Zinsser That!

Some criticisms you can expect to hear as a writer or copywriter are:

“My 5-year old could have written this”

“It’s boring”

“I don’t get it”

“It’s too long”

“What does this mean?”

“Can we see some other ideas?”

It could mean you need to “Zinsser” your writing.

“Zinsser” your writing – what’s that?

You can find out this Saturday.

And next Tuesday.

When you can read 2 essays on the landmark guide to good non-fiction writing... 

William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well”

The essays were contributed to the blog by Shantel Chavez and Gursharan Summan, 2 AP English Language and Composition students of Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, California.

Without giving too much away about the book, or the essays, let me ask - do you use any of the following in your e-mails, letters, presentations, essays or articles...

·                                       

·        It is interesting to note that

·        At this time

·        And may I add

You do? Don’t worry, I do too!

It suggests we need Dr. Zinsser's help.

Zinsser, The Dr. Spock of Writing

Zinsser is the doctor whom students and aspiring writers are sent to if their professors think they have a writing problem.

Zinsser identifies and suggests the prescription for common writing errors such as …

·        Mixing tense use

·        Being verbose or using empty words and phrases

·        Being overly self-conscious or pretentious

·        Forgetting there’s a ton of stuff competing for your reader’s attention

From Yale and Columbia to Your Kindle or Nook

On Writing Well marks one of 17 books in all written by Zinsser.

If you read these books, you can pick up the advice he gave his writing students at Yale and Columbia.

And you can also pick up the advice he gave readers in his Saturday Evening Post, Life, New York Times and Sports Illustrated columns.

Zinsser still dispenses wisdom on his blog at The American Scholar which you should check out sometime.

But not before you check this blog coming Saturday and next Tuesday for Shantel's and Gursharan’s essays on “On Writing Well”. Thanks!

P.S. Here’s what the New York Times had to say about On Writing Well:

 “On Writing Well belongs on any shelf of serious reference works for writers.”

P.S 2: To read Shantel Chavez’s essay on "On Writing Well", check out the blog Saturday.

P.S.3: To read Gursharan Summan's essay on "On Writing Well", check out the blog next Tuesday.

As always, thanks for reading my posts as well as the guest posts featured on this blog.

Top Recipe Secrets

Can you get at Coke’s legendary formula?

Nope!

Coke's proprietary blend of oils and extracts (dating back to 1886) is among the 10 most highly valued trade secrets and the only written copy is deep in a vault at Atlanta's SunTrust bank - so you’d have to be a bank robber to get at it.

How about Bush’s Baked Beans formula?

Nope, again!

If you’ve seen the ads for Bush’s Original Baked Beans, you know your only hope is to become a Dog Whisperer. Then you can get it out of Jay Bush’s Golden Retriever, Duke.

Here Dukey, Dukey.  Here Dukey, Dukey...good luck with that.

How about Thomas' English Muffins?

Nope Again!

Only 7 Thomas' executives know the exact combination of dough, humidity and baking technique necessary to reproduce these famous muffins.

How about KFC or Slim Jims?

Nope and nope, again!

All we know is one involves 11 herbs and spices and is prepared by hand and the other involves 32 spices and a lactic acid culture. Although, an enterprising soul, Ron Douglas,used some devious methods to try to crack the KFC code - including lying about his wife's food allergies. You can read about it here.

How about Khichdi?

Fortunately, some fantastic recipes like Khichdi are public knowledge and you don’t have to break into bank vaults, become a dog whisperer or tell any lies to get at them.

Even though they are centuries older than Coke, Bush’s Baked Beans or Thomas English Muffins.

Khichdi is a venerable Indian recipe that has provided sustenance to the people of India for centuries. It is a comfort food for Indians - you can think of it like Mac and Cheese for Indians – only made with rice and lentils, not pasta and cheese. Do I hear vegans and people with wheat allergies going “YES!!!!”

Note: this version of Khichdi is taken from a book of vegetarian recipes my sister Angela put together for our family a few Christmases ago (picture depicted above). Thank you, Angy.  Also, Kedgeree is just an Anglicization of Khichdi.

Here we go...

                        Spring Kedgeree with Cashew Nuts

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice (available in Indian stores): One and a half cup

Masoor Dhal (red lentil – available in Indian stores): ½ cup

Onion: 2 (finely sliced)

Ghee (clarified butter – available in Indian stores): 3 Tablespoons

Curry Leaves (available in Indian stores) - optional

Cashew Nuts: ¼ cup - optional

Mint and coriander leaves: ½ cup - chopped

Preparation:

Soak rice and masoor dhal in a little water for half hour separately.

Drain rice and dhal.

Heat ghee, butter or cooking oil in a frying pan and brown one onion with the curry leaves in the oil.

Add the rice and lentils and stir fry for 5 minutes.

Boil 4 cups of water in a large casserole dish and add the rice, lentils, onions and curry leaves from the frying pan. (Note: water must be at least three inches above the rice).

Add salt to taste.

Simmer the kedgeree for half an hour until the grains are cooked and the water is absorbed.

Brown some onions and cashew nuts and add this to the cooked rice and lentils.

