. Average Age of Students: Around 50 years of age (Students have ranged from 14–92 years)

8. Employment Rate for Graduates: About a third are employed

9. Number of GDB Staff/Volunteers on Both Campuses: 289 employees and 800 campus volunteers



10. Annual Operating Budget and Percentage Spent on Core Program vs. Administration:
$30 million annual operating budget
82.9% core program vs. 17.1% administration

11. Cost of a Guide Dog Team: When all costs are factored in, the total may exceed $65,000

12. Cost to the Students: Zero. All expenses are covered by donations to GDB

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head and other News

Congrats to Nancylee623, winner of C.J. Darlington’s Thicker than Blood. If you'll send me your address asap, Nancylee, I'll pop it in the mail. Was planning to go to the post office this afternoon. Planning to, anyway. The rain we're getting hammered with in Northern California makes such errands...debatable.



Remember that song? It was one of the few songs I committed to memory on the piano. My poor family got so tired of it! Still...Robert Redford and Paul Newman were the George Clooney and Brad Pitt of my day.

Mother Nature is just warming up...each storm is gustier and rainy-er than the one before it. But we need every single drop out here. When you live in a drought state, rain goes hand-in-hand with thanking God.

Speaking of Mother Nature, isn't the situation in Haiti almost unfathomable? I heard on the news today that rescue workers are getting experienced with major relief issues because of all the practice they've been getting from tsunamis and hurricanes. They're working on transporting drinkable water--one of the biggest problems--in large "bladders" on relief ships. Wish they had a different name for them, but I'm happy there's one good thing coming out of these horrific natural events.

Robin Roberts did a segment recently on the faith of the Haitian people, and it was awesome. The video clip isn’t available yet, but as soon as it is, I’ll try to post it. It showed a group of Haitians gathered together and singing aloud, praising God, hands raised, singing about how their Father has never left them, shouting hallelujah. That’s probably a difficult thing when you haven’t had water in two days. When you don’t know where your family is. And when there’s no medical help in sight.

If you would like to help out these hurting people, consider World Vision, a reputable source for outreach. Let’s all keep the Haitians in our prayers, as well as all those who are traveling with aid and relief missions.

In lighter news...Revell's and Litfuse Publicity Group's blog tour for "The Choice" started yesterday!

Some exciting news about "The Choice"...for which I thank each and every reader: It's been a bestseller on CBD since October and is currently CBD's top pick for fiction.

The blog tour will be making 130 stops! It will be going on through February 13th, then we're going to wrap it up with a huge celebration on Facebook, Monday eve, February 15th. Lots of nifty prizes will be given out! (Click on the button on the top left portion of this blog for more info.)

So mark your calendar and plan to come!

"Thicker than Blood" Review and Giveaway!

TitleTrakk.com Blog Tours Presents:

Thicker than Blood
by C.J. Darlington
Published by Tyndale House

Winner of the
2008 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel Contest!

About the book...Christy Williams finally has her life on track. She’s putting her past behind her and working hard to build a career as an antiquarian book buyer. But things begin to unravel when a stolen Hemingway first edition is found in her possession, framing her for a crime she didn’t commit. With no one to turn to, she yearns for her estranged younger sister, May, whom she abandoned after their parents’ untimely deaths. Soon, Christy’s fleeing from her shattered dreams, her ex-boyfriend, and God. Could May’s Triple Cross Ranch be the safe haven she’s searching for? Will the sisters realize that each possesses what the other desperately needs before it’s too late?



My review...

Don’t you wonder how two people from one family—like the two sisters in C.J. Darlington’s story—could begin their lives at the same point and somehow takes turns that would lead them to such very different lives? Are we born who we are, or does life make us that way? The main characters in Thicker than Blood are opposites in every way, though both are heading to a crisis point.

What I liked…

C.J. Darlington addressed some gritty issues in this debut novel: the stubbornness of main character Christy’s addiction and the frustrating, self-destructive cycle of an abusive relationship. Darlington also created a contrast character in Christy’s sister, May. I especially enjoyed how C.J. wove in Scripture without sounding pious or simplistic. That’s not easy to do!

