Word Power, Ixodid

Word Power

Building Your Vocabulary One Word at a Time

Ixodid

ixodid (‘ik se did) adj. Of or relating to ticks.

 

It’s tick season again here in Humboldt Co. So, watch out!

 

Check every little itch, and don’t be bashful about getting naked in front of strangers.

 

You want to find these little bastards and get rid of them ASAP. They often carry Lyme disease. That can fuck you up for years. The quicker you find and remove those little blood-suckers, the lower your chances of contracting the disease.

 

If you spend any time at all in the woods, or outside, for that matter, you’re bound to come across them sooner or later. While Lyme disease can be debilitating, any tick bite can cause achy joints and flu-like symptoms, not to mention itch like hell and take forever to heal.

 

If you find a tick on you, grasp it by the head with a pair of tweezers that you carry with you everywhere you go, specifically for that purpose. Gently pull the tick straight out. Make sure that no part of the tick is left in the bite.

 

Then, I usually incinerate the tick with my lighter. If I could think of a crueler way to kill them I would do it, but burning them alive while I chant “Burn in hell you blood-sucking bastard” seems both effective and satisfying.

Redway Becomes NorCal’s Newest College Town

Redway Becomes NorCal’s Newest College Town

Cannabis College to Bring Dramatic Change to Small Town

With the Opening of Cannabis College in the Meadows Business Park, Redway joins Arcata, Davis, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz, by becoming Northern California’s newest “College Town”. What will this mean for Garberville’s scrappier sister?

For one, it means college students. If you have to have people around, you can do a lot worse than college students. I’ll take hot young college students over puffy middle-aged tourists, retirees, or families with their annoying children, any day of the week. These students will need someplace to live while they earn their degree.

So, we’ll need dormitories. Can you think of a better use for the two struggling hotels in Redway? The students will have to walk a ways to get to class, but they’ll pass Cafe Bella, where they can stop for a scone, bagel or croissant and coffee on the way to class. On the way back, they pass Persimmons serving wine and crepes. The Broken Yolk, closed for years now, becomes a prime location in this scenario, with lots of foot traffic.

Of course, college towns need college bars. Now that the Iguana has become a gift shop, we really don’t have anyplace to drink in Redway, except the sidewalk in front of the laundromat. I don’t see that becoming a college hangout. Oh, wait, I forgot about The Brass Rail. That’s a natural…right there close to the new dorms, perfect. That’s one. I think we need three. The Mateel? You know they could book a band and sell beer and wine if they knew they could fill the place with college students every weekend. What about the old Alternative Energy Engineering Building? That would make a great nightclub.

What about frat houses? How about those houses across from Chris’s Flowers on Redwood Drive? No offense to the current owners, of course. I just think that we need to consider what having a college in town will mean for our quaint little burg. In this location, frat boy shenanigans will happen far enough from other residential neighborhoods, and right next to the CHP office.

They say this college will teach only one subject: marijuana. I studied marijuana in school. If I could have majored in it, I’d have probably graduated. I think its great that people like me will finally get to study what interests them, and that they’ll do it in beautiful, but rustic, Redway.

Word Power #2, Emolument

Building Your Vocabulary One Word at a Time

Emolument

e mol u ment (e ‘mall ye ment) n, the returns arising from office or employment, wages.

I first encountered this word on a plaque attached to the wall of the Home Economics Building at Redwood Acres Fairgrounds (Hum. Co., CA). In the plaque, they referred to all of the stuff they made from all of the redwood trees they cut down around here as “the emoluments of man.” I like this word because it comes from a French word “emolere”, literally, to grind up, which they certainly did to the redwoods. Emolere comes in turn from a Latin word “emolumentum” or millers fee. Emolument reminds you that work is a grind, that you only get paid if you keep your nose to the grindstone, and that it grinds you down. I hope your emoluments adequately compensate you for your grind.

Wage, on the other hand comes from the French root word “wagier” meaning pledge. Wage shares this root word with the modern word “wager”, basically a bet. When your boss offers you a wage, that’s a bet to him. He’s betting he can make more from your labor than he’s paying you. You, on the other hand, earn that money through your sweat and hard work. The money you get is your emolument.

When bosses (and Government) refer to the money you earn as “wages’ they want you to think of the money you earn at your “grind” as money you won at the track. Like working for a living is tantamount to beating the house at blackjack. So, of course you won’t mind paying taxes on that windfall, and you won’t get bent out of shape when your 401k retirement plan evaporates. Easy come, easy go, right. Those are the rules of the game, you win a few, you lose a few.

Personally, I think the games in this casino are fixed. That’s the fine and course of it. Now you can get back to your grind.