Add chopped mint and coriander leaves

Enjoy!

P.S. 1:  When I make Khichdi, I use turmeric, pepper corns, cumin and other spices. You will find many different recipes for Khichdi if you do a Google search on it.

P.S. 2: Per Wikipedia, Khichdi is described in the writings of Afanasiy Nikitin, a Russian adventurer who travelled to South Asia in the 15th century.

P.S. 3: We have some family recipes which have attained cult status and are classified secrets known only to the preparer – such as Mohammed’s Biryani and Eggplant Curry, which many readers of this blog need no introduction to.

P.S. 4: I realize I still love advertising as much as ever, whenever I get delighted by ads I discover by accident.  I came across the Slim Jim Center for Male Spice Loss ads recently and I found the concept and the ads hilarious and so perfect for its target of male teens and young men.  Here’s the link for all you advertising junkies.

The Lighter Side of US Presidential Quotes

                                     

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan

And these days at Starbucks, McDonalds, Panera, and other WiFi hot spots too  – where you can bet young 20 somethings and 30 somethings are hatching the next Facebook, Pinger, Foursquare, Groupon, Pinterest, Teach America, and what have you!

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.
Abraham Lincoln

Indeed...it's why we spend oodles of money on Botox, Rogaine, Olay Regenerist, Restylane, LipoSuction, Tummy Tucks, Eyebrow Lifts, Lasik, Photo Rejuvenation, Teeth Whitening, and other age-defying solutions.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
Thomas Jefferson

Wonder what President Jefferson (who is reported to have owned one of the largest collection of books of all time - about 7000 volumes - now held by the Library of Congress), would have had to say about the Amazon Kindle and its capacity to hold 3,500 books!

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
Thomas Jefferson

Hail to more text messaging and blogging???

The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer... form the great body of the people of the United States, they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.
Andrew Jackson

Then along came computer makers, bio-technologists and software programmers!

The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.
Herbert Hoover

And now to the full Home Theater!

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.
Calvin Coolidge

If 24 hour TV and unlimited internet access doesn't turn us into complete couch potatoes, that is!

P.S. Hope you enjoyed this post. As always, thanks for reading.

P.S. 2: 'Couch potato' has an interesting history.  It dates back to 1976, when a guy named Tom Iacino began to call himself and his friends Boob Tubers, Boob Tubers being those who favored watching TV (the Boob Tube) and eating junk food over exercising and eating healthy. Iacino substituted ‘tuber’ with ‘potato’ a little later, and then added the prefix ‘couch’ based on the fact most people watch TV from their couches. Soon after, Robert Armstrong, a fellow ‘couch potato’ created a graphic for ‘couch potato’, registered it as a trademark, and licensed it for use on t-shirts and other merchandise. And that's how 'couch potato' came to be.

P.S. 3: Today, of course, it is a huge challenge to keep from becoming a couch potato, whether you are a toddler, a teen, or an adult. Popular programs like MTV's Jersey Shore and ABC's The Secret Life of the American Teenager, keep teens glued to the telly – if it's not TV, it's Facebook, texting, or Twitter. Making me think if TV programming became dry and boring, and Facebook and Twitter went down for a day or two every week, it may not be such a bad thing!

P.S. 4: Since I wish you good health above all, I hope that when you turn on the TV or your computer during your leisure time today, you find everything so boring, you turn it off and head to the gym for some fun! Yes, that would be great!

Family Songs

At our family gatherings (as Debra, Ann, Terry and the other good folks of the towns of Lafayette and Walnut Creek will testify), a house party is not complete until...

Guitars come out, hands start clapping and a very predictable collection of songs is sung.

How predictable?

Well, let's just say if you don't hear someone break out into these songs during the course of events, something's not right ...

You could be in the wrong house (and you should check your Google or Yahoo calendar, to be sure). Or impostors might have hijacked the house (so you should also check for UFOs in the vicinity).

That's how entrenched these songs are.

Because our family gatherings aren't complete until these predictable songs are sung...

...and we want you to feel at home when your lot is thrown in with our lot...

Here is The Definitive Guide to The Songs of Lobo Nagar.  

It will come in handy at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or on one of our many birthdays...

And for those of you who have been making valiant attempts at winging it so far (such as Ann of the Welcome to My Mind Gallery of Art, for instance), you won't have to anymore. Yeah!!!

So here we go...

The Definitive Guide to The Songs of Lobo Nagar

1. This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land

This is typically performed on the guitar by the CSO of Samosapedia and Vina Madre cellars chief El Fernandoz, accompanied by his trusty accomplice Sancho Panchez Davuksha on a second guitar.

A famous Woody Guthrie song, it needs no introduction, but here are the lyrics of the first verse along with a link to the song on You Tube:

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me.

Disclaimer:  The communist overtones of this song were not known at the time of incorporating it into our repertoire - so please do not think us unpatriotic when we sing it.

           2. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

This was Grandpa Lobo’s favorite song and is therefore loaded with sentimental value. From Wikipedia and other online sources, I learned it is a Scottish folk song and Bonnie refers to Bonnie Prince Charles (hmm).

