Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Okay, first let me say that I cannot believe I used a quote from the movie Rush Hour as my post title. But it's a quote Jim says. Often. So when I decided on this week's word for New Word Wednesday, the Rush Hour quote just popped into my head uninvited. And it seemed like the right thing to use. I apologize.

The word that made me think of that quote from an egregiously idiotic movie is much more cerebral than anything coming out of Chris Tucker's mouth, I can assure you. Pretty much. Maybe?

Well, you tell me. Here, my fellow wordies, is this week's offering for New Word Wednesday:

LUCULENT (LOO kyuh luhnt) adjective 1. clear or lucid. 2. convincing; cogent.

—Dictionary.com

I hope my inability to be luculent when meeting new people—and sometimes even when conversing with people who aren't so new—won't be detrimental to my experience at BlogHer.

Oh my. Yeah, ya'll might consider saying a prayer for me and my BlogHer experience. Please.

THIS WEEK'S GRILLED GRANDMA

If you're in the mood for cute, I've got you covered. Take one look a that little gal above and you'll have a small taste of the cuteness to come in Grilled Grandma: Janie. Her grandkids are cuties, no doubt, not only in the photos, but in the stories Janie shares of them. Don't miss it.

And if you're in the mood for hitting the open road, Janie has you covered there with her blog. Click on over after reading her grilling (link at the bottom of her grilling); you won't be disappointed!

Happy Wednesday!

Today's question:

Are you more luculent when writing or when speaking?

A 'fullness of feeling'

Three weeks into the New Word Wednesday feature, I've finally found a word I've been searching for since April. It's not exactly the word I wanted, but close enough to matter.

Back in April, our ever-insightful, ever-inspirational bloggy friend known here as Grandmother (Hi, Mary!) wrote a post about Louise Erdrich's poem, The Glass and the Bowl. In her post, Mary noted that, "Her poem captures that incomparable fullness of feeling that comes unbidden in precious moments of parenting ..." .

Mary's "fullness of feeling" phrase was so perfect, so true, so absolutely spot on for many of my heartfelt sensations that it has stuck with me ever since. Even more so than Erdrich's evocative poem.

"Fullness of feeling" describes the richness I experience when I look at photos of Bubby and Mac loving on one another, or soak in the sense of family when our original five are together and laughing, when I hear young children in concert, when I see a veteran with hand over heart and holding back tears as he bravely honors a fallen comrade. In so, so much is there a fullness of feeling. Now I have words for that.

Yet I also want just one word for that. I figured there simply must be a single word that comes close to Mary's description. I've searched, and there's not. At least not that I've found. Not really. Not one so exactly, perfectly right.

But there is one that's close. Or at least related. And it's today's New Word Wednesday offering:

PROFUNDITY (pruh FUHN di tee) noun 1. the quality or state of being profound; depth. 2. Usually, profundities. profound or deep matters. 3. profoundly deep; abyss.

—Dictionary.com

The profundity of Mary's words left a lasting impression on me.

Thank you, Mary, for the new phrase that led me to a new word.

THIS WEEK'S GRILLED GRANDMA

Profundity is often a theme of the Grilled Grandmas, and the newest grandma to be grilled is no exception. Please be sure to read Grilled Grandma: Patti before clicking away and heading off into the nether regions of the Internet. And if you're feeling the love, please don't hesitate to offer her a few words — profound or not-so-profound — in the comment-love section. Such a simple act may make another's day.

Thank you for making my day by visiting Grandma's Briefs and reading my blatherings. Now go enjoy your day ... and your air-conditioning, too, if you're one of the lucky ones to have it (which, unfortunately, I'm not).

Today's question:

Who, what, or where would you deem a 'profundity'?

My, how congenial

Through blogging, I've met so many folks with passions and pursuits similar to mine. Often the similarities are a love for grandchildren and children. Just as often it's a love for the written word — reading it or writing it. And occasionally I'm fortunate to come across someone with similar tastes in music ... or food ... or television shows that are destined to be cancelled as soon as I take up watching them.

