If you don’t know what to write, they say, just write. Don’t worry about what to write, just keep going. Of course, this isn’t really necessary when you’re writing for a blog. I could just not post anything. I’ve no problem taking a day off now and then. Only, at the moment, I’ve got a bit of an itch to write something. So I’m just going to write for a little bit and see where it takes me.

I had actually thought about writing something related to Anthony Scaramucci, about his fondness for obscenities, and about how his name has prompted a spate of searches for the word Scaramouche. But I’m already sick of him, and Trump’s revolving series of buffoons and blowhards. The whole thing’s so negative and depressing and downright stupid that I don’t want to devote too much time and thought to it at the moment. Anyway, I tweeted an old post today as I felt it apt in terms of Scaramucci’s fondness for swearing, so I believe I’ve contributed enough to the Internet on this particular issue.

Twitter is one of those words whose original meaning will probably be lost to history soon. I imagine most of us only think of it as the name of the website. Or app. The word originally of course referred to the sound of birdsong. And tweet refers to an individual little noise from a bird, or the song of a small one. And that’s why the logo is a bird. I suppose I should say Follow me on Twitter you guys! That’s how these things usually work. And do. Do follow me. It’s mostly just me retweeting stuff I’ve already written here, retweeting other interesting tweets, and having some interesting chats with interesting people, but head over there anyway. There’s only thing I find irritating about Twitter, and that’s how when you use it on a PC, it gives you a little notification on your tab (like on Facebook) to tell you there’s a new tweet from someone you follow. Once you follow more than a few people it’s just a constantly updating stream of notifications. What’s the point of it? I think it might be to annoy you into using the mobile app, which I mostly use anyway.

I used the word downright in the second paragraph, and thought about how strange it is. How do the words down and right together mean something like completely or absolutely? It seems like it comes from the concept of something being straight down, as in direct, without any distraction or deviation. Makes sense.

It’s Sunday, and of the names of all the days of the week, Sunday’s etymology is the most straightforward. It’s the day of the Sun. Monday’s the day of the Moon. The name for Tuesday in most Romance languages references the fact that the day was the day of Mars, the Roman god of war. In French it’s Mardi, and in Italian Martedi. Tuesday though, comes from the ancient Germanic god of war Tiw instead. I suppose it’s an interesting reflection of the English language’s combination of Latin and German. Wednesday comes from Woden’s Day, referring to Odin, the chief of the gods in Norse mythology, and a key figure in Germanic mythology. Thursday and Friday continue the Norse them, referring to Thor, Norse god of thunder with a successful late-career change as a superhero; and Frigga, wife of Odin. Finally, Saturday takes us back to Classical mythology, celebrating the day of Saturn, Roman god of agriculture.

Speaking of Rome, and Italy in general, I’d also thought about writing something about italics, specifically how I like to use them, and the etymology of the word. It’s a little interesting, but not enough for a whole post. It comes from the Latin italicus (Italian), and got its name because it was introduced in 1501 by the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius in his edition of the writings of Virgil, which was dedicated to Italy.

Ending a post is always very hard. You have to come to a natural conclusion and ideally leave your reader with some interesting point or image, or witty summation of everything that came before.  I imagine it’s very hard in any form of writing, but when you’re writing almost every day it’s quite hard sometimes. So, how’s your Sunday?