Introducing Word of the Week

I got all keen at the start of the year and bought a beautiful hardback Australian Oxford Dictionary. And rather than just use it to support my desk lamp, I've decided to give it a work out.

The inaugural Word of the Week is shoo-in.

I've seen it spelled 'shoe-in' before, and vaguely thought it might have something to do with shoe horns (which make it easier to get your foot in the shoe, hence the sense of ease signified by the term. This is how my mind works). So when I saw it printed in this morning's paper as 'shoo-in' I decided to do some investigating.

I didn't have to look far. According to my lovely hardback, shoo-in means 'something easy or certain to succeed,' and comes from an earlier use of the term for the winner of a fixed horse race.

As you can see, nothing to do with shoes at all, but I suspect the reason some people spell it as 'shoe' is that shoe is actually a word, while 'shoo' doesn't look like one (though it is in my dictionary: 'an exclamation used to frighten away birds, children, etc.').

Sometimes we just have to accept that the English language can look silly at times.

Crochet Cate

Cate Blanchett in granny squares! Wouldn't be caught dead in it myself, but I spose it's her prerogative as a super style movie star icon to wear what she likes and get away with it (I think).

www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/film/blanchett-opens-acmi-screen-exhibition/2009/09/17/1252780397847.html

Hmm, had a blanket very like it that my grandma crocheted for me when I was a kid. Apparently this dress was made by a 'label' though.

PS: it's just one of life's little coincidences that this is my second post in a row about a Cate with a 'C'.

Cate Kennedy 'The World Beneath'

Book Launch

This was the most rockin' book launch I've been to in a while. Held in the Union Bar of the Trades Hall, with performances by Shane Howard, the Wikimen and Dan Warner, it was a little different to the usual corner-of-the-bookstore-move-up-please affair.

I was in the company of a bunch of short story writers, there to rub shoulders with the Queen, who has finally turned to the novel. From what Cate said, it sounds like writing a novel isn't necessarily harder than short story, but perhaps provokes greater fits of procrastination.

I'm yet to read the book, The World Beneath, but I bought a copy, which came with a complementary chocolate brownie and a third of a bottle of wine. Bargain.

Be My Vest

What I've been doing while I should have been writing...

A nice easy pattern - make two rectangles and sew them together, except where you want your arms, neck or body to stick out. Revers sc around armholes and bottom (I admit I had to learn this stitch off Youtube).

And here's an experiment that turned out pretty well: