A Knack with Words

Call what you want.  Some people just have a talent, flair, aptitude, genius --with words.  I admire that.  Sometimes I think my admiration borders on envy, but in a harmless - sort of complimentary way.  It's all in the word choice and phrasing. Sometimes if you read carefully and/or listen well enough at the right time, you will discover a choice of words that captures it all. It is a rare "thing".

A friend of mine once said that he thought that James Michener, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, sold his epic novels by the pound. As I was struggling through one his longer works at that time (I think it was either Hawaii or Centennial), I could not help but agree. Then just the other day I read that that a particular book was an "endurance contest".  I so get that. Perfect. (Why is it that many of us are still at that point where we feel the need to finish an entire book even if it drags on and on? Actually -- now that I think about that -- I am sort of slowly moving beyond that particular torture.  I think the guilt for leaving a book unfinished lessens as I become more aware of my aging self.  So little time, so many "good" books to read.)

Two more examples and I will call it a day.  I can't remember where I heard this -- on TV or perhaps in a movie?  Maybe someone out there will remember and help me out.  Anyway -- someone was talking about some horrible event and called the mastermind behind it a "sick twist".   I think of that every time I find myself watching an episode of Criminal Minds.  That series is full of "sick twists".

Finally -- and I still am not sure that I get this one.  A character in a book I am currently reading refers to another as an "arrogant bellybutton".  That one makes me laugh out loud. It's all in the phrasing.