If you add two letters to GOAT and rearrange the result, you get another animal, AGOUTI — a tropical rodent. I'm going to name some other animals. For each one add two letters and scramble to name another animal.
1. BEAR + D & G
2. SEAL + E & W
3. COLT + E & O
4. COBRA + I & U
5. ANGORA + K & O
6. PEAHEN + L & T
7. MALLARD + I & O
Answer Keys
1. badger
2. weasel
3. ocelot
4. caribou
5. kangaroo
6. elephant
7. armadillo
Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary
Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves
traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures. As a single
father who lost his wife to drug overdose 10 years ago, he has not been his old
perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds
of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world.
Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given
him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or being
truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him
with some food for thoughts in life….. or a fodder to justify his own mistakes
in the past.
Episode # 99. Soul Train Project
When Jeremy gave me an estimated expense for the time-travel
program, I was a bit taken aback at its steep price that I’d need to
pay. I said to myself ‘Whoa….is it really worth all that money?’, but I found
myself already signing a ton of pages in the packet presented right in front of
my eyes by Jeremy, the director of this huge virtual program for people like
me. He said there were a lot of people waiting for their turns to walk down
memory lane through this unprecedented platform, which meant that I was
supposed to make up my mind in any time soon before I might lose this
once-in-a-lifetime chance. As I was turning in the completely signed packet of forms
for the applicant passengers, I suddenly felt headaches and told Jeremy that my
hesitance must make me look so asinine. He laughed and said “Dr. J, you’re
not the only passenger that hesitates in the beginning of participation. Trust
me. You won’t regret your decision to be on this program, and I know you’re not
a malingerer. Quite a few passengers complain of headaches, sudden jolts
of pain in their stomach, clueless paresthesia, and sleepless nights
before they come for the ride. No worries. Just come only with excitement and
peaceful thoughts about your journey to the past in your life.”
Yes, I was immensely nervous and could hardly believe
that I’d be able to reconnect with my beloved wife Demi who left for Heaven
long ago. For so many nights and days leading up to the D-day, I had thought
over and over again about what I should say, visualizing in my head how I would
react when this unbelievable thing took place. ‘What if I’d end up feeling all
this like a total waste of time or some kind of a very pricey chicanery?
What if I storm out of the place, furiously yelling at Jeremy “In
your face!!!” ?’ But I knew it was too late to sklent from the truth
that I should’ve faced one day when Demi was alive in my life.
Making the effort to breathe the right way with hundreds
of deep inhales and exhales wasn’t good enough for quieting my racing heartbeats
on the edge of my seat, wearing a weird-looking head-mounted device. Jeremy’s
and his staff researchers’ voices in my headset gradually sounded surreal and finally
got out of my earshot. It was the moment to take off for this long-awaited
and never dreamt-of journey to see my Demi. I heard her voice now from a
distance. All at once, I was struggling to stand up in my ski boots. As I was
pulling myself together, I saw the most beautiful 28-year-old woman named Demi
reaching out her hand to help me out, saying “You made a huge sitzmark
right there, honey!” The sound of her big laugh, the touch of her hand, and the
sweetness of her soft voice raised me up right away. Demi went on to say “Honey,
you’re shivering. Are you okay, hon?” I could not tell if it was the chilly air
of the ski resort or the inexpressible emotion that came rushing through my
mind, but I knew I was trembling and lost for words. I held her in my arms for
quite a long time without a word. Demi looked me in the eye and said “you’re
still silly, being so painfully quiet. Well….but I like the way you look at me.
‘Cause I know I’m the only one for you.” Just as I would leave big sitzmarks in
ski slopes, Demi left a huge dent in my heart when she passed.
Demi and I had hours of a long talk full of tears and laughs
for the very first time in my life. Seeing her off at the dock where we used to
walk around, I asked her to keep me in her memory in the place above. She said “yes,
but only on one condition. Promise me that you won’t hurry your way here. I’ll always
be right here when you are ready to see me again.”
