New Thing #213: Peripatetic

I came across one of those words last week that I see a lot but of which I never stop to get a full understanding. But this time I did.

It's 'peripatetic' - and as you can see at left, courtesy of dictionary.com's iPhone app, it means "walking or traveling about; itinerant."

Perhaps you knew that.

Perhaps I should have figured that out from the many contexts in which I've read it.

Maybe I have before...but it's never stuck.

I hope it will now.

I can't remember all of the instances where I've come across 'peripatetic' recently, but I know I've seen it a number of times.

This time it was in last week's Sports Illustrated, in the 'Scorecard' column - an article about Keith Olbermann coming back to ESPN.

It's a good example of how I've seen the word used - it always seems to be used in the sense of a "peripatetic journey". But - and I may be wrong here - I think I am going to take issue with its use.

It seems like a really unnecessary word.

Peripatetic: "Walking or traveling about; itinerant."

Itinerant: "traveling from place to place" or, especially in this case, "working in one place for a comparatively short time and then moving on to work in another place, usually as a physical or outdoor laborer."

So basically, to me, if you're describing Olbermann's work career, it's an "itinerant journey"...I don't know that you have to use "peripatetic."

Further, it's a journey - I don't know that you need an adjective that describes the journey - if you're listing the places he's worked afterwards anyway, we get the idea he has bounced from place to place...no need for an obscure word like 'peripatetic' there.

Seems unnecessary. Or redundant. Just my opinion.

But if I happen to come across it in my reading - or in a crossword puzzle in my (regular, non-peripatetic) journeys....I'll be ready.

New Thing #152: A Spelling Bee Winner From Queens

Thursday night my Twitter lit up with Queens pride. The Mets had beaten the Yankees for the fourth game in a row, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner was a boy from Queens.

I didn't know which news to celebrate first.

The former is a big deal to me - anytime the Mets get the better of the Yankees it's a big deal for us Mets fans.

The latter - well, it's a little less universal, but I had cause to celebrate:

I once knew a boy from Queens who was good at spelling....

My wife LOVES to poke fun at me for this.

As a matter of fact, she did so in a very public way 7 (!) years ago now, when she took over my sports blog for a few days while I was on a school camping trip. (It's entertaining stuff - after you click the link above you can read the May 30 and 31st entries here.)

I was a 4-time spelling bee winner at my elementary and junior high schools - I won in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Winning my school spelling bee advanced me to the District Spelling Bee - District 30, for those of you scoring at home. Each year, though, that was the end of my journey - I don't even know if there was a regional bee after that, or straight to the state spelling bee.

To be honest, I never really got close to finding out.

One year I was knocked out on 'whimsical' - I think I didn't put in the 'h'. Another year - and if you read the link to my wife's writing, you know this - it was 'terrarium'. I tell my students every year that they're lucky to be exposed to a bit of Latin and Greek as they study languages, because had I even thought to ask about language of origin on 'terrarium' I still wouldn't have realized when I was a kid the Latin 'terra' root rather than thinking it was spelled like 'pterodactyl' (which I think is a Greek root).

It's made worse when I remember shortly after being eliminated seeing one of the next kids get to spell 'apron'.

One of the best moments of my childhood was spelling 'facsimile' correctly to win the PS2 Spelling Bee. My teacher was in awe - she didn't think I even knew the word. I did, because a worksheet we had done that week had the word featured on it. It was quite a coincidence.

Anyway -  I tell you this because the winner of the National Spelling Bee this year followed a similar path as yours truly.

True, he went to Middle School 74 in Bayside rather than PS2 or JHS 141 in Jackson Heights. And yes, he's Indian-American, just like the past 5 winners of the National Spelling Bee. And you're right, he won the earlier rounds whereas I did not.

But we were both Daily News competitors (the New York Daily News sponsors the New York bees, and then sponsors the New York winner in the national competition). And I feel like he completed the journey I never could.

