Louise Carroll: Being a wallflower, playing pickleball and other random thoughts

Louise Carroll
·4 min read

Random thoughts columns happen when my files get full of random facts, things I've heard or read, and I just have to share them with you. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you.

  • “If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together," poet Rita Dove.

  • The word wallflower means someone who doesn't mingle at an event, such as a party or dance. Usually, we use it to describe the ladies who are waiting to be asked to dance or not. Some years ago when I was in Jamaica, three of us were sitting on a bench outside the kitchen when James Folkes, who is the superintendent of the school, stopped to say good morning. I quipped, "We're the wallflowers."

I did not expect his reply.

"Yes, you are the wallflowers, you are decorating where you sit. You are lovely flowers," James said.

Obviously, he had never heard the expression. I like his take on wallflowers better.

  • "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win," author Stephen King.

  • A friend gave me ab article from a Tampa, Fla., newspaper about pickleball, an indoor or outdoor racket/paddle sport where two or four players hit a perforated hollow polymer ball over a 36-inch-high net using solid-faced paddles. The two sides hit the ball back and forth over the net until one side commits a rule infraction. The article said pickleball is becoming popular. Ellwood City was ahead of the curve. Some years ago when I was director of the Ellwood Area Family Center, we had men who played pickleball regularly so maybe some people will get the pickleball bug and start playing. The story is that is it called pickleball because the inventor's dog, named Pickle, retrieved the balls that went out of bounds.

  • "Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them," T.S. Eliot, poet, 1888-1965.

  • "James Madison was described as a nerd. Madison had two vice residents and they both died in office. Madison didn't appoint a third because he couldn't bear to kill again," From "Hottest Heads of State" by J.D. and Kate Dobson. I am enjoying this book.

  • Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in New York, the resting place of more than 80,000 pets, is the oldest continually operating establishment of its kind in the country. They have done research on the most popular names for dogs and cats. In 1930, the most popular dog name was Queenie, and in 1970 the most popular name for dogs was Brandy and for cats Ginger. In the 1980s, the favorite dog's name was Max and for cats was Tiger, and in the 1990s, for dogs was Max and cats Smokey. Other than Max, I never met any other pets with popular names. You can check out the entire article if pet names interest you. I had a cat named Queenie in the 1950s, and much later I had Tabby Ann, and my last cat was named Bird.

  • "There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other," Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author, 1902-83.

  • I like words that sound like what they are. I like the word listicle because it means an article or other writing structured in the form of a list.

  • "Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts," Leo Rosten, author, 1908-97. (Hmm, I think this might be true.)

  • "The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love," William Wordsworth, poet. 1770-1850. (I'm sure this one is true.)

  • In September 2022 there were 370 new words added to the dictionary. The dictionary chronicles how the language grows and changes, which means new words and definitions must continually be added.

  • New words happen when many people use a word in the same way, over a long enough period of time, and then that word becomes eligible for inclusion. I can’t imagine how they keep track of this. One new word is dumbphone meaning a cell phone that does not include advanced software features such as email or an internet browser. Since we have smartphones it makes sense to have dumbphones.

  • "The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there," Robert M. Pirsig, author and philosopher, 1928-2017.

This article originally appeared on Ellwood City Ledger: Carroll: Being a wallflower, playing pickleball and other random thoughts