Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about two weeks. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. vainglorious

2. canard

3. arcana

4. impregnable

5. talismanic

6. pontificate

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the featured word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

vainglorious

-- the vainglorious Vladimir Putin has two more accomplishments to brag about—a Winter Olympics that was devoid of terrorism and the annexation of Crimea

-- considering that Meg loves to talk about her career accomplishments at every opportunity, her latest achievement is bound to further inflate her vainglory

-- according to a well-known sportswriter, baseball great Joe DiMaggio was so vainglorious that, as a precondition for attending an event, he insisted on being introduced as “the greatest living ball player”; Gen. George Patton, famous for displaying, vaingloriously, a chestful of medals and other military decorations

-- I wouldn’t be surprised if the sales dept. ends up having a lot of egg on its face—lately, they’ve been giving lots of vainglorious estimates of what they can accomplish next year; I was so embarrassed when the introducer read out almost the entire bio page on my website--the audience must have pronounced me a vainglorious buffoon

-- with reference to the famous Wake Island meeting between Truman and MacArthur (when the general tried to get the president’s plane to land before his), Evan Thomas attributing those actions of MacArthur to the military commander’s “vaingloriousness”

canard

-- David Kirkpatrick of NYT telling “Charlie Rose” that Egypt’s Gen. al-Sisi and his henchman are behind the canard that Morsi was trying to turn Egypt into an Iran-like Islamic state

-- these statements about my past are totally false and I have the documents to disprove these canards

-- despite numerous studies having established that women make better managers than men, many people continue to voice this old canard that women are lousy managers

-- an analyst trying to dispel the canard that corporate America is scandal-ridden

-- Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith telling “60 Minutes” that the well known story about Vincent van Gogh having committed suicide is a canard—the two American authors claim van Gogh died as a result of “accidental manslaughter”

arcana

-- former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s wife telling “60 Minutes” about the kind of arcana her husband used to plunge into while having his morning coffee—for example, reports on the variation in protein content among the different varieties of grain

-- Herb can explain the most arcane technology in the simplest of terms—so simple that even a 6^th grader can understand

-- this is pretty simple stuff—it’s not some arcana that’ll drive you up the wall; regarding my upcoming presentation, I’ve been told not to get into the arcana because that will put everyone to sleep; having to grapple with some arcane formulas

-- a lawyer going through the city’s bylaws with a fine-tooth comb in the hopes of finding, within the arcana, a loophole that can help his client; a Hindu priest performing arcane rituals; to specialize in the arcane field of proteomics

-- an investor avoiding hi-tech stocks, saying such businesses are too arcane and beyond his comprehension

impregnable

-- thanks to compelling evidence by several witnesses for the prosecution, some legal analysts saying that the case against Oscar Pistorius is almost impregnable

-- Hank will never succumb to any vices—his values, his beliefs, his principles are impregnable

-- a computer’s supposedly impregnable firewall; an attorney’s impregnable arguments in a court case; a company impregnable to a takeover, thanks to its new shareholder structure

-- finding Troy’s walls to be impregnable, the Greeks coming up with a deceptive device—the Trojan Horse—to enter the city

-- the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, stripped our sense of the U.S. mainland’s impregnability and led to the creation of, among other things, the Dept. of Homeland Security

talismanic

-- Todd Purdum of Politico commenting that the State of the Union seems to have “a talismanic effect” or talismanic power on conversations in D.C. following that annual address by the president

-- the late Rev. Reg Dean, who died recently at the age of 110, attributed his long life to a talismanic potion given him by a doctor in India during WWII

-- for speech contests and the like, this author preferring to wear his striped maroon shirt, referring to it as “my talismanic shirt”

-- somebody’s seemingly talismanic approach to work deadlines; something with talismanic significance; talismanic symbols that originated in Ancient Egypt and are still in use, such as the “Ankh” and the “Eye of Horus”

-- a piece of jewelry believed to serve a talismanic function; a shaman administering a talismanic formula to cure someone

pontificate

-- ever since Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the media being saturated with talking heads’ pontifications about how the U.S. should respond

-- even though she is the most senior and most knowledgeable person around here, Dawn expresses her opinions without being dogmatic, without pontificating

