And why exactly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a person have his cake and eat it too? That expression bothered me for years, and I think I have the hang of it now.<\/p>\n
As I alluded to in a column earlier this month, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult for people to agree on the meanings of terms we toss around, sometimes cavalierly.<\/p>\n
For example, my friend and co-writer Lupita Gonzales says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153having an ax to grind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d refers to a person seeking a favor. That person carries a dull ax in hopes of getting it sharpened, free of charge.<\/p>\n
As plausible as that rendition appears, a group of friends and relatives I visited during a recent occasion, insisted that the ax handler wants to settle a score and carries the tool for protection, or to inflict some damage.<\/p>\n
The safest thing to do is to look in reference works. But guess what: The sources I checked posit both interpretations, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re no farther ahead.<\/p>\n
The trouble is compounded in the belief that if I try to elucidate, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll obfuscate. Yes, in explaining, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably confuse readers even more.<\/p>\n
That was one of the expressions, old-time sayings, that I came across from a Games Magazine two weeks ago and invited readers to explain that they mean.<\/p>\n
When I retired from Highlands back in the Dark Ages, a colleague, Bruce Papier, gave me a going-away card that featured a voluptuous and skimpily clad woman named Edith. Alongside her image was that of a tempting three-layer cake. The card gave me a choice. But rather than confuse you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d again \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ask readers to explain what exactly Bruce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s card meant. Please email me your answers.<\/p>\n
Most of last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entrants scored 90 percent, some struggling with the 20th item in the second batch and declaring \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Clue.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My disclosure is that, lacking an answer sheet, I too, had no clue for some of them and let the majority rule.<\/p>\n
It was great to receive emails from so many readers, some of whom live in other states.<\/p>\n
The entrants were Michael Sweeney, who wants even more challenges; Randy Domingues, from Rociada; Gene Leger, from a Washington suburb named Springfield, Va., and who added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you know a Leger, you know a relative,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been away from Las Vegas for 43 years; Sonya Berg, a Las Vegan since 2006, and who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s active in the AAUW, Friends of Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge and Amnesty International; and of course, my perennial sister, Dorothy Maestas, who never lets a typo go unnoticed nor unpunished and who insists these puzzles are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153too easy!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Others who submitted emails based on the first batch of expressions included Phil Brown, a retired insurance broker from the Rociada area; and Geri Herrera, a former alumni director at Highlands University.<\/p>\n
These were the renderings of the expressions, disguised somewhat to represent the traditional meanings:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
It hurts to lose someone close. Dorothy Maestas (my sister mentioned above) and I (and two other siblings) lost our brother, Severino, last week.<\/p>\n
He died of complications from prostate cancer, a condition, he said, he ignored for too long.<\/p>\n
He grew up in Las Vegas and went \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as we all did \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to Immaculate Conception School for most of his education. Then he moved to Santa Fe and later to Albuquerque.<\/p>\n
As you might imagine, recent trips to see him and his family in Albuquerque, were frequent. Severino left us on the first day of winter, Dec. 21. Then came visits to his family, a rosary, funeral mass, reception and burial.<\/p>\n
And twice the threat of excessive snow almost forced us to return to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Because his death complicated our lives, I found it necessary to make a few changes regarding Work of Art. I wrote a reminiscing column that appeared in last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Optic but was unable to fulfill my promise to provide answers to the expressions that appear in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s issue.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping to return to the regular schedule at least by the New Year.<\/p>\n
And because of the outpouring of good wishes following our death in the family, I close with a traditional Gaelic blessing, one that has never failed to bring tears when I recite or sing it:<\/p>\n
May the road rise to meet you.
\nMay the wind blow at your back.
\nMay the sun shine warm upon your face.
\nMay the rain fall softly on your field,
\nand until we meet again,
\nMay God hold you in the palm of His hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And why exactly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a person have his cake and eat it too? That expression bothered me for years, and I think I have the hang of it now. As I alluded to in a column earlier this month, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult for people to agree on the meanings of terms we toss around, sometimes cavalierly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1461,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}