Viticulture Vocabulary

I had a grand time yesterday when Eleni, Emmy, Jason and Jesse came over to celebrate Eleni’s 36th birthday. Eleni bought me mole poblano for dunch (after lunch, before dinner) and Emmy and I worked on making scores of Valentine’s cards for her nursery school colleagues. Rubber stamps, red inks and heart-shaped hole punches were the tools of the day. Outside, we collected rolly-pollies in the sandbox and scrutinized them—and also mushrooms and sorrel—through my pocket lens. Ember had her first ever encounter with an earwig, an occasion marked with an eardrum-shattering scream and the refusal to continue digging through the sand in search of sow bugs.

Jesse is beginning to turn human, having established an interest in communication. He coos and gurgles and kicks and waves his arms and smiles in response to the sight of a cheerful face. Here’s proof.

[Editor’s note: the link to the video is no longer working.]

Eleni reminded me that I had uploaded a movie of Emmy at approximately the same age doing similar things with her little voice. The very beginning of language acquisition is fascinating and entertaining.

Molly told me about a Web site that sells steeply discounted wines, just one brand and variety at a time. It’s there until it’s sold out, and then a new wine pops up. The site, not surprisingly, is called WTSO (Wines Til Sold Out) and it’s quite addictive, looking at the great bargains on wines from around the world. But the best part is trolling through the blurbs looking for those inscrutable taste descriptors. What does “cinnamon spice box” mean? And how can “pencil lead” or “leather” be an attractive flavor? I don’t want my wine tasting like grilled bread, candy-floss, moss, mineral, earth, wood smoke, peppery licorice, herbal eucalyptus or violets. Who comes up with this nomenclature anyway?

Here’s an old NPR program I did about a wine-tasting competition, with lots of absurd descriptions of wine tastes:

Speaking of words, I’m still looking at Elance for freelance copy writing and copyediting opportunities. It’s a jungle out there. First, it’s very competitive. Out of scores of applications I’ve submitted, I’ve gotten only two jobs. One paid $15 for several hours of work. I haven’t gotten even a nibble in response to an application for over a month.

Then there are the strange topics:

• Ghost writer: Ebook on how to pick locks
• Write 25 high quality articles on gray hair
• Write an Ebook about lose fat and get nice toned abs
• Long Term Ghostwriter Position for Erotica Short Stories
• to writte a medical paper
• Father of Bride Wedding Toast
• Need a ghost writter and self plublishing set up. I have wrote down in my attachment of topics I want covers
• Infant curriculum writer
• Professional Blog Writter For Bat Removal Company

You’d be amazed at how many job posters say things like, “Need ghostwriter. I’m not a writer so i need help getting ideas into a book, i typed out my ideas. Can you help me?” Turning somebody’s ideas into a book—well, that’s, like, writing a book for someone else, and getting no credit for it to boot.

Finally, there’s the pay scale problem:

• $2 per 500 words–regular, long term
• Need Bible research to find relevant Biblical texts and passages. I need someone to find as much information in the Bible about diet, healthy eating, losing weight, and similar information as possible. Need exact Bible book chapter and verse quotations on anything and everything relating to maximizing health through diet. This can be direct information but also indirect, such as Jesus turning water into wine , references to Manna from heaven etc. Need very thorough information from new and old testaments. Also can include negative aspects of diet. Final product will be a list of the relevant quotations, no summarizing or interpretation necessary. Please respond with how you would approach the work and a price you would be comfortable. Budget is $20. May also go to a lower bidder.