Petrichor – n. the pleasant smell after a rain fall.
Reference
“Petrichor.” (2019). Oxford Dictionary. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/petrichor on a rainy May 2, 2019.
The video of rain is great if you like falling to sleep to the sound of rain. It goes for hours.
Cat’s paw: noun. A person who is used by another to carry out an unpleasant or dangerous task.
simulacrum: noun, plural sim·u·la·cra [sim-yuh–ley-kruh] /ˌsɪm yəˈleɪ krə/.
I ran across while reading Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer. I’m not sure the main character is that erudite that he’d actually know and use this highfalutin’ word.
Reference
“simulacrum.” (n.d.) Dictionary.com, Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/simulacrum on March 28, 2019.
Dunning-Kruger Effect – a psychological term referring to the instance of people of low ability having the cognitive bias of believing they are more intelligent than others because they can’t understand their own limits and other’s strengths.
I’ve seen this in life, but didn’t know there was a term for it.
Shakespeare described it as follows:
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”
— As You Like It
bardolatry (n) – excessive admiration of William Shakespeare.
Yes, this is a real word!
Dendrochronologist – a scientist who studies the science of tree rings.
I heard this work on Coffee with Scott Adams.
Ghosting (n.) the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.
Perhaps you’ve learned that people are ending personal relationships by just disappearing, but I was surprised by a BBC article on a new trend of people leaving their job without communicating to their employer. I understand it can be tough to talk with a overbearing boss, but it’s something a mature person recognizes it’s necessary and actually good for him or her to do as it builds courage.
Again, Japan is featured, but I understand that because until now, in Japan you stayed in a job for life so they aren’t used to having to quit and as a vertical society bosses do have a power that they don’t in the West.
I am more surprised by ghosting in the West. Here’s a passage from the article:
Chris Yoko, who runs a web design company in the US state of Virginia, had a bizarre experience with a contractor who was meant to be completing a digital project from home.
“This guy had just started with us – he seemed like a good fit, seemed like a genuinely good guy. We get him started with a pretty simple project by our standards. He agreed, [but] Thursday comes along – there’s nothing there.”
Multiple emails and phone messages got no response. The man missed another meeting on the project. In the end, amid total silence from the contractor, the work was given to someone else.
A short while later, a man purporting to be a friend of the contractor got in touch via email. He said the man had died in a car accident and requested some tax files that the family needed. But something felt off, so Yoko checked the contractor’s Twitter account.
On social media, it appeared the contractor was very much alive. In fact, he’d just responded to a tweet from a cousin about attending a family gathering.
“He replied to this person with a picture of himself with a handle of whiskey in his hand saying: ‘Not only am I coming but I’m bringing this’,” says Yoko. “I screenshotted that and forwarded it to the guy and said: ‘Hey some good news, looks like he’s just fine!’.”
What do you think of ghosting?