-- Bill is an out-and-out pontificator, which is why it’s so hard to get him to so much as acknowledge other points of view

-- a coworker who loves to pontificate about the architectural styles of downtown buildings

-- some former lawmakers who have turned into pontificators, earning tens of thousands of dollars for each speech despite their dubious record while in office

© Copyright 2014  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Expansion Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about two weeks. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. peripatetic

2. avarice

3. miasma

4. iconoclast

5. obtuse

6. subservient

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the featured word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

peripatetic

-- as he relentlessly travels from one world capital to another, John Kerry becoming one of our most peripatetic secretaries of state ever

-- this job is one of the more peripatetic assignments within the company

-- V.J. telling someone, laughingly: “Since 2006, I’ve traveled around the country quite a bit, presenting communication seminars for the benefit of corporate, nonprofit, and federal government entities and, of course, speaking at conferences and conventions. So, yeah, my latest incarnation is that of a peripatetic.”

-- a peripatetic professor constantly pacing the room while he lectures; the peripatetic lifestyle of some consultants because…; a peripatetic artist who frequently exhibits his works at different places

-- famous opera singers whose careers have turned them into peripatetics as they hop from one city to another; a politician who can be described as a peripatetic both geographically and ideologically

avarice

-- conversations just dripping with avarice

-- the movie “Syriana” depicts the evil that can result when powerful government officials do the bidding of an industry captain whose avarice his no moral limits--who is avariciously intent upon maximizing his wealth

-- the avarice that has characterized some art museums as the compete for bragging rights

-- the avaricious leaders of some nations in Africa and Asia who secretly built huge Swiss bank accounts

-- the extremely tragic “Trail of Tears” of 1838-39, a result of Andrew Jackson dishonorably defying the Supreme Court and the State of Georgia then avariciously evicting the Cherokees from their homeland because gold had been discovered there

miasma

-- until the recent budget agreement between Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, the miasma of hopelessness and pessimism which had paralyzed Washington D.C.

-- an upright American businessman having a hard time penetrating the miasma of corruption that pervades some parts of the world

-- my previous sales job was in one heck of a miasmic environment which I wouldn’t recommend even to my worst enemies; the miasma of alcohol that emanates from someone married to the bottle

-- the dark and miasmic past that used to be called East Germany; the miasma of smog that has been hitting Beijing latterly; the miasmic future depicted in the 1982 film “Blade Runner”

-- many Haitians living amid a miasma of indescribable poverty and deprivation

iconoclast

-- Vanguard founder John Bogle unpopular with the mutual fund industry because of his lifelong iconoclasm

-- he has done lots of unconventional things that have really shaken up the establishment—quite the iconoclast!

-- years ago, he was really admired for his outside the box, iconoclastic views and approach, but now he is traditional and conformist in his thinking, like everyone else;

two committee members always clashing because one is orthodox and the other is iconoclastic

-- an iconoclastic blogger; an iconoclastic chef; an architect’s iconoclastic designs; two U.S. senators known for their iconoclasm: Republican John McCain and Democrat Russ Feingold

-- the late Ransom Myers, who iconoclastically took on the fishing industry and national governments and successfully challenged the zeitgeist that “overfishing of the oceans” is an oxymoron

obtuse

-- with regard to the scandalous lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last September, one wonders how anyone sworn to public service can make such a nakedly obtuse decision, no matter what their agenda

-- the presenter kept repeating the material, as if we were much too obtuse to understand the stuff the first time through; Scott has a tin ear for people’s reactions to his stories and jokes, which explains why he spoke so obtusely last evening and offended some of the women present

-- referring to the nearly 100 wild elephants being killed by poachers each day to satisfy the gluttonous and ignoble demand for ivory in China and South East Asia, this author exhorting his Chinese and other readers to goad and shame their respective governments into shedding moral obtuseness and squelching the demand for elephant tusks

-- somebody’s exasperating obtuseness; Congressman Todd Akin’s obtuse remarks about rape costing him the election