Online more often than off, I've found my kind of people, my kindred spirits. And this week's New Word Wednesday is all about them, for today's word — one I don't use nearly often enough but am now determined to — is:

CONGENIAL (kuhn JEEN yuhl, kuhn JEE nee uhl) adj 1 : having the same nature, disposition, or tastes : kindred (congenial companions) 2 a : existing or associated together harmoniously b : pleasant; especially : agreeably suited to one's nature, tastes, or outlook (a congenial atmosphere) c : sociable, genial (a congenial host) 

The congenial visitors to Grandma's Briefs far outnumber the trolls.

—Definition from Mirriam-Webster; use in a sentence from me

Now, my friends, go forth and be congenial.

 THIS WEEK'S GRILLED GRANDMA:

This week's Grilled Grandma is the epitome of congenial. Head on over to read about Grilled Grandma: Robin and please be congenial to her in return by way of comments, kudos and clicks to her blog. I thank you and I appreciate you, as she surely will, too.

Happy Wednesday!

Today's question:

When saying congenial, do you prefer pronouncing it "kuhn JEEN yuhl" or "kuhn JEE nee uhl"?

A deipnosophist I'm not

I love words. But as I do with recipes, I get stuck in a rut with those I use most often. So I'm starting something new here on Grandma's Briefs. I want to try out new words, learn new words, use new words, and hope that you might, too. As is the case with getting in shape, breaking a habit, and going on a diet, it's always easier to accomplish such a goal when you a have a partner in the quest. So I'm recruiting you, dear readers of Grandma's Briefs, as my partners.

From now on, Wednesdays here will be New Word Wednesday. At least until I — or you — get bored with it. Or we decide our vocabularies, our brains, and our increased dendrites from learning have reached maximum capacity and we shall learn no more.

For New Word Wednesday, I will present a word. Maybe it'll be a new word most of us haven't heard of. Maybe it'll be an old word that I'd like to use more often. Maybe it'll be one you've e-mailed me to suggest for New Word Wednesday. More often than not, it'll be a wild, wacky, and relatively obscure word from my copy of The Gilded Tongue, a word I simply feel compelled to share. Together we'll try out the word, maybe incorporate it into our writing, speaking, reading. Maybe not. We'll see what happens...together.

So without further adieu, here is the first-ever New Word Wednesday offering:

<drum roll...>

DEIPNOSOPHY (dyp-NAHS-uh-fee): n. from deipnon (meal), probably of non-Indo-European origin and Greek sophistos (wise man, sophist): skillfull dinner conversation.

Oscar Wilde was so skilled at deipnosophy that he received many free dinners from people who loved to hear him talk.

—From "The Gilded Tongue: Overy Eloquent Words for Everyday Things" by Rod L. Evans, PH.D.

There you have it. Our first word for New Word Wednesdays. A word that I can honestly say I have never used before yet one that quite eloquently and adequately describes something I so very much am not.

Having kicked off that, do note that Wednesdays will continue to be Grilled Grandma day, as well. This week's Grilled Grandma will forever forward be known to me as Awesome Alice as she is one awesome G-Maw. Read Grilled Grandma: Alice to find out why I say that...and to learn who that precious little gal is to the right.

And, as always, if you know of a grandma you'd like added to the grilling schedule, please e-mail me her first name and e-mail address. We've always got room for more.

Today's question:

Who in your life would you name as the most skilled at deipnosophy?

Mail from Grandma, part 2

I thought I was pretty clever with my mailbox for Bubby. (Gah! That reminded me I need to get one made up for Mac now!) Because we're a long distance from one another, I mail Bubby things, Megan puts them in his nifty mailbox from Gramma, and we nourish the relationship via USPS and a sticker-smacked mailbox with a little red flag.

This week's Grilled Grandma, Kaye, does me one better, though. Not because she has an even snazzier sticker-smacked box for her grandchildren, but because she just plain has a better idea.

