{"id":2928,"date":"2020-05-13T15:04:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T20:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=2928"},"modified":"2022-04-24T17:26:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T22:26:28","slug":"lists-words-to-live-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/lists-words-to-live-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Lists: Words to Live By"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0 Think Before You Stink<\/strong><\/p>\n

—- 6th grade teacher<\/p>\n

The devastating consequences of this grade school adage only became apparent in my professional life.\u00a0 I was working against a deadline for an article on PET scans, a new and controversial medical technology at the time.\u00a0 I wanted to get reaction comments from the PET Society of America, in fact I felt that I was doing them a tremendous favor in giving them this opportunity to be quoted in the American Medical Association newspaper.\u00a0 My increasingly strident calls to the Society went unanswered.\u00a0 Finally a woman called, who said she was calling on behalf of her husband, the executive director of the Society.\u00a0 I lit into her, saying that the deadline had passed and that the Society had lost its golden opportunity.\u00a0 Silence followed my tirade, during which I presumed the woman was strategizing on how to beg for forgiveness.\u00a0 She apologized that her husband had not responded promptly.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He had just died in a car crash.<\/p>\n

Several months later I met a stone craftsman at a spring art fair and commissioned him to engrave a table with a map of the Great Lakes.\u00a0 It was a Christmas gift for my parents, so I told him there was no rush\u00a0 I started calling him in the fall with gentle reminders, but he kept putting me off.\u00a0 Finally he told me I could pick it up on December 24th.\u00a0 My mind stewed and frothed as I fought my way through the punitive holiday traffic.\u00a0 I burst into his studio, ready to be at least crabby, if not pissy.\u00a0 However, chastened by my recent experience, I held off and was nothing but cheerful sunshine and light.\u00a0 He apologized for the delay, explaining that he\u2019d been working on a headstone for his mother.\u00a0 His young nephew was unaware that his grandmother had a severe peanut allergy and inadvertently gave her a lethal cookie.\u00a0 She died in front of the family.<\/p>\n

Now I try to remember how little time it takes to be thoughtful and kind.\u00a0 It takes even less time to be careless and cruel.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 It is better to be stupid than look stupid<\/strong><\/p>\n

—– First Boss<\/p>\n

I was occasionally asked to be a spokesperson for the American Medical Association.\u00a0 My expertise was very thin, related to the niche field of technology assessment, but the audience assumed I was fair game for anything related to the AMA, ranging from tort reform to physician reimbursement.\u00a0 Eager to please, I always tried to answer questions, even if I didn\u2019t know what I was talking about.<\/p>\n

I got what my boss was saying \u2013 understand when you\u2019re out of your depth and then shut up.\u00a0 However, it does insight to recognize this critical juncture.\u00a0 I rephrased his advice to \u201cBe smart enough not to look stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also realized that looking smart requires timing.\u00a0 Residency in medical school was a competitive environment with students strutting their stuff by citing detailed data from recently published studies.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t compete with that.\u00a0 I learned to say nothing, let them spout off, and then stepped forward at the end with a concluding or summary statement, leveraging what they said to my advantage.\u00a0 Worked like a charm.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of this strategy with my recent spate of bridge playing.\u00a0 When you play a no-trump hand the best strategy is to lay in the weeds, let the others flash their face cards, and then come on strong at the end.\u00a0 With the ace and king out of the way, my lesser cards emerge as winners.\u00a0 With a flourish, I can make my contract with the lowly two of clubs. \u00a0Impressive and satisfying.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Sweaty Spaghetti<\/strong><\/p>\n

—-Collection of Fan Brown\u2019s Hinky Pinkies<\/p>\n

At sleep-away summer camp, my mother sent me her word game poems called \u201cHinky Pinkies,\u201d consisting of two rhyming words with a definition.\u00a0\u00a0 The number of syllables in each word mirrored the number of syllables in hink and pink.\u00a0 For example, a \u201chink pink\u201d for \u201ccasual 5K\u201d could be a \u201cfun run,\u201d or a hinky pinky for \u201cimproved cardigan\u201d would be a \u201cbetter sweater.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wrote, \u201cWhat is a hinky pinkety for perspiring noodles?\u201d<\/p>\n

