Frile

I would like to nominate a new word for the English language.

The word is ‘Frile’.

‘The Frile’ combines the frown and the smile. These two facial expressions are more commonly deployed separately. They signal opposite each other.

The frile makes those separate entities one.

The message delivered by friling is complex. In friling, one is amused but conditionally, warily. It may convey a certain anxiety or uncertainty as if trust may be at any moment suspended. The friler is not so easily persuaded as others might be. The frown is normally employed to distance oneself from a situation whereas the smile draws one in.

The friler may find themselves in no-mans-land caught between near and far.

Should the reader attempt a frile, they will notice more facial muscles are used than other expressions. It is quite tiring to maintain a frile. It is facially exhausting.

In friling, one quite quickly recalls previous friles and frilers. They might be relatives, friends or media personalities.

The English language is alive and can integrate new words where there is a demand for one. The way in which new words are introduced is not formalised. In this instance it is introduced here in my blog for possible inclusion. *

Please see ‘Frilie’, below.

Frilie

* On advice, I subsequently have checked and find that Frile is already listed in The Urban Dictionary and means, “A neutral expression. A facial expression that is somewhere between a frown and a smile.”

Screen Grab

Mostly, one is limited by what one finds, or what one has.

Refreshing therefore to find it up, when off, when the skylight is reflected on the screen as a movie already,

Except, only thing moving is time. There’s no immediate change to necessitate a movie. This lasts as long as daylight,

And as long as no-one uses the laptop.

It’s a screen saver.

Hop Irish

‘Hop Irish’ Paper napkin 20 cm x 20 cm

I’d like to play Hop Irish. I’ve not seen it played before.

I suppose it would be written in chalk, like the Scotch version. Each square would be foot-sized. The playing ring would need to be two metres in diameter.

If one can generalise about the Irish, which you can’t, but if you could, the task of the game would be to become confounded by it.

Numbering and layout suggests the player hops backwards. The starting point also, by being in the middle, is inaccessible.

The player’s skills therefore would lie not in the throwing of the marker as in the Scottish version, nor in the athleticism in the hopping, but in the general scrutiny and pondering.

The configuration is like a wishing well which encourages a ring of players who are able to collaborate in a communal wishing/wonder.

The game makes no division between winning and losing.

Writing in Reverse

Being left-handed sets one apart, with all the other left-handers. Yes. We did come to terms with that and found another strength. We are not complaining.

Writing in reverse is reclaiming a space on the one hand (sic). Also it is finding the ease in writing, as a left-hander, even though by now everyone has stopped writing long-hand. The benefit is in the greater ease in writing, without turning oneself inside out or smudging. *

What are the other benefits? When you can’t easily read what is written, revision is arduous. One cannot easily read back to confirm or clarify what’s been proposed. In order to inhibit the urge to reflect, revise, edit, making the text illegible allows you to keep going, to move forward, without fear. There will be plenty of time to evaluate down the track.

Writing in reverse is the equivalent to a one-take film sequence. Once committed, there is no turning back.

The appetite to write in reverse is enhanced by the calligrapher’s flourish, when the flow of the ink brings its own energies. Once committed to the flow, there is the joy of the ride and also, new subject matter, previously unavailable through other means.**

Please find samples below.

*By the sixties we had abandoned the inherent messiness of ink and had turned to the slipprier biro. (Thanks a lot, Bic).

** We had imagined the typewriter would replace writing with a pen. Then the word processor replaced the type writer. The phone then questioned the greater capacity to reflect, while seated.

Writing in Reverse Renders Revision Redundant. (A4)

Lying Down (A4)

Peeled (A4)

Alan's Eightieth

Alan 80 Party Speech

Sunday, 12th January, 2020

The Royal Oak, Balmain

I will never be eighty.

Nobody will ever be eighty

How could you presume to survive that long?

We are very fortunate today

And grateful to Alan

For going to where so few have gone before him,

So that he might light the way

And should some of us be so fortunate to follow in a similar direction,

We will know where and how to go,

And how to get there.

Should he be as fortunate and as full of guile as he has been to now,

This 80,

May prove to be another nuisance middle,

And provide no imminent conclusion of a life.

If 80 does prove to be another middle,

That should not diminish the achievement of having lived so many years.

We have found the pleasure and the romance of looking back today.

Can we find the same pleasure casting our eyes ahead?

We have not yet come to terms with the fires

We are struggling to understand what politics has become

We cannot understand the distribution of wealth without glancing in the mirror.

Climate science has us by the throat.

The future rises like an unsurmountable mountain

And only makes the past more alluring.

Celebrating the past has never been so sweet.

I only mention this because it would be remiss

To turn a blind eye for 80’s sake.

We have been waiting for a wake-up call

Lest We Forget

Bring on the Revolution!

Happy Birthday Alan.