Let’s Have A Word

Sticks and stones may break my bones but the old rhyme as it carries on is wrong because words can indeed hurt – and hurt badly.  Sometimes it’s on purpose and sometimes it’s accidental, just thoughtless (as in not thinking) or ignorant (as in not knowing).  So, hooray for Susie Dent’s ceaseless quest to find words that will lift our mood and cheer us up.  The wordsmith par excellence is determined to accentuate the positive whenever she can.  It’s her statement at the top of this piece and I’m happy to help spread the words that will make us smile.  (You’ll be pleased to know that “microplastics”, of which a teensy-weensy bit more later, won’t be making the list.)

There are a hundred words in the book, including “gruntled” (which is indeed the opposite of disgruntled);”serendipity”; “ebullient”;   “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, one of the longest words ever, so please don’t ask me to spell it again…Confession:  the computer took over and, for once, got it right!  And quite a few that were new to me, so Bob Cantin (our fishing reader from Texas who’s always keen to add to his already extensive vocabulary) here are a couple for you:-

“Quiddle”.  This is one for me really, especially on a blog night.  It means “to make yourself busy with little things as a way of avoiding the important ones.  There are many words in the dictionary and thesaurus that express the same idea of pottering about or wasting time.  Some from the past include ‘picking a salad’, ‘puddling’, ‘dawdling’, ‘slummocking’ and ‘moodling’.”

And here’s a lovely word, from the Portuguese:  Nefelibata.  It means “being so caught up in your thoughts that your head is lost in the sky….. someone who loves to live in their imagination.  Its literal meaning is ‘one who walks in the clouds’.”

Thanks so much Susie for a lovely, uplifting book with delightful pics by Harriet Hobday.

This week I’m looking forward to some pictures from down under, where the DP World Tour is starting its new season in Brisbane with the BMW Australian PGA Championship.  The venue is Royal Queensland and the defending champion is Elvis Smylie, a lefty who’s ready to rock and roll again on home turf.  It’ll be great to see players in shirt sleeves (fingers crossed there aren’t too many downpours) on a proper golf course.  Mike Clayton, who knows what he’s doing, made some changes a few years ago and there’ll be a few more apparently before the Olympics in 2032.

Smylie won by two shots from Cameron Smith, Open champion at St Andrews in 2022, now a LIV man whose forays in to proper golf at the highest level have been uninspiring in the years since he joined the self-proclaimed game changers.

You’ll have gathered by my use of the word “proper” twice in quick succession that I’m a lot of a dinosaur when it comes to golf, not enamoured of the way things are going.  Ah well, down at my lowly level, the game remains much the same, though admittedly enhanced by advances in technology; I’m not one of those good enough to be tackling the course with a set of hickories…So some change is good.

Before I forget and we move on from Elvis and co, I met a Presley the other day.  She’s three weeks old and I confess I didn’t check the spelling.  Hope she takes to golf and gets a game with Elvis one day.

Now, here’s a bit of a conundrum.  We members of the AGW (Association of Golf Writers for any newcomers or devout non-golfers) have to decide on our winner of the Golf Writers Trophy (no apostrophe in the handbook).  It’s hard to see past Rory for the second successive year – he’s already won it numerous times as an individual – but Lottie Woad, Tommy Fleetwood, Luke Donald and Aaron Rai also had great years.  Then, belated lightbulb moment, I read the rules.

No 2 reads:  “The Trophy shall be awarded each year to the team, person or persons, resident or born in Europe [that’s been expanded this year to include international golfers, to reflect our worldwide membership], who, in the opinion of a majority of the members, have made the most outstanding contribution to golf during the preceding 12 months.”

Well, of course, that means I’ll be voting for Europe’s Ryder Cup team who beat the USA in the bearpit that was Bethpage Black.  It takes in Rory, Tommy, Luke, the captain and the rest of the boys in the band.  Agonising over.

Sometimes it does pay to read the instructions!

Followers of the so-called beautiful game won’t be surprised to see that football gets short shrift this week.  Spurs are on a losing run, with the latest defeats being a 4-1 hammering away to Arsenal, our north London rivals and a crazy 5-3 loss to PSG (Paris St Germain) in Paris.  There’s no denying they’re both better than us at the moment but we were woeful at the Emirates and though better at the Parc des Princes, gave away two of the sloppiest goals imaginable, classic Totspurs.

Enough said, it’s all a bit depressing.  But not nearly as depressing as talking about microplastics, which seem to be inexorably taking over the world – and our innards.  Think I’ll keep that chat for another day!

Happy thanksgiving to our American readers.  Hope it went well.

And here’s a bit of fun to finish, to remind everybody that the Solheim Cup will be in Holland next year, at Bernardus Golf in Den Bosch, or ‘s-Hertogenbosch, founded in 1185.  Fans will be able to cycle from the railway station to the course, so a few weeks ago the captains got on their bikes.

All being well, Europe will be in better shape come next September.