-- the fact that the U.S. Senate failed to pass commonsense background checks for gun buyers even in the wake of the murder of 20 elementary school children at Sandyhook bespeaks of the level of obtuseness that prevails in Congress

subservient

-- following the execution of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s uncle for, among other reasons, applauding only tepidly during the dictator’s speeches, you can bet that the people of that Stalinist state will be even more fawning and subservient when in the presence of Jong-Un;  some in Iran showing blind subservience to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

-- in our business, product quality is of preeminent importance, so cost reduction targets must always be subservient to quality goals 

-- you’ll witness a lot of deference and subservience when Sharon, our founder and CEO, is running a meeting

-- a medical study that gives the impression of being objective but is actually subservient to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry that paid for it and which, therefore, uses select pieces of data to arrive at its conclusions

-- in many companies, HR playing a subservient role and often being overruled by operations and sales execs

© Copyright 2014  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enrichment Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about ten days. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. nonpareil

2. quotidian

3. stultify

4. diffident

5. steeliness

6. ignominy

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the featured word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

nonpareil

-- Nelson Mandela’s death setting off a torrent of unparalleled tributes, with Time’s former Managing Editor described him as “the purest hero on the planet”--the implication: that Mandela was a leader nonpareil

-- software issues that no one else can solve end up in Frank’s lap—the guy is a nonpareil

-- Toyota, a nonpareil manufacturer of high quality automobiles

-- the dishes prepared by the chef here are nonpareil; someone whose problem solving skills are nonpareil; describing a person as “a salesperson nonpareil”

-- Thomas Keller, a chef nonpareil; film directors who are described by top movie critics as nonpareils: Scorsese, Spielberg, Coen Brothers…

-- Tiger Woods who, for many years, was a golfer nonpareil or a nonpareil in the world of golf

quotidian

-- Obama’s shaking hands with Raúl Castro at the Nelson Mandela funeral was no quotidian handshake, it being only the second time since the Cuban Revolution of 1958 that the presidents of the two nations had gotten to shake hands

-- when I called her, she responded by giving me a litany of the usual, mundane, quotidian goings-on—nothing important or exciting

-- Alice is an exceptional florist—she creates great arrangements using the most ordinary and quotidian materials to complement the flowers

-- most of my day gets consumed in the quotidian routine, such as answering the phone, responding to emails…; one’s long, quotidian commute; looking for an escape from your quotidian day-to-day life

-- a candidate for political office in New Delhi winning by running on such quotidian issues as availability of clean drinking water and easing traffic bottlenecks

stultify

-- spending the Christmas holidays in a stultified state, lying on a couch all day and watching inane movies

-- yes, it has been a very successful year, but we cannot afford to sit back in satiated, stultifying contentment—the competition is constantly at our heels; I’ve supported each one of Brad’s past proposals, but not this latest one—I am not going to stultify myself by endorsing it

-- one of the biggest presentation killers is the absence of vocal variety because an unvarying voice stultifies listeners

-- efforts to eradicate identity theft being stultified by perpetrators’ ability to keep inventing new means of stealing…; the stultifying prose in an unimaginatively written procedure manual; singer Johnny Cash’s boyhood being spent under the stultifying fear of his hot-tempered father

-- the stultifying notion of what a woman may or may not do in some societies, as was the case in Afghanistan under Taliban rule; the stultifying effects of economic stagnation; somebody’s stultifying and intellectually suffocating environment

-- the stultification of people’s talents and energies in North Korea; India’s massive and stultifying bureaucracy

diffident

-- when delivering a presentation, one tactic to help nullify diffidence at the very get-go is to “visually stroke” everyone in the audience—for a brief discussion, click here and then scroll down to the third bullet  (http://www.verbalenergy.com/speaking.html)

-- now, when it’s time to take our objections to management, I find our manager has suddenly become diffident—this is really irritating

-- Transocean hiring this author to coach a top-notch engineer who was too diffident to assert himself during meetings, especially when it was time to challenge somebody’s (dumb) proposal

-- a presenter who is free from diffidence and gives a polished performance during a grueling Q&A; looking nervous and diffident as he got up to make his first ever speech to a large audience

