Do you ever read a phrase, and you can actually feel or hear it?
“…the slam of his childhood screen door.”
You can visualize that, right? I can hear the door slamming.
The phrase was included in The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith. It made me think about words – and how many good descriptive ones there are out there.
I tend to get stuck on common, overused ones…said, is, were, go, good, lovely, etc.
But…specificity can make a HUGE difference:
Car vs minivan
Soup vs lentil soup
Go vs meander
Sweater vs cardigan
Laundry soap vs Tide Stick
Walk vs strut (or sashay!!!)
Dog vs chihuahua
I have a few favorite tools I use to help me when I’m repeating the same words over and over again. Maybe they will help you get unstuck, too?
Related Words (relatedwords.com) – Sometimes I need more than just a synonym; I need a related word! It provides me with different words to consider.
Word Hippo (wordhippo.com) – This is my go-to thesaurus site.
Word Counter (wordcounter.net) – Paste your copy and run the program. A box in the bottom-right corner will show keyword density. How many times did you use “and,” or in the case of the last article in this newsletter…blanket! It’s really helpful if you repeat the same word over and over again.
Yes, many of us are merely writing an email or a quick text, but why not practice using more impactful words? That is one of my challenges for myself this year!
What is a spoonerism????
Do you ever accidentally use spoonerisms? I do – I just didn’t know they were called that!
A spoonerism occurs when the initial sounds of two or more words are transposed (lip my zips when you meant zip my lips).
Belly jeans (jelly beans)
Shake a tower (take a shower)
Roaring pain (pouring rain)
They are often intentionally used because they are funny!
In Season 3 of Ted Lasso (greatest show EVER), during the episode “Signs,” Rebecca Welton bumps into her ex-boyfriend, and he is referred to as a “shite in nining armor” (knight in shining armor).
Or, if you are a little older, you may remember Archie Campbell. He was a comedian, writer, and actor who starred on the show Hee Haw. He was known for using spoonerisms to tell stories, such as when he told the story of "RinderCella" (Cinderella) - the girl who "slopped her dripper" (dropped her slipper).
Do you ever use them?
A MUCH-NEEDED LAUGH!
INSPIRATION
Imagine receiving a photo of a blanket you had made for your mother-in-law from the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s office? Sent to you via Facebook. It would probably both confuse and panic you. Is it a scam? How did your blanket get into their hands?
When TikTok user @Angtastic checked her Facebook message, she was shocked to see a picture of a blanket she had made nine years earlier. She assumed it was a Christmas scam.
But, it wasn’t.
Someone in their office had ordered a photograph blanket like hers that same year, but had mistakenly gotten her blanket (NINE years ago)! The individual contacted the company, but the company told the person to just keep it. This person decided to wrap it up and include it in the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s white elephant gift exchange. For the past nine years, this blanket has been passed around during this exchange!
Finally, this year, they decided to try to track down the family featured on the blanket. When they discovered their beloved blanket family had been experiencing hardships, they delivered a lovely, unexpected act of kindness.
They tracked down this family’s GoFundMe and made a very large donation. (@Angtastic’s husband was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma, which has spread to multiple organs.) Additionally, on Dec. 23, the Santa Barbara office overnighted the blanket back to the family, so they could have it for Christmas.
“If they had decided to look us up any other year, we would have been a normal family. But something told them to look us up this year,” @Angtastic said in her TikTok video. “I want to share this story because I want people to know there are good people out there.”
So. Many. Good. People. In. Our. World.
If you’d like to see the group and the blanket, check out the TikTok video below. Let’s hold onto this reminder as we enter 2026 – there is far more good than bad in this world! 💛
Angtastic
#greenscreen I wanted to say thank you to The Santa Barbara District Attorneys Office. Thank you for your extremely generous donation, thank you for taking such good care of our blanket, and most of all, thank you for reminding me that miracles really can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time❤️ ALSO GO TO THE DERMATOLOGIST AND GET CHECKED YEARLY! My husband is only 40yrs young! #christmas #fyp #melanoma #cancer
♬ original sound - Angtastic
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