Many years ago, I played Jonathon the psycho (type casting đ) in a production of Arsenic and Old Lace. After a read-thru, one of the actors asked the director what a blackjack was. The director didnât know either. I pointed out that it is a covered lead weight used to render people unconscious (in the series Blue Bloods, the cop patriarch calls it a slapper). The actor and director both looked amazed, and the young actor asked if I went home and read the dictionary. My response was no, but I do read.
Vocabulary is important to a writer. It allows you to pick the perfect word or phrase to describe a place or emotion. Vocabulary adds nuance and lets you focus your sentences around interesting action verbs. Vocabulary keeps the prose sounding fresh, rather than repetitious. Of course, it can be overdone, so that your work sounds pretentious or spooneristic (I think I invented this word đ), but you get the idea.
The main way I improve my vocabulary is through reading fiction and history. Recently, I have added the online word game called Zen Word. Itâs free and itâs supposed to be free of ads. This latter claim is BS, as there are many ads between levels. One of the most frequent ads is for an online solitaire game. There is nothing unusual about that, as solitaire is a widely played time passer among many age groups. But the solitaire game Iâm referring to is a bit differentâitâs a gambling version through PayPal.
Based on the ads, the target audience for this online gambling game seems to be young people, especially college kids. This makes sense, as young people game much more than older folks and often have a lot of disposable income. But the advertisers also tap into another aspect of youthânaivete. The focus of almost every ad is that it is so easy to win that you can use the game as an alternate source of income when you need money for gas or groceries. Heck, winning is so easy that you can make a career of it!
I guess youâd have to be young and naĂŻve to believe that the odds are in your favor with any gambling game. The advertisers seem to be counting on the fact that the players wonât ask the basic question--âwhy would somebody start a game for the purposes of sending me money?â Whereâs the profit in that?
Iâve come to believe that the modern education system has shamed logic out of the curriculum. This just seems to be another example.