| Ultracrepidarianism |
| Have you ever seen a word and thought– I wonder what that means? Maybe I could use that word. Well, here’s one that is a little different. Ultracredpidarianism means ‘the habit of giving advice outside one’s knowledge or competence’. Great word, huh? And it reaches back to 325 AD. It kind of fits with my favourite saying for authors –‘Write what you know!’ |
| I am in the process of writing a memoir called THE HOMESTEAD. Here is an excerpt- My Parents Dad’s father, George, was one of twelve children. He was born in Upper Canada and moved with his whole family to the Canadian Prairies when the land opened up for homesteading in the 1880’s and they all claimed land. Dad was born in Sintaluta, southern Saskatchewan. When he was one and a half years old, in February of 1919, his mother, Emily Annie, died of the Spanish flu. George’s mother, Hannah Ruth, my father’s grandmother, died of the flu the following day, and the two funeral services were held at the same time in the local village church. According to one of my cousins who knew George, our grandfather was devastated by these losses, and more or less gave up. However, he continued to farm with his father and his brothers. Each one of them had claimed some land and they used their horses and equipment in a united effort to work the soil. A couple of years later, snow came early to the Prairies. The family had harvested their father’s crop and were working down the list of brothers from oldest to youngest. George was the last brother, and before they got to his land the snow had flattened his crop, demolishing his total income for the year. Unable to pay his taxes, he lost his land, and took his family of six motherless children by train, moving them to Nipawin, in northern Saskatchewan. He set up shop in the small town as a saw and knife sharpener. |
| Does this resonate with you? Do you have knowledge of homesteading, or setting out into the wilderness to create a farmstead? Send me an email at sylviegraysonauthor@gmail.com to tell me of your experience. I’d love to hear from you. |
My joke for you today is a series of questions–
If a man is talking in the middle of a forest with no one to hear him, is he still wrong?
Is there another word for synonym?
Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do ‘practice’?
Would a fly without wings be called a ‘walk’?
What do you do when you see an endangered animal eat an endangered plant?
Send me your favourite joke so I can use it in my newsletter.
Best,
Sylvie Grayson
