The Thought Kitchen is our effort at collective inquiry and its power to affect change. Have you ever noticed how the party is always in the kitchen? There are more walls to lean on and people are energized by the proximity to food and drink. Well, welcome to our kitchen, where we hope to tap into everything we love about that feeling—community, vivacious exchange, food for thought.
You know those days when all you want to do is be at home, drinking coffee with your love and watching the weather out the window? Well, if I was at home on Saturday I’m sure that’s how I would have felt. But I was in Utah, burnt after a week on the road to the Sundance Film Festival and the Outdoor Retailer show. I missed my wife, my French Press and any amount of humidity (good thing chapstick falls from the sky like manna at the OR show). I was not at home. Lucky for me, however, Utah in January just happens to have a seriously good cure for homesickness: Alta powder.
So, while the coffee and air quality may not be stellar, that’s irrelevant when you wake up early, beat the crowds (mostly) and score first tracks on Ballroom and the Devil’s Castle traverse and generally ski yourself silly in fresh snow under blue skies. I laughed out loud more than once on Saturday, skiing with an old friend and pushing myself as hard as I could, finding untracked stashes and just burning out the crud of travel and trade show lighting. Home now, I’m rejuvenated by a day in the mountains followed by day of cooking and couch time with my girl. Today, my thoughts turn to the coming storm, and what it has in store for Mt. Hood. Funny how the mountains can do that you.
I love the unexpected pleasures that await me as I scroll my daily sites for news, laughs, insight and inspiration. Many of you no doubt know of this site, but today’s post left me feeling like I needed to share. It’s one of my favorites to date, right up there with the one about Herman Melville on his birthday. Just in case you were ever curious about how such a compilation of words as the thesaurus ever came to be, here’s the scoop.
From The Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of the physician and lexicographer Peter Mark Roget, born in London, England (1779). He was a working doctor for most of his life, but he was also a Renaissance man, a member of various scientific, literary and philosophical societies. In his spare time, he invented a slide rule for performing difficult mathematical calculations, and a method of water filtration that is still in use today. He wrote papers on a variety of topics, including the kaleidoscope and Dante, and he was one of the contributors to the early Encylopaedia Britannica.
He was 61 years old and had just retired from his medical practice, when he decided to devote his retirement to publishing a system of classifying words into groups based on their meanings. Other scholars had published books of synonyms before, but Roget wanted to assemble something more comprehensive. He said, “[The book will be] a collection of the words it contains and of the idiomatic combinations peculiar to it, arranged, not in alphabetical order as they are in a Dictionary, but according to the ideas which they express.”
He organized all the words into six categories: Abstract Relations, Space, Matter, Intellect, Volition, Sentient and Moral Powers, and within each category there were many subcategories. The project took him more than 10 years, but he finally published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. He chose the word “thesaurus” because it means “treasury” in Greek.
Roget’s Thesaurus might have been considered an intellectual curiosity, except that at the last minute Roget decided to include an index. That index, which helped readers find synonyms, made the book into one of the most popular reference books of all time. It is considered one of the great lexicographical achievements in the history of the English language, and it has been helping English students pad their vocabularies for more than 150 years.
OK, we’re a few days late to it, but here’s a selection of well-intended resolutions from the Nau gang. Hopefully they’ll inspire, or at least inspire a chuckle.
What’s on your plan for the New Year?
Eat Tastier Food, Dude
I’m of the school of thought that New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t be painful. As a matter of fact, they should be as decadent as possible, to counteract the post-holiday blues, crappy winter surf and the end of fantasy football season. This year my goal is to eat more delicious meals, meaning I’ll have to shop regularly at the farmer’s market and frequent local restaurants that abide by the slow food ethos like Portland’s Nostrana. Everybody knows that organically grown food tastes tons better and supporting our area’s mom ‘n pop farms and eateries is good for the environment and the health of our community. Next year’s resolution? Drink lovelier wines. –Rick
More Work, Less Office.
I have resolved to put in less time at the office, so as to cut down on the amount of fossil fuel I consume on my daily commute from the houseboat. I will endeavor to drop down to three days in the office, and two days telecommuting from home. If that doesn’t work, I’m just going to shack up with our office manager and walk into work from her house. –Hal
Car Smart
My resolution starts with a dilemma: I have a ten-year-old truck, and I want to keep it rolling. But, 2008 will likely be the year for a trade-in, so I’m looking to move to a biodiesel or a hybrid vehicle. –Ian
Home Is Where the Napkins Are
My resolution is to permanently turn my paper towel holder into an abode for the cloth napkins Santa brought me. –Josie
Deep Thoughts
My resolution for 2008: At the juncture where heart and mind collide, I will choose to follow the heart. –Mark
More or Less?