-- in one of the U.N.’s darkest hours, a large U.N. contingent of Dutch troops looking on diffidently as Serb soldiers massacred 8,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees in the so-called “U.N. Protected” town of Srebrenica

-- in an interview on the first anniversary of 9/11, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice revealing that when it first became apparent that the perpetrator of those attacks was al Qaeda, and that a U.S. military venture in Afghanistan might be necessary, her team was initially filled with diffidence [Rice’s precise words: “We looked at a map, and the color just fell from our faces as that country’s remoteness, hostile terrain, and history of reverses for foreign armies, including the British and the Soviet Union, sank in.”]

steeliness

-- in their tributes to the late Nelson Mandela, many of his admirers using the adjective “steely”; when it comes time to making really tough business decisions, few can measure up to Toni—there’s a certain steeliness to her decisions

-- I am really surprised that this conference went off so well—I had actually steeled myself for the worst because several crucial pieces were not in place

-- Tim is an exceptionally resolute kind of guy—he possesses a steely determination

-- a steely voice or tone; a steely stare; somebody who is under fire steeling herself for even more criticism

-- famous American military commander “Black Jack” Pershing’s steeliness when dealing with his soldiers’ hardships during WWI partly explained by his own personal loss—the general’s wife and three daughters were burned to death in a house fire just a few years earlier

ignominy

-- unlike American culture where it’s a badge of honor if your first one or two attempts at entrepreneurship are not successful, in some societies if your start-up never takes off, you are branded an ignominious failure

-- making a change now would be pretty humiliating and ignominious for Ben

-- talking about his nationally popular seminar “Some Simple Verbal and Nonverbal Skills for Creating a Highly Favorable First Impression,” this author saying: “Some of the content is born of the many mistakes, the many ignominies I suffered during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I was still a recent import into the U.S., and…”

-- the gratification of seeing Wall Street crooks suffer the ignominy of being in handcuffs; several of Illinois’s recent governors being convicted of high corruption and ignominiously sent off to prison

-- in 1812, Napolean’s “Grand Armée” beating an ignominious retreat from Russia

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about ten days. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. enfant terrible

2. sinecure

3. enervate

4. alchemist

5. pensive

6. granular

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

enfant terrible

-- with reference to the wholesale massacre of precious wildlife occurring in Africa and elsewhere thanks to China’s gluttonous demand for rare animal parts, this author expressing the hope that some Chinese Americans and other moralists will band together to become the enfants terribles of wildlife conservation

-- Martin, who is by far the youngest of our top management team, has really shaken up the establishment—one enfant terrible of a guy!

-- John McEnroe, once the enfant terrible of international tennis; Carlos Ghosn, the enfant terrible of the auto industry; Arnold Schonberg, regarded as the “arch rebel” and the enfant terrible of modern music; Iran’s Ahmadinejad seemingly relishing his role as an enfant terrible by frequently issuing shocking statements

-- movie director Peter Jackson of the “Lords of the Rings” trilogy fame being branded the enfant terrible of the movie industry, thanks to his extracting one-sided agreements from movie studios

-- Silicon Valley being densely populated with potential enfants terribles—entrepreneurs who have devised revolutionary approaches to deliver a particular product or service

sinecure

-- an ABC report indicating what a sinecure a Congressman’s job has become

-- Jim’s present assignment is a sinecure—it requires very little work and allows him time to play golf even on weekdays

-- Our company founder and CEO has bestowed this company sinecure on young Michael because of the latter’s gifts as an artist and writer

-- I wish I had famed film critic A.O. Scott’s job, where you make handsome money watching and critiquing a few movies a week—it would be a nice little sinecure

-- eagerly seeking a particular job that you believe will be a sinecure and will enable you to live the good life you have long sought

-- the corporate boardroom sinecures enjoyed by some, thanks to their glowing resumes, as in the case of Robert Rubin, former Goldman Sachs co-chair and U.S. treasury secretary, who was paid $150 million for….