Book lovers will enjoy this behind-the-scenes look into the world of antique book collecting. Nice work, C.J. Can't wait for your next book!

Watch the book trailer:

About the Author:
C. J. began writing the story that would become Thicker than Blood (her first novel) when she was a fifteen-year-old homeschool student. She has been in the antiquarian bookselling business for over a decade, scouting for stores similar to the one described in the novel before cofounding her own online bookstore. Thicker than Blood was the winner of the 2008 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel.

C. J. co-founded the Christian entertainment Web site TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. She makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats. Visit her website www.cjdarlington.com for more info.

QUICK LINKS:

• The 1st chapter of Thicker than Blood
• The "Story Behind the Story" of Thicker than Blood
• More endorsements from Jenny B. Jones, James Scott Bell, Susan Meissner, and more!
• Our interview with C.J. at TitleTrakk.com
  
• Buy Thicker than Blood at Christianbook.com
• Buy Thicker than Blood at Amazon.com
• List of the other 85+ Thicker than Blood blog tour participants!

GIVEAWAY! I have a copy of Thicker than Blood for one lucky bleader! Leave a comment or send me an e-mail (suzanne at suzannewoodsfisher dot com) today or tomorrow to be included in the drawing.

Monster Cookies

Our family enjoys good homemade cookies. I was looking through one of my cookbooks recently and found the recipe for Monster Cookies that I haven't made in a while. I dare you to make a whole batch.

Monster Cookies
12 eggs
4 cup white sugar
4 cup brown sugar
2 cup softened butter
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 lb peanut butter
18 cup oatmeal
2 cup flour
8 tsp baking soda
1 lb M & M's
1 lb chocolate chips
Beat eggs; add sugars, vanilla, and butter. Mix and add peanut butter. Mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix very well. Shape into 2" balls. Flatten slightly and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

I had been given some of this bread starter by my friend Stacey a while ago...and at the time, I doubted if it really had originated with the Amish. One word to the wise...if something says "Amish"...it usually "ain't." The Amish don't advertise themselves...not for furniture, quilts, or food. Part of that humility thing!

But I did find this recipe in the Sugarcreek Budget. One thing for sure, it is a delicious dessert bread recipe and fun to share. For a while, anyway. :) Pretty soon, your friends will start to duck when they see you coming with a ziploc bag of dough in your hands!


Amish Friendship Bread Starter

1 cup flour
1 pkg. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup warm water

Mix ingredients and pour into one gallon Ziploc bag. Put in warm place (85 degrees) overnight. Follow instructions for bread.

Amish Friendship Bread



*Do not use any type of metal bowl
*Do not refrigerate
*If air gets into bag, let it out
*It is not unusual for the bag to rise, bubble and ferment

Day 1 -- Do nothing
Day 2, 3, 4, and 5 -- Mush the bag
Day 6 - add 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, then mush the bag
Day 7 and 8 -- Mush the bag
Day 9 - Mush the bag, then pour entire contents into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup milk and 1 1/2 cups sugar and stir well.
Measure out 4-1 cup starters into separate 1 gallon Ziploc bags. Keep a starter for yourself and give the other three away to friends along with a copy of the following recipe.

To the remaining batter left in the bowl add:

3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 2 cups flour, 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt 1 - 3.4 ounce pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix.
Mix additional 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust two greased loaf pans with half of this mixture. Pour patter evenly into loaf pans and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar mixture. Bake one hour at 325 degrees. Cool until the bread loosens from the pans evenly, about 10 minutes. Turn out on a serving dish. Best when eaten warm.

Source: Ina Hershberger, Greensburg, Kentucky, The Budget, 12/23/09

Market Street, San Francisco, 1905

My niece, Hilary, who lives in France, sent this clip to me. It's footage from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905, before the 1906 earthquake. The music from from Airs' Moon Safari album, titled "La Femme D'Argent."

The Pat Williams Show

Had a great radio interview this morning with Pat Williams, former coach of the Orlando Magic professional basketball team. The interview will air on Saturday eve; I'll try to get a link posted when it comes in.

