14 Comments
Oct 2Liked by Rebecca Holden

Hm. "Nominative determinism".... For a while there I thought I'd missed something in Latin class.

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LOL! I’m sure if I’d ever taken Latin class I’d’ve missed plenty, Mark! Thanks so much for reading. 😊

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Oct 2Liked by Rebecca Holden

Adam Weiner! That just cracked me up, Rebecca. ‘Aptronym’ is a new word for me. We have an oral surgeon in town whose name is Dr. Slaughter. I chose a different one. I remember walking by a medical office in Munich, whose list of doctors included Dr. Lust. I remember thinking. " I hope he is not a gynecologist." As for Bill Bryson, he is my hero. Such a funny, funny, man. I strive to write my short travel tales looking over his shoulder. His "Notes From a Small Island" is excellent, too.

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‘Dr Slaughter’ - oh wow, I think I’ll stick with Dr Payne, thanks! A local firm of accounts around here is called ‘Swindells’! 🤣 Always makes me laugh when I see their sign!

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I once worked with a Nurse Nurse.

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Oh wow! That’s brilliant! 🙌

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Rebecca, I'm so glad you lived through the long-boiled Brussels sprouts experience. Any boiling of Brussels sprouts is a deal-breaker for me. Blech!

Have I asked you already if you've read Bryson's A Walk in the Woods? If not, it's a must-add to your TBR list.

Passing on the puzzle-solving today. I've been backlogged by email for days now, and I'm determined to get them cleared out before the weekend!

Your closing line! 😂

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Thanks, Elizabeth! I love B sprouts - they're nearly in season again, hurrah, hurrah! I'm as crazy about them in winter as I am about asparagus in April/May!

Actually, it was 'A Walk in the Woods' which had switched me back on to Bryson recently - I picked up a copy from the church sale earlier in the summer and found it absolutely enthralling. I love travel memoirs, particularly ones about propelling one's own body through the landscape (Wild, Coasting, The Salt Path, etc), and AWITW was brilliant - and hilarious! I pinched 'Neither Here nor There' from Mum and Dad's bookshelf recently, and I'll be raiding it again for another Bryson soon.

I can relate to your e-mail backlog. My mail program's been sending rude bounce-back messages to people to say that my inbox can't accommodate any more. And as for my Substack reading, well, let's just say I'm always playing catch-up! 🤣

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To clarify, I love Brussels sprouts, too. But not BOILED! Roasted for me, please, with garlic. :)

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Ooooh, I don’t think I’ve ever had a roasted sprout! I shall have to try doing that. I boil mine for three minutes - I set a timer - so that they’re still firm, bright green (naturally so, no bicarb required!) and taste delicious. Jim still talks about Christmases when ‘the sprouts could be flattened with just the weight of a fork’. Yuck yuck yuck! 🤣

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Here's one idea. I'd add some chopped garlic, but I add chopped garlic to almost everything. I've never been approached by a vampire, so there's that. 🧛

https://www.loveandlemons.com/roasted-brussels-sprouts/#wprm-recipe-container-43212

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Oooooh, yummy! Definitely going to try that lemon and parmesan combo!

LOL vampires! 🤣

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Oct 12Liked by Rebecca Holden

My children’s doctor who pulled their wisdom teeth was Dr Grippo.

So best way to cook Brussels is to cut them in half and broil them with bacon. Everything is better with bacon! (Chopped up bacon)

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Dr Grippo!!!!!!!! Oh, that’s BRILLIANT!!!!!!!

I agree wholeheartedly with your compliment to bacon. 🥓

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