Saturday, January 16, 2010

Why 'Kaleidoscript'?

I was thinking of a name for this blog and wondering what direction to take. I have so many interests. (Nope, not going to list them here because, like an actor at an awards ceremony, I'm sure to leave something out. Keep reading this blog and they will all come out eventually!) I did not want to lock myself into a category which might make posts on other topics seem off topic. Sure, you're supposed to keep somewhat focused so that you can attract a community of interested readers, but the trouble is that there are so many subjects which I would like to write something about that I decided to just begin and see where it would lead. I do have certain favorite topics--Bible, genealogy, film, family--which will probably form a skeleton from which I can hang other posts, but so many things interest me that I hope there will always be something different to discover and write. (It's called living.) One thing I can say is that the posts will be family-friendly -- no profanity or other things which would distract from the 'beautiful words' I want to write. (yeesh, ...ack, ack, ack) Anyway, I was thinking it was a kaleidoscope of topics which I wanted to write about, so I looked up 'kaleidoscope' in the dictionary to see if the word had any interesting facts or pictures in its entry. (Yes, also to be sure that the word was spelled e,i as opposed to i,e -- so much for the 'i before e, except after c' rule in grammar.) Now, my Greek is about twenty years rusty, but the dictionary gave the etymology of the word and lo and behold, it is made up of several parts: Greek 'kalos' (beautiful) and 'eidos' (form) plus 'scope' from 'scopein' (look at). I just substituted 'script' for 'scope' at the end of the word (from the Latin 'scribere' (to write) since I wanted to write. Since Scripture was a related word and a definite topic, I think it fell together rather nicely: Kaleidoscript. I may have mangled the Greek, but at least this will give you an idea of the direction towards which I am aiming. (Let us now prepare the defenses for the attack of the grammar police.)

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