Kaye isn't a long-distance grandma, yet she still mails her grandchildren letters on a regular basis. Here's a smidgen of how she tells it in her grilling:

Last year I read a book called Curly Grandma s Letters . It s a novel concept about preserving your history by writing letters to your grandchildren. I ve been writing to them for a year now. Even though they see me all the time this has been fun for them. First they get a letter in the mailbox and second they think my letters are funny.

Kaye has more to say on the topic and you can read about in Grilled Grandma: Kaye. She says a lot about other things, too, in her grilling, including revealing some of the cutest bloggy names I've seen yet for her grandchildren. Be sure to let Kaye know what you think of the names and everything else she shares in her grilling with a bit of comment love, if you have the time or inclination.

Happy Wednesday!

Today's question:

It's hump day and the week is half gone. For you, has this week felt like it's flying by too fast or like it's taking forever to get over?

Making the sale

Grandmothers teach their grandchildren myriad life lessons and help provide them with plenty of tools for survival and success. Advertising acumen isn't one of those lessons and tools that first comes to mind when considering such lessons and tools, but that's exactly what Penny, this week's Grilled Grandma, recently passed along to her grandson. Or was it her grandson that taught Penny a thing or two about making the sale? You be the judge, based on Penny's response to my request to name a recent time a grandchild made her laugh out loud:

My grandchildren were helping me with a garage sale a few weeks ago. I told them to make signs to attract customers. The 7 year old, taped a sign on an old door I was selling. “$7.00 – cough up the cash.” We sold it, and he earned $1 for advertising.

Penny's grandchildren are clearly a hoot, as is their grandma. Read of this special family in Grilled Grandma: Penny. Then be sure to head on over to Penny's blog for a hefty serving of chuckles, heavily seasoned and sweetened with insight and love only a dedicated mother and grandmother could dish out.

Today's question:

What has been one of your more noteworthy garage-sale purchases or sales?

Lisa with an S

Liza Minnelli may be a incredible performer, but I've never really been a fan of hers. I have to say, I loved her mother so much more. There is one particular performance of Liza's that sticks in my head, though, and it goes like this:

Seeing that performance for the first time as an impressionable adolescent named Lisa, it stuck in my head. It's still stuck in my head and it crosses my mind often. In fact, it was the earworm in my head the entire time I formatted this week's Grilled Grandma feature, so I figured there's no better way to introduce her than with that video. Because this week's Grilled Grandma's name is ... wait for it ... Lisa. Not Liza, but Lisa. Just like mine.

So here, for your entertainment, is Grilled Grandma: Lisa. With an S. It goes SSS, not ZZZ. And I think you'll like it. And I know you'll like what she has to say about being a grandma to her lovely granddaughters.

Today's question:

If you were magically given the opportunity to attend a performance from one or the other during their prime, would you rather attend a concert by Liza Minnelli or by Judy Garland?

Ripple effect

One of the questions I regularly ask the Grilled Grandmas is "What do you most want to pass along to your grandchildren?". I'm continually impressed by their thoughtful answers because in considering that question myself, I find it difficult to narrow it down, to sum up in a few words what I want the sons and daughters of my daughters to have and to do and to be.

I want to pass along to my grandchildren so many things, some that I have, some that I don't, some that I wish I had mastered.

I want to pass along the traits of faithfulness and thankfulness. I want them to know they’re loved and worthy and important. I want them to have memories of incredible moments and the motivation to create more. I want to pass along a love for themselves as well as a love for others, regardless of how alike or different others may be. I want to pass along the desire — and the ability — to make the most of the gifts they have been given.

I want to pass along to my grandchildren all that and more. Ultimately, though, what I most want to pass along to my grandchildren is life and all the beauty and blessings and potential wrapped up in that. I want them — my extended family — to be and to continue to be. To continue the family line, the family tree. I cringe at the idea that everything Jim and I put into the family we’ve created could have ended with our most immediate progeny. No, I want our family tree to have strong roots and abundant shoots going forward, and for those roots and shoots to make a difference in the world.