One of the things that worried me about this interview was the basketball connection. My son is playing Varsity basketball and his team is having an incredible season so far. Remember, this is a team without a home gym (eternally under construction). No home court advantage. No Friday nights when the gym is packed.

And yet...they are ranked #16 in the state of California!

BUT! I digress. That was just the kind of digression I was worried would happen during the interview this morning...I would swerve off topic (Amish Peace) and on to high school basketball.

As I was preparing for the interview this morning, I placed all of my notes out on the kitchen counter and strongly encouraged my family to skeedaddle before the call came in.

On top of all my carefully laid out papers, my son placed the sports page of the newspaper...the very page that listed last night's team win. "WHAT were you thinking?!" I asked him as he flew out the door to head to school.

"Just in case you wanted to talk to Pat Williams about the scoreboard!" he tossed back.

Well...despite that kind of enticement...I stuck to the topic of Amish Peace with Pat. And he wants me back when Amish Proverbs releases in August!

In fact, that's what I should be working on right now...the galleys came in for Amish Proverbs and they are GORGEOUS. So I'm signing off.

Happy mid-week!

Facebook Famous Orzo Pasta Salad

Last evening, I updated my Facebook status with a comment about a recipe I had invented that evening that was DE-LISH. To my surprise, multiple FB friends asked for the recipe.

I'm not sure my creation is so unusual--in fact, now I'm worried you'll all post comments on my wall like, "THAT? THAT'S the recipe you got us all worked up over?"--but I had an idea of what I wanted to create and couldn't find a recipe for it on-line, so I decided to "wing it." And it worked! My wing worked!

Suzanne's Facebook Orzo Pasta Salad

1 box Orzo, cooked according to directions
1/2 red onion, diced
feta cheese, crumbled (I used 4 oz.)
pine nuts, lightly toasted
fresh spinach leaves, cut chiffonade style, added to the salad right before serving

Dressing: (this is what I thought was especially good and could probably be used for lots of other salads)

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 t sugar
3/4 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t crushed dried rosemary leaves (if fresh, use more and finely chop them so it doesn't feel as if you're swallowing a toothpick)

Mix dressing and add onions to soften while you're cooking orzo. (You could probably get fancy and carmelize the onions, too.) As soon as orzo is finished, drain and toss into dressing. (Absorbs more flavor while its warm.) Right before serving, add feta cheese, pine nuts, and spinach. Toss and serve!

If you try it, let me know what you think and if you jazzed it up in your own unique way. I'm thinking I could have added kalamatra olives, grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes...

Keep me updated!

Don't Show This to Your Son!

This is why mothers of boys have fragile mental health:



Thanks to Lindsey C. for passing this to me!

Kicking off the Weekend: Winners of the Giveaways!

The two winners of this week's giveaways are:

byfaith and cindyf

Ladies, if you could both send me your addresses, I'll pop a copy of The Choice (or Amish Peace...your pick) in the mail.

Loved the old-fashioned words and phrases that people sent my way! A lot of comments grandparents used to say...

that's the bee's knees
bamboozled
piffle doodle
pigeon-hole
oodles of poodles
caddycorner
that's a pie crust promise, easily made, easily broken
squee-honkey
bumfuzzled

These were so much fun! Seems as if the "rural life" of our grandparents provided a rich context for vocabulary. I'm not sure the "high tech life" is going to be quite as much fun to look back on.

So welcome to the weekend! My son is a varsity basketball player and the season just started this last week, when my son's team beat the local private Catholic school (which shall remain unnamed even though they hadn't lost 90 straight games and it was a sweet, sweet victory).

So I'm spending my weekend in a cold gym on a metal bleacher...but I wouldn't have it any other way. Hope your weekend is warm and relaxing!

Old Fashioned Words

It only seems fair that if we're going to retire some phrases, we should either substitute them with new ones by resurrecting some classics.

Here's my list of words that should be brought back into the modern vernacular:


kerfuffle
flibbertigibbet
scuttlebutt
babooshka
caddywompas
fritter
hodgepodge
hobnob
moxie
tomfoolery
lollygag

And phrases! They're the best...

