Posts by Kathy McIntosh
Don’t Needle Me: The Words We Use
Thoughts about words tend to needle me quite often. While traveling a while back, I saw a woman toting a sewing machine as her carry-on luggage. No one stopped her. What is the matter with the Transportation Security Administration? Don’t they realize the dangers inherent in sewing machines? Consider the terminology. A needle is a…
Read MoreLethal, Fatal or Deadly?
Ever wonder what’s the difference between lethal, fatal, or deadly? Or does the fact that I wonder make you nervous? As a writer of mysteries, some may believe that I think too often about death. Actually, I’m more into killing extraneous words, or at least into using the right ones. So I wondered… Are lethal…
Read MoreGet Your Words Right
I cannot make my days longer, so I strive to make them better. Henry David Thoreau I’m afraid some writers have twisted these great words into, “I cannot make my words better, so I strive to make them longer.” As George Orwell brilliantly put it: “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there…
Read MoreRorters, spruiking and malarkey
While researching the art of the long con for a new novel, I came across an article from Australia and was introduced to two delightful words: rorter and spruiking. Exploring them led me farther astray. What a great way to procrastinate. A rorter is generally considered Australian slang, and is a noun meaning a swindler,…
Read MoreWhat’s in a Word?
What is in a word? You’ve heard it before. They don’t speak American in Scotland. A Scot would say that we Americans may have a few wee errors in our language. Some fun ways with words I noticed during a visit to Scotland: “Wee” is thrown in everywhere. “Have a seat at that wee table.”…
Read MoreThere’s Always Hope
There’s so much news about the impact of climate change and global warming on our world and its ecosystems, much of it negative. In April, I joined a panel of writers of environmental mysteries–ecomysteries–at the Left Coast Crime 2022 mystery convention. Our books address serious issues, so much so that one audience member asked, “Is…
Read MoreWordslaying: How to Omit Unnecessary Words
Friends are generally surprised when I tell them I used to be a bird hunter. Using a .410 (small gauge) shotgun, I’d often limit out on doves before grown men using 12 gauge (larger pellets) shotguns. My parents were avid bird hunters. After they died, I gave up hunting. Now, especially recently, I’m a word…
Read MoreHave a Problem with That?
People are often confused about the use of which or that. I hope to clear that up in today’s post. That or Which? That introduces restrictive or essential clauses. Which generally introduces non-restrictive or non-essential clauses. A restrictive clause is part of the sentence that describes a noun. Without it, the meaning of the sentence…
Read MoreGratitude, Hope and Squash Pie
You might wonder about the relationship between squash pie, hope, and gratitude. I saw the movie “This Changes Everything” last week. Narrated by the author of the eponymous book, Naomi Klein, it painted a powerful and disturbing overview of climate change caused by our pursuit of growth and its resultant pollution. Klein’s ultimately hopeful premise…
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