This morning at 6:00 a.m. we received skiff of snow. That's a description that I learned from my parents of small snowfall. With their Norwegian heritage I wondered if it was translated from the Norwegian into English. It's another one of those things that reminds me of them though Dad died in 1969 and Mother in 1989. Either of my readers familiar with snow described as skiff?
This being the digital age I repaired to Google to answer the wondering about the linguistic roots of snow as a skiff. This is Google's answer:
"Word of the day: "skiff" - a light fall of snow, such that the ground still shows through; a dusting of snow that newly discloses the land's forms (Scots; nouned from the verb "to skiff", to move in a light & airy manner, to skim). Also "skiftie", "skiffin", "skift", "skith".' So there we have it. The snow quickly melted.
As previously reported in this blog reading the obituaries is my daily habit. That practice was rewarded today. In the Minneapolis paper Under Holger C.......s' name; this was the entire obituary:
"Holger died. Boat for sale."
Takk for alt,
Al
1 comment:
My name is Jon Christiansen. I came to your post a long way around from my son-in-law in DC. My father was Holger Christiansen. He loved Ole and Lena jokes and would call me frequently to tell me he had heard a new one. One was about Ole’s death and Lena trying to use all of the words that the newspaper provided, even though she only wanted to say “Ole died.” Then with the remaining words she added boat for sale (You’ve likely heard it, but I’ve given the background, just in case). When my father died my brothers and I decided to have two obits, the one you saw and then, the next day a more fulsome story of his life. I mentioned in my eulogy that the funeral home had received three calls asking about the boat. One man was exceedingly perturbed that there was no boat. I’m glad you enjoyed what we did. Jchristi233@gmail.com
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