Susan Finch Solutions

Weekly Word Challenge

I didn't like the word of the week, and didn't do so well on the vocabulary test. Giving Thanks is the theme, give it a spin:

1. bread-and-butter: (a) simple and inexpensive; (b) meager; (c) expressing sadness; (d) sent or given as thanks for hospitality.

2. Anatolia: (a) the part of Turkey comprising the peninsula of Asia Minor; (b) the part of a turkey comprising the beak, waddles, and nostrils; (c) first name of the wife of Miles Standish, a Pilgrim leader; (d) the sister ship of the Mayflower.

3. gallinaceous: (a) an expression of surprise or exhortation; (b) of or relating to turkeys; (c) of, relating to, or resembling deer; (d) of, relating to, or characteristic of fish.

4. Pilgrim Thanksgiving fare: (a) duck; (b) venison; (c) fish; (d) all the above.

5. Bradford: (a) the English king in 1620; (b) the second Pilgrim sailing ship to arrive at Cape Cod, in 1621; (c) the Pilgrim leader; (d) the original name of the first Pilgrim settlement.

6. decapod: (a) Indian beans; (b) a large ten-pointed spar projecting forward from the stem of a ship; (c) a subterranean food cache, usually for winter storage; (d) lobster.

7. throe: (a) a light coverlet (as for a bed) made from woven reeds; (b) the succulent part of herbaceous plants; (c) a hard or painful struggle; (d) a braided cord or fabric (as of plaited rope yarns).

8. blunderbuss: (a) a gross error or mistake resulting usually from stupidity, ignorance, or carelessness; (b) a muzzle-loading firearm with a short barrel and flaring muzzle to facilitate loading; (c) wide breeches worn especially in England during the reign of Charles II; (d) a man's close-fitting jacket worn in Europe especially during the Renaissance.

9. Massasoit: (a) a hardy strain of corn developed by the Pilgrims; (b) a native dish of boiled squash, turnips, and onions; (c) a variety of crested wheatgrass cultivated by the Pilgrims with the help of the Native Americans they met; (d) sachem (leader) of the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans.

10. Deo gratias: (a) day of thanksgiving; (b) thanks (be) to God; (c) a muted compliment; (d) have a thankful day.

Antecedent Agreement, a personal favorite

This must be one of the biggest problems I have in my writing.  My husband is always catching me in these little mismatches.  The folks at ProofreadNOW.com also helped me with my sore-spot while helping me edit my book, "Dino Manners."

The word antecedent is a fancy name for a substantive word, phrase, or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun. (How's that for bantering around the Thanksgiving table Thursday?) For example, in the sentence I am true to my school, the antecedent is the pronoun I and the referring pronoun is my. (Hint: ante essentially means "before." The antecedent shows up before the pronoun referring to it.) A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and person.

How to unfriend a friend, courtesy of KATU News.

This is one professional's advice on how to "unfriend" a friend.  So hard. harder now with so many venues to know friends, make friends and irritate friends. 

Undoing friendships is more complicated with social networking. Life Transitions Coach Diane Dennis had advice for breaking off the relationship.

Veterans Rock

You may think of yourself as a 'veteran' lawyer or a 'veteran' marketer or a 'veteran' publisher. But Wednesday, November 11, is not set apart for you unless you are a true 'veteran' - someone who has endured hardship and danger, in a military uniform, for the sake of country. We honor our living veterans (it's not Memorial Day!) this day and (hopefully) every day. Thank you, veterans, for your sacrifice. Now, if you are a veteran, perhaps you know today's words.

1. aerographer's mate: (a) military airplanes; (b) a navy petty officer specializing in meteorology; (c) a military base intended chiefly for the operation of aircraft; (d) a United States military decoration awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in an aerial flight.

2. regimentals: (a) military dress; (b) a register of the officers and men in a military unit or ship's company; (c) compulsory enrollment of persons especially for military service; (d) in a military manner.

3. sapper: (a) a shoulder cord worn by designated military aides; (b) one that is effective; especially: a soldier equipped for duty; (c) a supermarket for military personnel; (d) a military demolitions specialist.

4. adjutant: (a) to convert from military to civilian status or control; (b) a staff officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who assists the commanding officer and is responsible especially for correspondence; (c) a period of general stability in international affairs under the influence of dominant military power; (d) improvisation or experimentation (as in politics or military or foreign affairs) in the absence or in defiance of accepted plans or principles.

5. gig: (a) a difficult and dangerous military retreat; (b) a military demerit; (c) a sleeve badge that usually consists of one or more chevron-shaped stripes that indicates the wearer's rank and service (as in the armed forces); (d) a small portable boat used in an amphibious military attack or in land warfare for crossing rivers or lakes.

6. detached service: (a) to postpone induction of (a person) into military service; (b) to discharge from military service; (c) military service away from one's assigned organization; (d) the initial period of training of a military recruit.

7. brevet: (a) a commission giving a military officer higher nominal rank than that for which pay is received; (b) a building housing bathing and toilet facilities on a military base; (c) classification as unfit for military service; (d) an army medical corpsman attached to a field unit.