When Jeremy’s voice started to be heard again from a distance,
I came back to my world again where there’s no shadow of Demi’s I could hold on
to. Funny that I found myself hesitating again at the end of this virtual journey
like I did in the beginning. I wished that I would fade away into somewhere in
the memory lane with Demi once and for all.
Expressions
1. to be taken aback at something: to be surprised by/ shocked at…
2.
to walk
down memory lane: to spend time thinking about and remembering the
past or going to a place again in order to remind oneself of past experiences
3. asinine: stupid/ silly/absurd
4. malingerer: somebody who pretends to be ill
5. paresthesia: an abnormal sensation, typically tingling or
pricking (“pins and needles”), caused chiefly by pressure on or damage to
peripheral nerves
6.
chicanery:
guile, shenanigan, trickery, wile, dupery,
fraud, fraudulence, hoax
7.
to storm
out of (a place): to leave a place
quickly when you are angry or upset about something
8. in your face: slang that refers to
‘behaving or done in a direct, often rude way that
is annoying and cannot be ignored’
9. to sklent from…: to deviate from …
10. out of
one’s earshot: too far away to
hear
11. sitzmark:
a dent/ sunken area left in the snow by a skier
falling backward
*Picture
Source: https://www.wowza.com/blog/immersive-video-extended-reality
& https://www.greenbiz.com/article/its-time-bridge-clean-energy-partisan-divide
I'm going to give you some six-letter words. For each one change one consonant to a vowel to make another common, uncapitalized word. Which consonant you change is for you to discover.
Ex. DEFECT --> DEFEAT
1. STARCH
2. DENTAL
3. PRISON
4. WRIGHT
5. GRANGE
6. PHONEY
7. CASING (two answers)
Answer Keys
1. search
(t in ‘starch’ changes into e in ‘search’)
2. denial
(t in ‘dental’ changes into I in ‘denial’)
3. poison
(r in ‘prison’ changes into o in ‘poison’)
4. weight
(r in ‘wright’ changes into e in ‘weight’)
5. orange
(g in ‘grange’ changes into o ‘orange’)
6. phooey
(n in ‘phoney’ changes into o in ‘phooey’)
7. casino
(g in ‘casing’ changes into o in ‘casino) & easing (c in ‘casing’ changes
into e in ‘easing’)
Lunar new year is fast-approaching, and a lot of Asian countries are celebrating the lunar new year’s day with a traditional feast. What are you eating to celebrate the new year in your culture?
Have you heard or tried a dish called Hoppin’ John? It is
a dish traditionally eaten in the southern United States on New Year’s Day. Hoppin’
John is mainly associated with North and South Carolina and Georgia. Historians
believe that the recipe was created by people from _______________ who were
enslaved; they had introduced black-eyed peas to America and grew them in small
gardens on rice plantations. Dating back to the early 1800s, it is made with black-eye
peas (a.k.a. cow peas), rice, and pork (in the form of bacon or ham). The meal
can also include collard greens and corn bread. New Year’s Day is the
traditional day to eat Hoppin’ John. Any leftovers can be enjoyed on later
days, but be aware that the name of the dish changes to Skippin’ Jenny.
Stretching the dish into leftovers demonstrates your sense of frugality and
promises even greater prosperity in the new year!
Care for some fun trivia about Hoppin’ John
by filling in the given blanks below.
The ingredients in Hoppin’ John have symbolic importance,
and eating this on New Year’s Day pretends good fortune in the new year.:
1.
Black-eyed peas represent
___________________.
2.
Collard greens represent ___________________.
3.
Corn bread represents _________________.
4.
Pork, especially hem hocks, recall the cheap
cuts of meat provided to ________________ people.
5.
Tomatoes represent ________________.
6.
As for the origin of the dish Hoppin’ John,
one source suggests that Hoppin’ John was a handicapped man who cooked and sold
the dish in Charleston, South ______________ in 1841. A more dubious explanation
suggests that in South ____________, it was customary to invite a guest to
dinner by saying “_____________ in, John!”