-- referring to the fact that Robert McNamara was against the Vietnam War all along but did not speak out against it until the 1990s, a critical Sen. John Kerry saying: “Instead of speaking out when he should have, McNamara retreated to the sinecure of the World Bank” (where he was president from 1968-1981)

enervate

-- in a recent appearance on “Face the Nation,” Peggy Noonan referring to the ongoing series of “fiscal cliffs” or cliffhangers as “these dreadful, enervating dramas”

-- In my previous job, the backbiting and the dog-eat-dog Machiavellian culture drained me of my enthusiasm and drive—it enervated me, to say the least

-- here in Houston, June, July, and August being the worst months for sightseeing because of the enervating heat and humidity

-- after two failed attempts, I am not sure if I can summon the enthusiasm for yet another go—a sense of enervation has come over me

-- all this leisure and luxury, plus an absence of any sort of purpose in life, is enervating him…he is on a moral decline; then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning European nations to wake up from their shallow and enervating lives or risk being obliterated by the stiff new competition from the likes of China and India

alchemist

-- Arthur Hiller, then-president of the Motion Picture Academy, saying: “What makes films the transcendent medium of expression is the alchemy of collaboration”

-- remember, a really successful conference will not come about by some magic or alchemy—you better start planning for it right away

-- once a couch potato, he has now turned into a health and fitness nut, having alchemized his fear of falling ill into a firm determination

--  in an appearance on PBS “NewsHour,” Columbia Professor Klaus Lackner, a pioneer of the emerging “direct air capture of CO₂” industry, speaking passionately about how his “commercially viable” technology can literally suck out all the surplus carbon dioxide that has been pumped into the earth’s atmosphere during the past 150 years, and thus alchemize the earth’s atmosphere into that which existed at the dawn of the industrial revolution

pensive

-- in the recent Time cover picture of President Obama, notice how the photographer, by deft use of lighting and position of the head, has made his subject appear deep in thought, looking pensive

http://lightbox.time.com/2012/12/19/behind-the-obama-cover-person-of-the-year-2012/#1

-- someone who is normally pretty boisterous not asking any questions during a long meeting and, instead, sitting pensively

-- the pensive look in the large, brown eyes of my Labrador retriever; I couldn’t help staring at her because she looked so sad, and lonely—there was such an air of pensiveness about her

-- someone on his 80^th birthday locked in a pensive mood, reflecting sadly about his many close friends who had died in their 30s and 40s

-- turning to a Rembrandt that depicts a seated, naked woman, the curator explaining the subject’s “beautiful, pensive expression” by pointing out that ….

-- in the movie “Chariots of Fire,” Vangelis’s music helping endow that opening scene of runners on a beach with an aura of pensiveness   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJzcUvS_NU

granular

-- the filmmakers of the 2012 movie “Lincoln” went to extraordinary lengths to imbue the film with authenticity, displaying an obsession for detail at the most granular level

-- even on relatively minor assignments, my new boss Iris asks questions in a very specific and granular way

-- the top management has finally leveled with us and addressed the issue with granularity, giving us precise reasons behind their stunning decision

-- after a meeting with the CEO, an exasperated manager telling her colleague: “He is much too involved in the granularity…in the microscopic aspects of everything that’s going on”

-- before we begin the brainstorming, could someone please make the definition of the problem more concrete, more granular?

-- during a Congressional hearing involving a case of corporate malfeasance, an executive professing innocence, saying that he was operating at too high a level to be granularly involved in the alleged actions; police investigators grilling a suspect, demanding more granular information

© Copyright 2013  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online for about a week. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3^rd Edition”):

1. blandishment

2. despotic

3. denouement

4. temerity

5. prowess

6. conundrum

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you implant the word into your conversational vocabulary and use it with confidence:

blandishment

-- highly credentialed students at top business schools being subjected to all sorts of blandishments from major consulting firms

-- ever since the collapse of Vioxx, I’ve been very cynical of the blandishments contained in all the slick commercials that dominate prime-time TV

-- the young Wisconsinite was unmoved by the pleadings and blandishments of his parents to come home and run the family farm; two rivals for the club presidency showering blandishments on undecided members

-- succumbing to the blandishments in an attractive brochure; not buying into the blandishments of the latest “get rich quick” scheme being promoted on a local TV channel

