Do you keep a diary? I do. For me, it’s a kind of written memory, helping me keep track of my life. E.B. White once said a person who no longer keeps a diary has lost interest in life. I don’t know if I’d take it to that extreme, but I know how he felt.
There seems to be renewed interest in keeping a diary, although it’s fashionable to refer to it as “journaling.” I suppose the word “diary” carries connotations of a teenaged girl writing about puppy love in green ink, but I don’t think that justifies trying to bang a square peg of a noun like “journal” into a round hole meant for a verb. My friend Joan, a dedicated diarist, thinks if people are going to refer to writing in a diary as “journaling,” they may as well refer to cooking and eating as “fooding.”
Continue reading
Only 25 Cents More
It’s not unusual for me to have old ideas rolling around in my head, and this week I’ve been thinking about usury. Strictly defined, usury is the practice of charging exorbitant interest on loans. At various points in history, the act has been considered sinful, criminal or merely poor taste.
My informal polling indicates few people are familiar with the term anymore, but I think we’re all familiar with the practice, if not in the strict sense of moneylending, then in the practice of assigning prices which far exceed the value of goods or services rendered.
Continue reading »