Wordy Wednesday – Loided

It doesn’t happen often, not when I’m reading fiction anyway.

I got hit with a word this week that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. And, silly me, I thought it might be a typo, so I stopped immediately and looked it up. Had I kept reading to the end of the sentence, I would have gleaned its meaning from the context.

But still, it was a surprise to see a completely unfamiliar word tucked into the pages (pixels actually, but whatever) of a paranormal romance. (Real paranormal, by the way. Ghosts. Mind control. Things going bump in the night. No sparkly vampires to be seen!)

I don't think you can loid this door.

I don’t think you can loid this door.

The word in question: Loided.

According to Dictionary.com, Loid means to open a locked door by using a piece of celluloid or plastic to spring the latch.

In other words, it’s using a credit card to jimmy the lock!

The term probably originated in the late 50s, and obviously comes from a shortening of the word celluloid, that old-fangled stuff we used to call film. It’s a little like plastic, but made of entirely different materials.

Apparently, some kinds of film are (or used to be) stiff and heavy enough to pop a latch on a door. Who knew?

So next time you’re writing a heist story set in the 60s, you have a great new word you can weave into your story.

You’re welcome.

Wordy Wednesday – Whelmed by my week

I had such good intentions.

After my success in keeping up with my April Challenge, I thought I was heading into May with great momentum.

I was going to start on Monday with a blog post. (fail) I was going to get one up today also. (near fail… it’s 11:30pm as I type this)

So what happened?

First I felt a tremendous need to just take the weekend off from writing altogether. I was drained and exhausted from a busy April, and I needed time to recharge.

Then Monday we had some family business to take care of. That meant getting up earlier than usual. (Not outrageously early, mind. But I do tend to be a bit of a night owl, so it was earlier than I prefer.) Once things settled down and I had my time to myself, I completely forgot about posting here. Almost excusable. Sort of.

Then Tuesday, I overslept. (Can I blame my sleep cycle disruption from Monday?) And I had a pretty massive project that I needed to get done – layout and printing of 50 different greeting cards from pictures that I’ve taken. They were needed for someone else’s part of an event I’m involved with, so it wasn’t a project I could really put off. I spent the better part of my afternoon and most of my evening on that, then spent some time in the evening with the husband. So much for Tuesday.

Today (Wednesday) I drove a friend to a doctor’s appointment. A few hours turned into all day when we met up with some other friends for coffee in the early afternoon, and then discovered she was locked out of her house.

By the time I got home today, close to 5:00pm, I was spent. I felt run over. Buried. Whelmed.

Or overwhelmed if you prefer. It’s not that any particular event on its own took so much out of me. But I am decidedly an introvert, and I like my schedule. When I’m around people for too long, doing things I don’t have much control over, … let’s just say it takes it’s toll.

So here I am, 3 days into my week and nothing much show for it. I’ve fiddled with some words… have a story idea that I think I like. But when whelmed by life, my brain doesn’t work well. My muse runs to hide. All I can do is drain my phone playing Candy Crush.

Not good. Not at all. I am singularly underwhelmed by my writing performance this week so far.

Here’s hoping for better focus tomorrow.

Interested in knowing more about the etymology and meaning of the word Whelmed? Go here!

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