-- Karen is a math genius and enjoys working in the derivatives department where math skills reign supreme. No amount of sweet talk or any of the usual blandishments such as offers of a higher salary or a juicy bonus will get her to leave derivatives and come work for you.

despotic

-- referring to such U.S. actions as the invasion of Iraq, secret military action deep inside Pakistan to eliminate bin Laden, and the relentless drone strikes in NW Pakistan, some critics saying that “the U.S. is acting despotically”

-- our new department manager Sandra comes across as a bit despotic, the way she demands total obedience from everyone

-- during manager meetings, Joe held almost despotic sway, thanks to his close ties with the CEO

-- the fate of those animals that have the misfortune of wandering onto the new 85-miles per hour highway between Austin and San Antonio is one more example of man’s despotic attitude toward wildlife

-- the despotic Miranda Priestly in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”; Joseph Stalin, the Nazi Party, and Idi Amin being among the many rulers and organizations whose names are synonymous with despotism; following the attempted killing of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, Pakistanis protesting the Taliban’s “despotic agenda”

-- talking about J. Edgar Hoover, author Ron Kessler telling CBS Sunday Morning “being as powerful as he was, he thought he was a god… as time went on, he became a despot”

denouement

(Note that the last syllable is nasalized and thus rhymes with the last syllable in "rapprochement")

-- during the Cuban Missile Crisis, our heads were filled with thoughts of the unimaginably horrendous denouement that was likely if either leader (JFK or Khrushchev) were to take an escalatory step, such as….

-- I am anxious to see the upshot, the denouement of it all—will either of the two execs resign, or be fired?

-- all the execs, managers, and other employees eagerly awaiting the denouement—the go or no-go decision by the board of directors

-- in the 1941 Alfred Hitchcock movie “Suspicion,” the startling denouement, when the Cary Grant character is suddenly transformed into …., leaving this author disgusted, even cheated

-- in soccer, the dramatic denouement of many a World Cup match, thanks to the nail-biting series of penalty kicks…

temerity

-- the often-broadcast video clip from a 1988 vice presidential debate showing Democratic VP nominee Lloyd Bentsen chiding his Republican counterpart Dan Quayle for the latter’s temerity in comparing himself to the late John F. Kennedy

-- our colleague Robert is the only one around here who has the temerity to question execs on some of the assumptions in their presentations

-- everyone was surprised when brand manager Marian had the temerity to say during her presentation that she owes her winning strategies to Mr. Smith (who, last year, left the company in disgrace)

-- this author having the temerity to describe this blog as being second to none in giving professionals new ideas on how to be more impactful while participating in a meeting or while delivering a presentation

-- each year, several ambitious but inexperienced climbers who were thirsting to add Mt. Everest to their list of conquests in life paying for their temerity dearly

-- during the early years of my career, I was brash and often lost my temper, once even speaking angrily to my boss—that temerity cost me heavily

-- the stirring opening scene  in the 1982 movie “Gandhi,” during which the freshly minted attorney is physically thrown from a train in the middle of nowhere because he, a “colored” person, had the temerity to sit in a first-class compartment

prowess

-- whenever you burrow into the circumstances that earned someone the august Medal of Honor, you instantly realize that the serviceman’s actions were the very definition of martial prowess

-- they lack selling prowess; somebody’s growing prowess in producing catchy ads; the retailing prowess of Wal-Mart; the legendary Peter Lynch, who became famous for his stock picking prowess

-- Apple Computer’s unrivaled prowess when it comes to product innovation; GE execs’ reputed prowess in managing large organizations

-- the image of Toyota, which had become synonymous with automobile design and manufacturing prowess, taking a hit of late because of massive product recalls

conundrum

-- a major conundrum facing Western democracies today: how to effectively surveil all those who are likely sympathizers of al Qaeda without grotesquely profiling or seriously infringing upon the constitutional rights of entire Muslim communities

-- let me tell you about just one of my many conundrums….

