Outskirts
When I wrote The Newcomer’s Dictionary, I was interested in selecting words that described the newcomer and the newcomer experience from the English language, literature and history. An assortment of words immediately came to mind: gypsy, nomad, immigrant, outsider, etc., and from this initial list, I began to add other words that were likely candidates. […]
Christmas Tacky
For over the last ten years, I have written an annual Christmas letter to friends and family. In the past, I have often felt like holiday letters were intended to show how glamorous the life of the sender was in comparison to the rest of us. We might learn that a friend had traipsed around […]
Be seen and not heard
Growing up, our father warned us ‘Children should be seen and not heard.’ It was his parental way of controlling or at least stifling our behaviour. If my sister and I were expected to be seen but never heard—we were being trained to be passive observers without a voice or opinion. This saying has an emphatic […]