8. guidon: (a) a place for the storage of military supplies; (b) a relaxation of status of a military unit or force from an alert or operational posture; (c) a small flag borne by a military unit as a unit marker; (d) a military barracks in a garrison town.

9. hedgehog: (a) a flat-bottomed military vehicle that moves on tracks on land or water; (b) a military defensive obstacle (as of barbed wire); (c) a large-scale military offensive undertaken by a force previously on the defensive; (d) to retreat during a military action.

10. echelon: (a) an arrangement of a body of troops with its units each somewhat to the left or right of the one in the rear like a series of steps; (b) a military officer who directs from a forward position on the ground or in the air the action of combat aircraft engaged in close air support of land forces; (c) a trained soldier formerly posted in front of a line of soldiers at drill to serve as a model in their exercises; (d)

Writing the Draft

Whether you're planning a brochure, an advertisement, an annual report, or a corporate overview, there are steps you can take to make your document more convincing and attractive in the minds of your readers. You'll need to make one or more arguments that the subject matter is important, that it will affect the reader, and that the reader needs to know now about how he or she may need to prepare. Okay, in the past two weeks we covered goal-setting and making your outline. We're nearing the end of this series. After reading all our tips, we hope you'll be a better writer! Today, we'll discuss the draft.

Professional writers keep the following practical points in mind as they begin their first draft.

Choose a Time and Place Carefully. Sure, you can write almost anywhere: on a train, in front of the TV (but it won't be good), or waiting your turn on the Jeopardy

Mahina Young Charitable Fund Preparing for Tee Off

Through a referral, I was approached by the Mahina Young Charitable Fund to create a logo package and website for them.  As a 501c3, they don't have a big budget for regular maintenance and needed a way to update it regularly.  They also needed a way to get the word out quickly regarding their annual golf tournament.

We seem to have accomplished all of their goals.

Outline Your Next Writing Project

Whether you're planning a brochure, an advertisement, an annual report, or a corporate overview, there are steps you can take to make your document more convincing and attractive in the minds of your readers. You'll need to make one or more arguments that the subject matter is important, that it will affect the reader, and that the reader needs to know now about how he or she may need to prepare. Last week we talked about setting goals for your project. This week we'll cover the outline. Next week, we'll discuss the draft.

A Little Challenge and Word of the Week

November was the ninth month in the ancient Roman calendar. The World Series is under way and each game so far has gone no more than nine innings. We are nine days away from Friday the 13th. Nine is the atomic number of fluorine. We're obsessed with nine today. Can you tell?


1. nonagon: (a) a game of cards with up to four players, each with nine cards, the object of which is to obtain nine consecutive cards through drawing and discarding;
(b) a bowling pin used in ninepins;
(c) a polygon of nine angles and nine sides;
(d) a combination of nine instruments or voices.

2. an English unit of length equal to nine inches:
(a) span; (b) arc; (c) ninch; (d) sector.

3. the ninth muse of Greek mythology:
(a) Calliope; (b) Urania; (c) Thalia; (d) Talitha.

4. earned run average:
(a) the average number of earned runs per game scored against a pitcher in baseball determined by dividing the total of earned runs scored against him by the total number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine;
(b) the average number of runs a player scores in a game, calculated by dividing the number of actual runs in a season by the number of games played in a season;
(c) average runs per game, calculated by dividing a teams' runs scored in a season by nine (innings per game);
(d) a batter's batting percentage divided by nine.

5. a person whose age is in the nineties:
(a) ninogenerian; (b) nimogenerian; (c) nonagenarian; (d) nanogenerian.

6. balkline: (a) an imaginary line nine inches off the pitcher's mound, beyond which if a pitcher steps while pitching, he is called on a balk;
(b) a fishing line used by fishermen to catch squid;
(c) a whip made of usually nine knotted lines or cords fastened to a handle;
(d) one of four lines parallel to the cushions of a billiard table dividing it into nine compartments.

7. novena:
(a) a Roman Catholic period of prayer lasting nine consecutive days;
(b) a period of blindness and fasting (Acts 9:9);
(c) the first nine years of a royal reign;
(d) a hand in poker consisting of all nines.

8. a group of nine:
(a) ennead; (b) mennead; (c) minead; (d) monead.

9. stanine:
(a) the ninth light of a menorah;
(b) having nine units or members;
(c) a system of measurement or currency in which the basic units increase by powers of 9;
(d) any of the nine classes into which a set of normalized standard scores arranged according to rank in educational testing are divided.

10. Yarborough:
(a) the ninth Duke of York;
(b) a hand in bridge or whist containing no ace and no card higher than a nine;
(c) the ninth-ever winner of the Daytona 500;

(d) all the above.

When transforming an original image, when does the original copyright end?

The LA Times covers a current lawsuit over the issues of what is Fair Use of an image. The street artist in question truly muddied the case by originally lying about his sources of the image and fabricating fake sources to cover himself.  The author of the iconic Obama image took an AP Photo, then used only the outline of it, and added his own colors to it. The question is where does the Associated Press copyright end?