-- the challenging conundrum faced by many first-time job seekers: they cannot find employment in their chosen professions without relevant experience, and they cannot acquire such experience without first getting a job in that field;  the current Israeli-Palestinian conundrum

-- a government minister in an African nation saying: “One issue that is making me lie awake at night is actually a moral conundrum: whether or not to sanction a new road that will improve economic conditions in a very impoverished region but which will also lead to the destruction of wildlife habitat”

-- Paul Thompson of Purdue citing the following as an example of a “real philosophical conundrum” in the matter of gene implanting: “Supposing we could produce a strain of chickens that are blind and therefore don’t mind being crowded together. Would that be permissible on animal welfare grounds?”

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online since the middle of this month. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. inveigh

2. fatuous

3. wunderkind

4. histrionics

5. metastasize

6. consummate

inveigh

-- (with reference to the ongoing vitriolic attacks among the Republican presidential contenders) analysts wondering if all the inveighing against one another will leave the ultimate nominee severely weakened

-- Rick is constantly inveighing against something or the other

-- to inveigh against abortion rights; inveighing against the absurdly high pay packages of some corporate CEOs

-- Rush Limbaugh: an unfailing inveigher against anything and everything that is liberal; on the issue of abusive labor practices in foreign countries, everyone seems to be attacking Apple--no one inveighs against …

-- amid the mounting international condemnation of Syria’s Assad regime, inveighers being of all stripes: the Muslim nation of Turkey, the Arab state of…

fatuous

-- my previous employer suffered from the fatuous thinking that if you have a fantastic new product, sales will automatically ….

-- I think Doug is pretty realistic, not Pollyannaish or a fatuous optimist

-- this is a fatuous statement because….; some of the fatuous and inane ads during last evening’s Super Bowl

-- the comment “let them eat cake” falsely attributed to Marie Antoinette by her detractors who wanted to portray her as fatuous, callous, and blithely unaware of…

-- a fatuous question, fatuous argument, fatuous statement, fatuous meeting, or fatuous stereotype; a fatuous belief

-- the fatuous conspiracy theories triggered by the sudden death of Andrew Breitbart

wunderkind

-- when Bob Simon of “60 Minutes” asked Dudamel “how do you react to being described as a genius, a prodigy, a wunderkind,” the maestro responded…

-- Ben and Marsha are our firm’s two wunderkinds, both being at least 15 years …

-- Radha Chitale of ABC News writing: “Omega-3 fatty acids are the latest wunderkind of the mood world”

-- Mozart, the musical wunderkind

-- Tiger Woods, who is now well past his wunderkind phase

histrionics

-- watching the defendant shed many a tear, people wondering: is the show of remorse histrionic or sincere?

-- somebody’s deliberate use of histrionics as a negotiating tactic

-- many in the audience being turned off by Nicole’s histrionics, her over-the-top performance, during her campaign speech

-- a driver who is given to throwing up his hands histrionically every time the freeway traffic comes to a halt

-- people who have been diagnosed with a “histrionic pattern of behavior” or “histrionic personality disorder” because of their…

-- the frequent histrionics, or histrionic outbursts, that characterized Adolf Hitler’s speeches

metastasize

-- the fear that America’s use of drones could quickly metastasize into technologically advanced nations using such weapons unhindered to obliterate anyone anywhere…

-- we need to confront the issue before this sort of indiscipline metastasizes and becomes out of control

-- Phil’s concern for looking neat and well dressed has metastasized into an obsession…

-- the committee’s charter has metastasized into a heady ambition to…

-- an unfounded notion metastasizing into a widely held belief, thanks to repeated assertions of a  falsehood by some prominent Americans with ready access to a media mouthpiece

consummate (as adjective)

-- the late Louis Rukeyser, whose constellation of highly admirable attributes made him a consummate interviewer of his panelists and guests

-- Steve, our division manager, is a consummate leader—for instance, he can….; somebody’s consummate preparation for a Q&A session

-- consummate happiness is a way of life, not a destination

-- the Supreme Court ruling: “Headlong flight, wherever it occurs, is the consummate act of evasion: it is not….”