Congratulations to Arvind Mahankali for winning the Bee. He's taking some heat for not celebrating after he won. I don't blame him - I don't know what I would have done if I won at that age. Which I didn't.

Which leads to another important difference between me and Arvind. He's 'retiring' from spelling now. What's he doing next? Studying physics all day. I just never had that kind of academic discipline.

But I sure could spell 'discipline'.

Here's a look at his winning word:

New Thing #116: Succumbing To The Word 'Playdate'

For so many years I hated the word 'playdate'. I resisted it.

I thought it sounded silly.

Maybe even elitist.

I swore I would never refer to something one of my children did with a friend as a 'playdate'.

Well...today my daughter had a playdate.

It wasn't her first.

But it's the first time I haven't called it "going over a friend's house." Or "getting together with a friend."

See...it's not like when I was growing up.

I used to be able to go down the street and hang out with my friends. I used to go home with a friend, or have a friend come home with me, or walk around the neighborhood together...it wasn't a playdate. We were just playing together, or later in life, hanging out.

The way we've set up my daughter going to school, she doesn't live down the street from classmates. If she's getting together with someone after school, it has to be scheduled. It requires a car ride to someone's house. It requires more than your average coordination.

Like a date. A play date.

New Thing #99: What's A Stevedore Again?

As you can tell by looking at the picture below, the top left (northwest, in crossword-speak) corner of my New York Times Sunday crossword is kind of a mess. I'm still not convinced the words I have in there are 100% correct.

One of the keys to that corner was 23-across: "Stevedore, at times."

And here's a common problem of mine when it comes to crosswords: sometimes, with the obscure words that pop up in the puzzles every so often, I forget what they mean shortly after completing the puzzle.

So today's New Thing - committing the word 'stevedore' to memory.

If you look at the picture of my attempt at the northwest corner, I have the structure of the correct answer for 23-across: L - - D - R. If I was guessing, which I didn't on this particular puzzle (and since I've now looked up an answer I've officially waved the white flag on this week's crossword. It's one of my quirks - no external help or you forfeit the crossword.), I would have guessed "Leader". But I would have guessed wrong.

Perhaps you knew this: Stevedore is a term for the loading or unloading of a ship. (Or the noun: the individual or firm responsible for same.) So, obviously, we're looking for "Loader" at 23-across.

This is one of those learning style things - I'm hoping that by writing about stevedore, I'll never again forget what it means...on the crossword-specific occasions I may ever come across the word again.

It worked when I wrote about the Scottish word "Tartle". (Which has yet to come into play as anything useful worth knowing.) And I'm sure this won't be the last new word I address with more than 260 New Things left to write about.

Maybe the next time it'll be a word that I can actually use in conversation.

New Thing #9: The Scottish Word 'Tartle'

One of my favorite times of the week is Sunday late morning/early afternoon, when I sit down to do my crossword. Crosswords, actually.

I love doing the New York Times one, so I save that for last, and I start with the Boston Globe crossword.

But I hate when the puzzle's theme is a quote.

I feel like, if I don't know what the quote is, I have no shot at 4 or 5 of the long "across" answers. And then I'm relying heavily on getting many of the "downs", and that just doesn't go well with my crossword strategy.

Anyway, this past Sunday's Globe crossword was similar to the quote ones, though it wasn't a quote - it involved 5 across lines leading up to the big clue: "The Scottish Word 'Tartle'":

And this was the rare instance when I was able to figure out the definition (i.e. the "quote") and solve most of the puzzle, rather than giving up halfway through.

Turns out, the definition of 'tartle' is "to hesitate while you are introducing someone because you have forgotten their name."

I was not only pleased that I figured out the puzzle, but also so intrigued by this word that I looked it up, and indeed it was true. I just think "Pardon my tartle" is such a charming expression.

So this was a new crossword experience for me.

Consider yourself warned, though - there's an Irish definition of the same word from the north of Ireland that carries a significantly different meaning.