Answer Keys
1. coins
2. greenbacks/
dollars/ cash
3. gold
4. enslaved
5. health
6. Carolina,
Carolina, Hop in!
Here’s a recipe for making Hoppin’ John!
Ingredients:
4 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped
½ cup f yellow onions, chopped
2 cups of cooked black-eyed
peas or 2 packages (10 oz each) frozen black-eyed peas
½ cup of white rice
(Carolina Gold rice preferred) or brown rice of your choice (fully soaked in
water over night)
¼ teaspoon of crushed red
pepper flakes (or Cayenne pepper)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
Instructions:
1. In a
Dutch oven, cook bacon. Add onions until bacon is crisp and onions are soft.
2. Add
black-eyed peas, rice, 1 cup of water, and red pepper flakes.
3. Cover
and simmer over low heat until rice is cooked, about 20 to 25 minutes. Toss
with salt and pepper and serve immediately!
Every answer today is a word that has somewhere inside it a common family name. I'll give you the family names and clues to the words. You tell me the words.
Ex. RICE / Muscle of the upper arm --> TRICEPS
1. LANE / Earth or Mars
2. MARTIN / Hurting, as from a sting
3. WEST / Filled with astonishment
4. COOPER / Refusing to help, as in an investigation
5. CHANG / Hevenly being of a very high rank
6. ELLIS / Infernal
7. ROMAN / To oversee every single detail of
Answer Keys
1. planet
2. smarting
3. awestruck
4. uncooperative
5. archangel
6. Hellish
7. micromanage
Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary
Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves
traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures. As a single
father who lost his wife to drug overdose 10 years ago, he has not been his old
perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds
of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world.
Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given
him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or being
truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him
with some food for thoughts in life….. or a fodder to justify his own mistakes
in the past.
Episode # 98. My Patients’ New Year Resolutions
On the first week of January, I’d always made it a rule
to share my new year’s resolutions with my patients in the group therapy
sessions. Although I was not fortunate enough to stay connected with each and
every patient who shared their new year plans after the period of consultations
and therapy was over, I still find myself brimming over with a lot of emotions
and feelings that I had back in those days with my patients who willingly
shared what was on their mind.
Here’s some of their new year resolutions collected in my
note.
“I will surely be more active and outdoorsy
this year. I need more sunrays in my life.”
“I am not going to take things too seriously
or personally, cause I have realized people are not quite interested in me as
much as I guess they do.”
“I will give myself at least one full hour to
meditate. I don’t mean that I am sitting on the yoga mat with a fancy diffuser near
me. I’ll just keep myself shut off from hustle and bustle of life
and noise in any comfortable place of mine…. like inside my car, at a park
nearby, or in my bathtub.”
“I will live my life as a spearhead of
helping hands for the homeless in my area. I will share my home-baked madeleines
with them at least once a week.”
“I will try to stand my friend’s hauteur
this year. Her stuck-up attitude annoys me, but I guess she needs somebody to wow.
I’ll just try to take it this year, because… she’s a lonely one and I am her
friend.”
“I will temporarily deactivate or eventually
leave my social media activities. It is not because it feels like a waste of time,
but because I am affected by random accusers or haters.”
“I want to travel more to make momentous
memories in some places that I haven’t been to.”
“I hope to ditch my bad habit of retail
therapy before I break the bank this year.”
“I will do right by my wife who always
takes good care of me.”
“I will see my close buddies living apart
from me more often this year.”
Expressions
1. hustle and bustle of: noisy, energetic, and often obtrusive activity
2. spearhead: leader in the forefront of something
3. hauteur: haughtiness of manner; disdainful pride
4. momentous: (of a decision, event, or change) of great
importance or significance, especially in its bearing on the future
5. to ditch something: to get rid of something/ to give up something
6. retail therapy: shopping in order to make oneself feel happier
7. to do right by someone: to treat someone kindly
Care for some silly but fun, brain-teasing riddles? E.g., What gets shorter as it grows older? => answer: a candle 1. ...