-- a consummate master of the piano; a consummate entrepreneur; a consummate professional; a consummate dealmaker; a consummate pianist; a consummate worrier or a consummate liar; an ancient artifact that reflects consummate skill; Bruce Hoffman widely regarded as a consummate expert on counterterrorism; Bill Clinton, a consummate campaigner

© Copyright 2012  V. J. Singal

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online since the middle of this month. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. palliate
2. artifice
3. superfluous
4. unswerving
5. politic
6. polemicist

Vocabulary Enhancement Words: New Edition of “Words of the Month”

The latest edition of “Words of the Month,” my free vocabulary enrichment feature, has been online since the middle of this month. The six featured words, all of which lie within the conversational vocabulary of America’s most articulate (as is the case with all of the words featured in my book, “The Articulate Professional-3rd Edition”):

1. machismo
2. effrontery
3. conduit
4. imperial
5. sclerotic
6. timber

Here are extracts from some of my favorite examples, all carefully designed to help you expand your vocabulary:

-- (with reference to Putin being promoted as a he-man--riding a horse bare-chested, wrestling with a tiger…) the fact that Russians enjoy brandishing the machismo element in their leader suggests an almost primitive zeitgeist

-- VW’s CEO hoping that American men will be attracted by the new Beetle’s machismo-oozing front

-- someone wondering whether China is pursuing its massive military buildup out of some national machismo

-- while discussing how organizations can raise their probability of success, the famous Christine Lagarde talking about the perils of unrestrained machismo in the meeting room

-- I believe her fetish for eating raw eggs is a result of her health-extremist machismo

-- some of the other non-phallic symbols of machismo: the late John Wayne, a bushy mustache, the Super Bowl, a really stiff drink…

-- several of the movie characters portrayed by the late actor Burt Lancaster seemed to exude machismo

-- an example of political correctness run amok: some regarding the mention of Santa Claus and Christmas as “cultural effrontery”

-- during an address by President Obama to a joint session of Congress, South Carolina's Joe Wilson having the effrontery to shout out “You lie”

-- our former employee, who has less than a year’s worth of work experience, now has the effrontery to hang out a shingle calling herself a “business consultant”

-- to prevent school shooting rampages, campus police must talk to students and thus become “conduits for information,” says a Princeton University expert

-- a sales broker becoming a conduit for illicit payments from a U.S. manufacturer seeking lucrative contracts in Asia

-- the “all managers lunch” held every Friday in the cafeteria has become a conduit for ideas, even jokes, to travel across all departments within the company

-- Walgreens and other drugstore chains pushing their private brands in competition with imperial brands such as Gillette and Colgate-Palmolive

-- people in some foreign countries resentful of what they describe as “the imperialism of American pop culture”

-- the imperial manner of Gen. Douglas MacArthur; some of the speeches delivered by U.S. presidents being in a highly imperial setting, such as…..

-- amid the controversy stirred by such U.S. actions as the invasion of Iraq and the secret military action conducted deep inside Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden, critics saying that the U.S. is acting imperially or that such actions demonstrate the “imperialist agenda” or the “imperialist designs” of the world’s only superpower

-- the sclerotic regimes in Syria and Yemen; the widespread corruption and sclerotic leadership at the helm in several Asian and African nations

-- with reference to the inability of lawmakers in Washington D.C. to reach a compromise on vital issues, this author saying: “The U.S. is suffering from acute political sclerosis”

-- responding to calls for more regulation in his industry, a CEO saying “That would be an open invitation to business sclerosis!”

-- then-Prime Minister Tony Blair warning European nations to shed their sclerotic working practices or risk obliteration by China and India

-- a new managers exclaiming in frustration: “This pace is so rigidified, so sclerotic! People are unbelievably content with the way things are.”

-- the sexual assault charges in NY against Dominique Strauss-Kahn derailing the political career of someone who had been widely hailed in France as presidential timber

-- I agree the Joel is a great quarterback, but, unlike you, I do no think he is NFL timber

-- ever since Marilyn joined the company as marketing manager, she’s being talked up as top executive timber

-- I just hope when our highly regarded CEO, Rob, retires in a couple of years, the board of directors can find someone of his timber to run this behemoth of a company

-- Ethan’s recent actions clearly show that he is top leadership timber

-- the way our summer intern Jessica has... successfully handled even some of our most recalcitrant employees proves she is definitely managerial timber

© Copyright 2011 V. J. Singal