OK, all you English/speech teacher types, you know who you are, whine zone ahead. Doesn’t matter if you’re retired or working I’m sure you’ve noticed the newest trend in the spoken word.
A number of years back it was up-talking that felt like nails on a chalkboard? Every sentence transformed into a question?
Then "like" came back into vogue. Like I was going to my teacher,"Like my dog ate my homework?"
Now it seems the word "basically" is the mot du jour. I listened to a radio interview last night on an intelligent topic. He was basically a biologist, basically talking about speech recognition in mammals. Every sentence started with the word basically.
Ok, I’m finished. Forgive me, like it’s been basically a tough week at work? So now I’ll talk about another term I recently learned via the airwaves: simple elation. Simple elation as in the feeling you get from simple pleasures. For me it’s boxes. I know I’ve referred to this before, recollecting my first job at age15, as a gift wrapper at a suburban Lord and Taylor store. I loved the fact that I was paid to work with well crafted, pretty boxes. Many years later I’m still enamoured with boxes:
That’s my Neiman Marcus box, which once held Scottie salt and pepper shakers, and now contains my blocking pins.
Those are empty containers that live in my knitting area. They don’t hold anything yet, but I’m not throwing them out.
Canadian readers might recognize the Roger’s Chocolate box. You eat the chocolate and I get the box. I bet it would be just right for six skeins of Koigu.
Not a drinker of hard liquor (except Danish Akvavit twice per year, but according to my Danish relatives that doesn’t count as liquor), I have no idea where the Johnnie box came from. Jack, however, was the perfect duty free purchase at the Seattle airport last week. It came with a bottle for Chuck, a lanyard for Bryant and a box for me. A box tall enough for knitting needles.
As I write this I realize, that somewhere in my basement, is stashed a blue box from Tiffany’s. It held a gift from over 30 years ago, from the Donna of my Florida trip. The box lasted way longer than the relationship for which the gift was intended to celebrate. Maybe that’s why I like boxes. They are dependable and useful.
My high school math teacher, Miss Lahrman, would say "Simple minds, simple pleasures." Fine with me.
Hope your Easter weekend is filled with simple elation.
Life's a Stitch 
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