I want the lives of my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren and so on to matter and make a difference in the world, partially to better themselves, to better the world around them. But in all honesty — and in all selfish realization — I also want those things partially so my life will have mattered, to know that I made a difference.

I have no illusions that I’ve shaken the world up in any way. I do believe, though, that through my children and their children and their children, my jiggles and jerks from beginning to end have had and will continue to have a ripple effect. My words, my actions, my love have touched my children, who then have gone out into the world and touched others with their words, actions, love. Then the ripples continue as those touched in turn touch others, matter to others, make a difference to others. My ripples grow larger, wider, eternal. That won’t happen if the family doesn’t continue, if life is not passed down, again and again and again.

Yes, I want to pass along love, independence, fortitude, passion, compassion, sympathy, empathy and more. Those are the things of life, of living. For better or for worse, those are intertwined with pain, heartache, fear, longing, loss — life’s unsavory bits that make what's on the other side of the coin all the more sweet and appreciated and worth every utterance of gratitude and thanks.

So, regardless of reason, justification, or explanation, when I truly consider what I want to pass along to my grandchildren, the bottom line is this: I most want to pass down to them life and the gumption to make their fair share of ripples — possibly even a big splash now and then, too — with that life.

Photo: stock.xchng/biewoef

Today's question:

Whose ripples from the past continue to impact your present?

Grilling the guest

I once was approached by a woman I'd never met, online or off, who asked if she could write a guest post for Grandma's Briefs. Other than a guest-post trading stint featured as part of a SITS activity, I had never published guest posts here. Funny thing was, I was swamped and in desperate need of help. So I said yes, Grandtravel was published, and a stranger named Mary had saved the day. End of story.

Or so I thought.

Not too long ago, I was contacted again by Mary, with an idea for another post, wondering if I might want to publish it. Again, she had come along at exactly the right time, exactly when I needed her. I published Grandparents can be fun AND consistent, and once more, Mary — now no longer a stranger — saved the day.

That's still not the end of the story, though.

The rest of the story is that the guest-post-writing stranger named Mary, the woman who saved my butt the day...twice...is this week's Grilled Grandma.

You've read her articles on grandparenting (and if not, go ahead, read them, then come back). Now it's time to read about her. Please give it up—meaning the clicks and the comments—for Grilled Grandma: Mary, an online angel who somehow magically knew I needed her, even before I knew that I did.

Now that, dear readers, is the end of the story. At least for now.

Call for guest posts: I'd like to throw a guest post or two into the mix during the time I'm away meeting my new grandson. If you would like to submit a 300- to 600-word post on any grandparenting topic (no ads or promotions, please), please e-mail it to me by Tuesday, June 14 for consideration and possible inclusion. Openings are limited, but I hope to fit in a few. Thank you!

Today's question:

When has a stranger made a difference in your life?

Giggling and grilling

I believe I've mentioned that I'm not really much of an LOL person, especially when reading things on the computer. I may snicker or smile, but LOLs are rare.

Every once in a while, though, I truly do LOL. This week's Grilled Grandma, Maryann, made me do just that with her response to my prompt of, "Describe a recent time when one (or more) of your grandchildren made you laugh out loud."

Here's what she said:

My grandchildren are always saying or doing something that makes me laugh. Most recently, while in church for Easter, my 3-year-old grandson was listening to the pastor speak about Jesus (this surprised us that he WAS listening!). The Pastor mentioned that Jesus died for our sins. My youngest grandson turned to his mother and shouted, "Jesus DIED???!!! When did THAT happen??" Of course, we were all trying to stop from laughing out loud. 

LOLs all around, for sure!

You'll find more to laugh about — plus some other awful sweet sentiments — in Grilled Grandma: Maryann. Please check it out and pass along some comment love to this delightful grandma.

Today's question:

Certain people in my life do make me LOL each and every time I'm around them. Who in your life most often makes you LOL?