She loved her unexpected and creative rhymes, matched only by her definition.\u00a0 My mother introduced me to the joy of word play and even more granular, the joy of letters.\u00a0 Like her, I always have a rhyming dictionary at hand.\u00a0 From hinky pinkies came a love of crosswords and other word games like Boggle and anagrams.<\/p>\n

When I go on vacation, I always bring a bag of letter tiles.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 \u201cDiarrhea is a bowel movement that assumes the shape of its container.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

— Diarrhea, Disease-a-Month<\/p>\n

In my second year of medical school, I subscribed to a little periodical called \u201cDisease-a-Month,\u201d basically a Cliff Notes for the aspiring doctor.\u00a0 Each month the bright yellow pamphlet would provide a summary of the most salient facts about a particular ailment: diabetes, asthma, hypertension, etc.\u00a0 I was pleased to delve into the nitty gritty of the humble and humiliating \u201cDiarrhea.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was hooked by the introductory chapter that discussed the challenges of creating a universally accepted definition.\u00a0 Now many probably think that diarrhea is similar to pornography – while it might be difficult to define, you certainly know it when you see it.\u00a0 But nothing says \u201cscience\u201d more than a conference of bigwigs for the express purpose of reaching a consensus definition.<\/p>\n

Here is their offering:<\/p>\n

\u201cDiarrhea is a bowel movement that assumes the shape of its container.\u201d<\/p>\n

I delighted in the simple elegance of this definition.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if the container is a square, rhombus, or a curlicue, if the bowel movement fills it, it has to be diarrhea.\u00a0 Oddly enough, I endorse this definition based on a summer laboratory job that involved sorting through stool samples to identify parasites.\u00a0 Specimens were delivered in a wide variety of containers – whatever the patient had handy at home – the definition worked perfectly.\u00a0 I got mayonnaise jars, sardine tins and a plastic bag.<\/p>\n

Simple, concise, unexpected.\u00a0 If someone ever asks me the definition of clever, I can think of no better example than the defining essence of diarrhea.<\/p>\n

I also appreciated that the concept need not be limited to diarrhea.\u00a0 We are all limited by the shape of our containers.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 \u201cThe minor irregularities of this garment are part of its hand-made charm.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

— Tag on sweater, hand knit in Peru<\/p>\n

I envision the owner of an artisan shop sorting though the shipment of sweaters from Peru.\u00a0 As she holds up a sweater, she notices a few dangling bits of yarn, one sleeve suspiciously longer than the other and a lopsided neck.\u00a0 Time to manage expectations.\u00a0 She is grateful that the wool is stretchy so that the askew sleeves and neck can be yanked into symmetry. Let\u2019s turn a negative into a positive, she thinks.\u00a0 Asymmetry is not a flaw, it is an irregularity and a minor one at that.\u00a0 Even better an irregularity is a sign of authenticity, tying the customer directly to the knitter.\u00a0 The marketing director wants the customer to see that Incan woman sitting on her sunny stoop of high in the Andes, the sweater on her lap, children and chickens clucking around her.\u00a0 She solidifies the image by giving the knitter a name, puts a picture on the tag and in a final flourish, packages the whole concept as charming.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It worked for me. I loved the lumpy irregularities of my sweater, but I also appreciated the broader context of what started as off-hand marketing gimmick.\u00a0 We are all a mish-mash of hand-made irregularities.\u00a0 On good days, I hope mine add up to charm.<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1.\u00a0 Think Before You Stink —- 6th grade teacher The devastating consequences of this grade school adage only became apparent in my professional life.\u00a0 I was working against a deadline for an article on PET scans, a new and controversial … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lists"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-Le","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2931,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions\/2931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}