And mine? I resolve to make 2008 the year of more and less. I will write more of my own work. I will cook more of my own food (good start on that one so far). I will visit my family more. I will ski more (and hopefully better). I will ride my bike more…which means I will drive to work less. I will spend less money, and more carefully. I will spend less time on things that leave me unsatisfied. I will do more, with less, whenever possible. That’s a lot of line items, but after a year filled with richness and exhaustion of the best kind (marriage, buying our first home, meaningful work) I am seeking to reinvest in my own routines and rituals in a way that can hopefully transcend the calendar year.
And yours? What ever they are, the Nau collective wishes you success in realizing them.
Also, if you need some more inspiration for a greener 2008, check this post out.
Quick, define “anemophilous.” Don’t know? That’s OK, neither did I. What if I told you that you could learn the answer while helping fight hunger? All you need to do is visit freerice.org. Created by John Breen, a father trying to come up with a better, more engaging (and interactive) way to help his kids learn vocabulary, Free Rice is addicting in its simplicity. All you do is choose from multiple-choice definitions of a featured word. But the part that moves it beyond enjoyable, to a compelling act of positive change, is that for every word you get correct, Free Rice donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nation’s hunger relief efforts. You see, Breen already had a passion: Working to end world poverty and hunger. His first website, poverty.com, is a tremendous resource for learning about global hunger, and taking action against it.
I love words, and not just in the “I really like to read” way. I’m the kind of person who could spend hours in the hammock with the Oxford American Dictionary and call it a good day (bourbon helps with this). So it was with great joy that I discovered Free Rice earlier this fall. Since it’s creation in October, Free Rice has donated 10,604,716,470 grains of rice, and I’m glad to know that I’ve helped. So far, I’ve hit the wall at level 46. Let me know if you crack that (without a dictionary). Oh, anemophilous, which was my most recent nemesis, means “wind-pollinated.”
Last week a friend sent me an e-mail containing “The Story of Stuff” video, a wonderful look at how consumerism shapes our worldview and the topic of Ian’s post below. After getting a major in environmental studies, I love to pretend that I’m enlightened in relation to consumerism, my eco-footprint, sustainability, and the like. While watching the video I realized that I, like most humans, need constant reminders to remember my environmental ethics. It’s the holiday season, and naturally I went out and bought stuff. Granted, I mostly bought eco-friendly gifts. I attempted to support local artists. I even tried to find things that would be useful for a long time after the holidays were over. (I’m sure my family will be sad not to receive reindeer sweaters from me this year. Who doesn’t love those?) But innately, even if I wrap things in the same cloth bags I use every year, consumption was at the center of my holiday traditions once again.
What is it about this season that can force a fanatical environmentalist like myself to buy my brother a belt buckle with a piece of a beer can embedded in it? Read on »
This past weekend Portland played host to the last stop in the USGP of cyclocross. In true Pacific NW fashion, the weather served up some epic conditions, from early morning snow on Saturday morning to frigid rain that afternoon to a torrential downpour with crazy wind on Sunday. All in all, a perfect weekend for cyclocross. Something about dealing with the worst weather brings out the best in people in the cross scene, as evidenced by the impressive racing and the unflagging commitment of the spectators. I was out cheering for the local crew, and snapping a few pics of notable wet-weather fashion moments. Here’s a few for your enjoyment… Read on »
I’ve been hiring a handyman named Rob to help out with some home improvements in preparation our new family member. It’s amazing how, on a 100-year-old house, a small list of upgrades can turn into a hefty amount of work. At a certain point, I finally had to tell Rob that I’d have to save some of the jobs for a later date, when I could sock away a little more cash to pay him.
This left one important task undone before the rainy season: staining the deck. In my mind, I reasoned that I could dedicate a sunny weekend to this job—one that most people don’t hire someone else to do anyway. When I explained my thinking to Rob, he surprised me by saying that he’d be willing to work out a trade for sanding and staining it. I wondered what he could possibly want of mine.
“I noticed in your basement that you have like seven surfboards,” he said. “I’ll do the deck for an old board and some surfing lessons.” I immediately thought of the only board I have that would work, an 8-foot beast I’ve affectionately named “The Banana.” It’s the board that got me stoked on surfing in Oregon—the first stick I slid along the green face of a wave on.
“Deal,” I said, but insisted that he take one of my wetsuits as well, to make the trade fair.
He started the deck a couple weeks ago, but then the rain came, accompanied by massive surf that isn’t kind to beginners. So now the deck’s a quarter sanded, but I have a feeling he’ll be back to finish when the weather lets up. He seemed pretty stoked on our arrangement, which reminds me of the first phase of the One Red Paperclip phenomenon, where a guy traded a paperclip for a house in a series of amazing exchanges. Long live bartering!
I’ve been hiring a handyman named Rob to help out with some home improvements in preparation our