"I'm going out to watch the submarine races." (Beware if your teenagers tells you that.)

And my favorite phrase of all: "Don't get your knickers in a twist."

Then there are nouns that are starting to disappear...

sneakers
record players
pin curls
ice box
house coat
bumpershoot
galoshes

Do you have any soon-to-be-old-fashioned words to add?

Since I'm going to the post office anyway (ugh! My most dreaded errand.), let's do one more giveaway this week. Another copy of The Choice to a lucky winner. Send in your best old-fashioned, most-missed word or phrase and I'll pick a winner for both the retired phrases and the soon-to-be-resurrected phrases tomorrow.

Leave a comment or send me an e-mail: suzanne at suzannewoodsfisher dot com

Happy Thursday!

O.M.G. and other phrases that need to be retired...

Yesterday's post brought a flood of emails and comments! I got the biggest kick out of what jargon my bleaders are ready to retire. I think you're all spot-on, too.

O.M.G.
24/7
You go, girl
A-maaaz-ing
Actually...
My bad
Yadda, yadda, yadda
Frickin'
Gray (or whatever) is the new black
Whatever


And so many others! Keep 'em coming! We're going to clean up the modern vernacular, one phrase at a time.

I found out yesterday that The Choice went into its second printing before it released on January 1st, and the publisher is keeping a "watchful eye for another reprint."

The Choice is off to a great start! I'm getting a lot of reader e-mails, which just makes my day...and then some! Fascinating to see what pops out for a reader. Each one is so different--but that's the fun of reading. It's a very subjective experience.

However, there is a common thread among readers which delights me: The Choice is filled with surprising twists and turns and readers say they can't put it down.

Oh...and they're eager for Book #2!

(Longevity is a very good thing for an author. A very, very good thing.)

There's a terrific review of The Choice on Mean Mama's Book Reviews. I'm not at all sure she's a Mean Mama...seems like a lovely, wise, intelligent and discerning person to me!

Banned Words of 2010

A new year means a chance to leave some of the tired words and phrases of 2009 in the past. At least that's the theory of the wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University, who released their 35th annual (deep breath) List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

This year's 15 offenders make up a tech-heavy list. Tweet (and any variation thereof) is included, as is the verb form of friend (as in friending or unfriending someone). App — as a shortened word for application — is another offender. And at the end of a rough financial year, much of the jargon of economic pain has run its course: In these economic times, toxic assets and too big to fail have no place in 2010.

Some surprising omissions? None of 2009's most overused health care buzzwords were included (public option, anyone?). But President Obama makes the list, though only as a prefix — Obamanomics, Obamanation, etc. — as do his czars. Glenn Beck could need to come up with a whole new vocabulary in 2010.

The small Michigan university receives thousands of nominations over the course of the year before selecting the most flagrant offenders. Does the list hold any actual power? Some of the banned words from 2008 still crept into conversation last year: bailout, Wall Street/Main Street and carbon footprint continue to be abused. Thankfully, First Dude, maverick and game changer were relegated to the sidelines.


The complete 2010 list:

1. Shovel-ready
2. Transparent/Transparency
3. Czar
4. Tweet
5. App
6. Sexting
7. Friend as a verb
8. Teachable Moment
9. In These Economic Times ...
10. Stimulus
11. Toxic Assets
12. Too Big to Fail
13. Bromance
14. Chillaxin'
15. Obama as a prefix

Source: Time magazine

So what cliches are you ready to axe? I would never miss these:

"At the end of the day..."
"There you go."
"Dude."
"Super" as in "I'm super-excited. That's super-cool."

Send in the cliche you would like to be banned by Friday afternoon and I'll reward the best one with a hot-off-the-press copy of The Choice! Leave a comment here or e-mail mail me: suzanne at suzannewoodsfisher dot com

Looking forward to your overused jargon!

A Surfing Dog

Now this is the way to start the New Year...with a positive, inspirational message.



Thanks to Judy for sending me this awesome youtube clip.