Katrina: I read all the way through. I’d love to play the game but I am not in a job where I could practice it.
I love reverse peristalsis, I must figure a way of using it, so that it appears to be a compliment.

My pleasure, peep.

KATRINA–Thank you for words that heal.

my puppeh has a ball exactly like that but in red, she loves it so much that she tore it to pieces and we had to buy her a new one, which we bring out on special occasions only

Totalee Puppy- I’m so sorry for your loss. I know what you mean about CO.
Take it one day at a time and one minute at a time when necessary. If there are others who rely on you, let them know that your collective grief is real and that it will take time to work through it. Be kind, or try to be, to yourself and others.

CO is a wonderful way to remember that there are still wonderful and funny things and people in the world.

An elevator in one job site that I was on read “In case of fire use stairs”
and someone scribbled over the word stairs and wrote “use water”. In other words, be a creative thinker, and you will create a new ‘normal’ for yourself and others. Best wishes, Katrina

KATRINA…Thanks for the compliment. I’ve been dealing with some grief lately because we’ve had a death in the family. Nothing’s been quite the same, but your encouragement will help a lot to get back to my former self. Cute Overload
is comforting, like a nap with a favorite blanket.

Thanks Totalee Puppy, again you are a gracious reader.(And probably the only person who read all the way through!) K.

KATRINA…Your words are delightful…This is no buzz…

Oh, oh, oh, nobody took the chance to explain “Buzz Word Bingo”- allow me: and feel free to add/subtract, scoff at my interpretation:

A “Buzz Word” is one of the words or short phrases that are said either: 1) too often it makes one vomit or 2) are meaningless outside a Tiiahhny circle of jargon-speakers, preferrably both. Buzz words, while often “Actual English Words” are non communicative- as one of our peeps said that her boss says things she cannot fathom. (Lousy Boss by the way, IMHO).

So, knowing that a meeting is coming up you and a coworker-who-can-also-keep- a-straight-face-under-the- sublime-pressure-of- winning, make a grid of those words that the boss is likely to say during the meeting. If, like me, you have to take minutes of the meeting you have a third and almost awe-inspiring task of listening on three levels, which,to my mind, gives my brain enough to do that the meeting can be enjoyable. The Grid: a (small) piece of paper with the aforementioned uncommunicative/reverse peristalsis-inducing words written in columns and rows, and you can make it as difficult or as easy as you wish. I always set mine of the difficult side. Some people even noted the time the word was said- I never got that obsessive. The person with whom you are playing has many of the same words, only in a different order in the columns and rows. My partner and I would write down a grid (looking like a BINGO chart with words/phrases) and then trade.

As your Boss drones on, every time he or she uses a “Buzz Word/Phrase”, you would quietly check it off or circle it (whichever one could reasonably get away with doing at the meeting table). The winner can be the person who has all of the words listed and checked off, or a person with the most. (Am I going to get anyone fired from playing this? I hope not.) For our foreign peeps, this is a very disrespectful way to treat your Boss. Anyway, this can be done at home with the News, or a cooking show or any presentation that will offer the chances and circumstances in the game. Would anyone like to add a level or two of difficulty?

NOMTOM- your buzz words are delightful, and I salute your flagpole. Take that any way you prefer.

@JRaye: I had always heard it was “crisis” and not “conflict,” but even this might not be true (see link). Luckily for me, my characters don’t have to be well-informed; in fact, I think they’re even funnier when they aren’t.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/001103.html