SUBLIMATE

At 18 degrees F. it is difficult to remember that the high temperature Thursday was 70 degrees F. Friday morning, the streets were icy—the sort of ice that results from a light snow melting and freezing in a thin glaze. By Friday noon, the roads were as dry as though the ice had never existed. However, the temperature continued to drop and the snow continued so that by Friday evening the roads were mostly slush covered. I DO love winter so.

To occupy our idle hours during the (projected) snowy weekend, I rented some movies. Inside Man we had seen before, but it is good action/suspense even knowing the ending. Same for Firewall, which I wanted to watch with the captions—not that I’m hard of hearing ;^) but the actors mumble and whisper so these days. Or when one watches British films, the music swells over the conversation. We also watched Proud, the story of the USS Marshall, the first United States ship manned by African-American sailors. A bit slow in places, for a war film, but Ossie Davis and the historicity of the film is worth the rental price.

The word of the day for January 14, 2007 is “sublimate” — transitive verb 1: chemistry to cause (a solid or gas) to change state without becoming a liquid. 2 a: To modify the natural expression of (a primitive, instinctual impulse) in a socially acceptable manner. b: To divert the energy associated with (an unacceptable impulse or drive) into a personally and socially acceptable activity. intransitive verb : chemistry to transform directly from the solid to the gaseous state or from the gaseous to the solid state without becoming a liquid.

The quote for today is from William Shakespeare (1564–1616), King Richard, in Richard II, act 4, sc. 1, l. 260:

O that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water drops!

;^)