“We’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note … a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Loving words as I do I became mesmerized by the words floating by on a New York Times page where you “vote” the word you feel about today’s presidential election. The larger the words, the more frequently they have been chosen. Of course, the red ones are for McCain and the blue for Obama. So how are people feeling? McCain’s top words are anxious and scared. There are also a lot of “d” words including disappointed, discouraged, depressed and even disgusted.

Obama shares anxious as a top word with other frequently-chosen words being nervous and hopeful along with exhausted and excited. We’re having a fancy cracked crab dinner and watching the returns. The kids will watch the first part – we might be seeing history tonight and I don’t want them to miss it…

“Lost time is never found.”

Are all your clocks set to the “right” time? The wise Benjamin Franklin is credited with this sentence. With daylight savings ending on November 2nd , I feel we have been gifted one more glorious weekend hour. We’ll spend it with a cozy Sunday supper of roasted chicken criss-crossed with bacon strips topped with a wine, thyme, shallot sauce. Good thing my husband recently found his inner chef!

Ne mange pas trop de bonbons!

It sounds so much nicer in French than the “no more candy” we have said a dozen times to our kids today! Tonight the Candy Fairy is taking away much of it…. sneaky! Or should I say sournois!

“With the economy likely to be weak for several quarters, and with some risk of a protracted slowdown, consideration of a fiscal package by Congress at this juncture seems appropriate,” Ben S. Bernanke Federal Reserve Chairman.

I guess if I was speaking to the House Budget Committee, I would use formal speak too. Here Bernanke correctly uses a word that must be on the list of most misused words – juncture. It is defined as, “a point of time ; especially one made critical by a concurrence of circumstances.” I’ve heard people say “junction” instead which means joining rather than having anything to do with time. At least this misuse is not quite as jarring as hearing people say “it’s a mute point.”

Idioms in our own language are silly enough. But here’s how the French would say, “When pigs fly!”

“Quand les poules auront des dents!” Or literally, “When hens have teeth!”

The German version is identical to ours, “Wenn Schweine fliegen können!” But whatever language you use, it refers to an event that you think will never happen. However in art, anything IS possible and this saying has inspired some whimsical art including this flying pig at the Cincinnati Airport.

If you have a beginning reader in your life, you know the joy that new skill brings. There are endless sites to help expand kids’ reading talents. Here are a few fun ones to share with your kids.

You’ll find an interactive alphabet book at Gigglepotz which helps with letter recognition. Starfall is one of my all-time favorites where my kids and I have played word games and enjoyed the moving pictures; it’s a free site developed by a man who struggled reading as a kid. The Screen Actors Guide Foundation has a site where they read stories; there are also accompanying activities. Happy reading!

“The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest.”

An early American writer described Indian Summer in 1817 this way. It is usually described as a period of warm weather in the fall after the first frost. That’s certainly what we’re experiencing here in Central Oregon. Recently, we covered the tomatoes a few nights to save them from frost and now we’re enjoying pleasant 80 degree days. Soon, nature will rest…

Il ne faut jamais dire “fontaine, je ne boirai pas de ton eau.”

In America, we’ve heard the saying “never say never” so I had to laugh when my French language calendar showed how the French would say it. This sentence literally means, “You must never say ‘fountain, I won’t drink your water’.” Of course it’s not any sillier than some of our sayings such as “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” “spill the beans,” or “tongue-in-cheek.” We’ve used idioms without thinking about them until we had kids – now we see how silly their literal meanings can be. Au revoir!

“The Vice President is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice.”

Obviously Senator Barbara Boxer is concerned with McCain’s choice as Vice President. Governor Sarah Palin, who has held that office less than two years, was plucked from obscurity because McCain thinks she will help him get elected to the White House — not because he thinks she will be a good president if the 72-year old has a heart attack and dies. He actually cares more about getting himself into the Oval Office than how America would fare should the inexperienced Palin become president.

Palin introduced herself with, “I was just your average hockey mom in Alaska.” Let’s hope, should McCain get elected, that he is a very healthy man.