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Hi folks, I'm on the road so the post will be short. This week I've been down to the Johnston Space Center in Houston and toured the simulators and checked out mission control. I've also kept my eye on the Mars landing and the possible discovery of water on the red planet. Those images of Mars are haunting. It's red, rocky and desolate. Everything about the space program inspires me to reach for the stars, but most of all it's the astronauts who make me think anything is possible.

I'm so inspired by the tenacity, fluidity and single mindedness of the astronauts. It takes all out efforts to get into space, and that strength to do whatever it takes helps me get up each morning and sit in that chair and make the magic happen. It also takes a person who goes with flow and moves with the ebb. This fluidity to lay hold of the task at hand lends me great strength. Last of all, you've got to sleep, eat, and taste that mission objective. That's the attitude that I want to bring to my novel writing. I want to wrap my mind around the mission objective and get it done.

And to bring this all around, my quote of the week:

“That some achieve great success is proof to all others that we can achieve it, as well.”

Abraham Lincoln


Doodle of the week: Some Bunny

Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permisison!

As OUP lexicographers monitor the linguistic radar for new words and meanings, sometimes we find a usage that appears novel but has actually been kicking around for quite a while. Consider the verb big-up, meaning ‘to praise or promote; to raise the profile of.’ Three recent quotes from American media sources give you a sense of how it’s being used these days. Here’s the actress Jaime Pressly critiquing the show “Ugly Betty”: “They’re purposefully big-upping the ugly fat girl to make everybody feel great, but it also glamorizes the fact that people are getting plastic surgery because they can.” The music blog Idolator had this to say about an “American Idol” contestant: “This is actually the second time that Hennessy has been big-upped by the Idol powers that be,” adding, “is big-upping this girl really the best strategy to boost ratings?” And finally a profile of Staten Island’s Budos Band notes: “Legit blogs like Brooklyn Vegan and online publications like Pitchfork and RollingStone.com have also big-upped the band.” This might be the verb of the moment in hip, pop-culture-savvy varieties of American English, but it already has a long history in Caribbean and British English.
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