Go Out on a Limerick!

Okay, gang, here's your chance at 15 SECONDS OF RADIO FAME!!!!!

We here at KPBS are asking you, our listeners, to craft lively limericks about how you feel about public radio. Readers of this blog are invited to post 'em here by Oct. 2 (or if you're shy, send 'em to words@kpbs.org). If yours is selected, we'll read it on the air on our show on Oct. 22 -- and then your poem will be posted in a podcast in perpetuity! Wow. Talk about your bragging rights.

So sharpen your pencils and your wits and have at it!

Oh -- and one more thing keep 'em clean, folks. None of this "There was a hot chick from Kentucky . . . " business!

Sometimes an Orchid is Just an Orchid

Here's a radio interview I did just yesterday that proves, yet again, that etymology is nothing if not sexy.

Today's Word: lustrum

In ancient Rome, the lustrum was a ritual purification of the entire Roman population after the census every five years.

The English word lustrum (LUSS-trum) refers to that ancient practice, but has also come to mean more generally "a period of five years." So I guess you can say it's been a lustrum since Sept. 11, 2001. (Latin lustrum, by the way, means "purification," and related to such bright, resplendent, and lucid words as luster and illustrate -- literally, "to illuminate.")

She's Baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!

Okay, okay, I know it's been too long. Heck of a summer, and all kinds of computer woes to boot (don't get me started). But hey, I'm back in San Diego, and we're gearing up to start a brand-new recording season. Woohoo!

Meanwhile, here I am in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune, doing my best Eve-in-the-Garden-of-Eden imitation.