The Imperfect Bagel

Bespoke - made for a particular customer or user. Having a suit specially made for me has been one of the coolest experiences that I’ve had. I have a friend that makes bespoke menswear and I appreciated the selection process and the end result. I was able to pick the materials, the patterns, and the colors of the suit and that’s something I’ll cherish for years to come.  Bespoke products are a breath of fresh air in a world that’s full of mass market products, but they are expensive. I think in the end it’s worth having at least one article of bespoke clothing. 

Palinode – A poem in which the poet retracts a view or sentiment expressed in a former poem. In modern usage – a noun describing  a retraction or reversal or a verb meaning to recant.  I’ve had many palinodes in my life. It’s always a good idea to correct yourself if you find that you’ve said something that you know to be false. The past can haunt you if you don’t. A quick example is celebrities saying pretty terrible things in the past and then apologizing for them after they are “exposed”. It would be better for them to create a palinode for those terrible or false statements, before being forced to apologize.  Our love of being right is best understood as our fear of being wrong – Kathryn Shulz The best course of action is to take responsibility.  The best of us must sometimes eat our words. – J.K. Rowling.  This article discusses some tips on what to do when you realize you’ve made a mistake. It’s also where I got the lovely quotes above.  - https://hbr...

  Inspissate: To thicken or congeal I’ve seen gravy inspissate when left alone for too long. I’ve seen fat from meat inspissate when left in the fridge. Do we inspissate when we are sluggish, lazy, and eat too much junk food? I certainly feel that way from time to time. It seems that it sneaks up on you, the thickening and congealing, and it’s worse as you age. Of course, if you are healthy and fit you don’t experience inspissating.   I plan on keeping active so I don’t turn into a blob!

Dysania! What a word! It's definitely something I relate to, especially in the darker days of winter.  Dysania is the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning. It’s a chronic condition that isn’t widely recognized by the medical community, but I’m sure we’ve all experienced this state of being (maybe not chronically though).  Why should we leave the comfort of our bed? Marcus Aurelius may have an answer: At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I am rising to do the work of a human being. What do I have to complain about, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?” — But it’s nicer here… So were you born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? An...

Obtund's definition is dull the sensitivity of; blunt; deaden.  Time obtunds our memories. As we get further and further away from the moments in our lives, the details and the sharpness of these memories fade. That is not to say that we don’t have vivid memories, but those memories of vividness are ones that were extraordinary, either of extreme joy or of extreme pain.  Photographs and video allow us to bring life back to old memories, but the experience is like an imperfect facsimile, a copy of a copy of a copy. We never truly relive these experiences in perfect form, but we relive what we can remember and what’s left behind. And maybe that’s for the better, where we are left with the feelings and emotions as time obtunds our memories.

I hope you are having a great day today! The word librate has two interesting definitions - the first is oscillate or seem to oscillate and the second is to stay poised. Librate rhymes with Vibrate and is pronounced in the same way.   I think about trapeze artist swinging back and forth, the tik-tocking of old clocks, and metronomes. There’s a battle between the trees and wind outside. The trees seem to librate against the strong wind and they refuse to bow down and seem to grip the dirt beneath them with greater force. But the wind is cunning and will not cease, whereas a tree’s lives could be measured in centuries, the wind’s life is eternal.

Another day another word of the day: Mumpsimus Mumpsimus is defined as a traditional custom or notion adhered to although shown to be unreasonable.  We all can think of traditions or peoples that are mumpsimus, but I'd like to home in on a practice that I find particularly problematic. This may sound controversial, but as I get older, I find the practice of tipping at restaurants as mumpsimus.  I’m seeing this problematic at a lot of restaurants where you are forced to decide to select a tip amount when picking up food (where the cashier literally just hands you the food). In many other cultures like the Japanese, tipping is not customary and is certainly not at all expected. In Japan, it also might be considered rude or insulting to tip at restaurants.  Here in the United States, it would be nice if we followed the culturally practice of not tipping. Instead, we should strive for dignity and respect in service and also pay our service workers a meaningful wage.  To ...

Welcome to my blog,  The Imperfect Bagel is a collection of thoughts and ramblings from an almost 40-year-old man.  Today I thought I would like to share a word that I came across in a word of the day email - that word is velleity. Velleity is defined as a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action. I immediately think about the quote "A goal without a plan is just a wish" - which is attributed (according to google) to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - a French author and aviator.  Velleity seems to be the word that defines a lot of my adult years. Lots of wishes, but no actions. It's a testament to how easily I get discouraged. For example, this blog, this has been one of my many velleities, lots of starts and stops. This year, though, I plan to consistently write in this blog and see what happens. There might not be a post every day, but at least 1 a week to start. Stick around and you might read something interesting and of value.   And here’s a note on...