Here’s a link to the song on You Tube and the first verse and refrain:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

REFRAIN:
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me
 

3. Oh When the Saints Go Marching In

This gospel song turned jazz song was made popular by Louis Armstrong and the New Orleans Saints. It is referred to as The Monster by Dixieland bands (who apparently dread being asked to perform it so much, they charge you for requesting it, according to the Wikipedia entry on it).

As far as we’re concerned, however, (and Mother Superior will bear this out), we carried this song over the Atlantic Ocean with us when we emigrated to the U.S. and have been singing it from our cradle days.

Here are the opening lines followed by a link to a Louis Armstrong rendition of it:

Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

And here's Louis Armstrong performing Oh When the Saints Go Marching In.

4. Bara Soron

This is a Konkani folk song (Konkani is one of many Indian languages, and a language our family is supposed to know, but doesn’t, ulp!). Bara Soron is such a rare song, it is difficult to find the lyrics or the tune of this song online.  So consider it real precious to hear a Lobo or Fernandez sing it.

However, on no account should you ask Ro or Mo for a translation of it, because with their propensity for risque humor, coupled with the fact that none of us really has a clue to the meaning of the song, you could get taken for a royal verbal ride by Ro and Mo by asking them any questions about it.

The first line of Bara Solon goes like this (I can see some of you sweating bullets with the pronunciation - don't worry - that's par for the course):

Bara soron thera lagli ge mai
Kazar kar ge maka

5.Hava Nagila

Our brother David’s signature song.  I am not sure who taught us this song, but we have been singing this song since our teens and it goes way back to when we learned to play guitar from our dear friend Janet. 

I was curious about how we picked up on this song and asked David.  David thinks Roger Dickson (cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth while doing so) taught us this song.  I will take his word for it; the image of Roger Dickson strumming a guitar with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth is a classic childhood image for me and worth preserving in print.

Per Wikipedia, the song is Ukranian in origin. Over here, most people are familiar with it because it is sung at almost all Jewish weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.  It is a popular song and has been sung by many artists, including (and this is for my friend Krysia) the popular Polish artist Justyna Steczkowska.

Also per Wikipedia, Harry Belafonte claims to have introduced the song to America; so perhaps the song was on a Harry Belafonte LP and Roger Dickson picked it up from Harry Belafonte and taught it to us. Here's a link to the Harry Belafonte version.

In any case, when you read the translation of the lyrics (given below), you’ll agree there couldn’t be a more perfect signature song for David – because if you know David, like we know David, he is the ultimate spreader of goodwill and good cheer bar none:

                                       
                                           Hava  Nagila (translation)

Let's rejoice

Let's rejoice and be happy  

Let's sing

Let's sing and be happy  

Chorus:

Awake, awake, brothers!

Awake brothers with a happy heart  

Awake, brothers, awake, brothers!

With a happy heart

6. You are my Sunshine

You may know this song as one of the state songs of Louisiana which was written by Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell.

Again it is a perennial family favorite dating back to our childhood, and many are the family voices that have piped in to sing it through the years (including a large number of matriarchal and patriarchal relatives). Here are the opening lyrics:

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

7. Easter Bonnet (Grandma Lobo’s favorite song) and 8. She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes round out the songs in this edition of The Definitive Guide to The Songs of Lobo Nagar.

Next : The Definitive Guide To Ro and Mo’s Humor.

P.S:  Hope you enjoyed reading this post about the Songs of Lobo Nagar as much as I enjoyed writing it.

P.S.2 :  Vinitha, that guilt you’ve been carrying about losing my songbook...you can let it go.  Thanks to the internet, I am able to find the lyrics and music to every song that’s ever been written. Except Bara Soron!

P.S. 3:  Curious about Samosapedia?  Here's a link to it.  El Fernandoz was recently appointed CSO - Chief Samosapedia Officer, the equivalent of being knighted in Samosapedia land; this is no mean feat - only an extremely high 'porkiness' quotient can qualify you for this.

Change Your Thinking. Change Your Life.

10 people walk by a house.

The first one looks at the souped up car in the driveway and thinks “hot wheels”.

The second one looks at the well-manicured front-yard and thinks “I need to get my front-yard and my backyard into shape.”

The third looks at the trees lining both sides of the road and thinks “Marianne said this area was farmland when she bought her house here 30 years ago.  And now look at all these trees!  I am very grateful to the folks who planted these trees for the shade they provide when I go on my walks.”

The fourth one looks at the house and thinks “the feng shui of this house is not right.  “I would move the entrance to the right. “

The fifth one notices the “McCain Palin” bumper sticker on the car in the driveway and thinks “another gun-toting right wing nut job.”

The sixth one is startled out of his preoccupations by a dog that barks loudly from inside the house and is annoyed because he nearly jumps out of his skin and it also makes him lose his train of thought.

The seventh one wonders whether real estate values have come down in the area and what this house might be priced at now.

The eighth one wonders about the people who live inside. Do their lives match or contrast the well-manicured exterior and the fancy car?  “Keeping Secrets”, Suzanne Sommer’s best-selling, candid and eminently readable book about her father's alcoholism pops into her mind.

The ninth one hears the dog bark and thinks about her cat.

The tenth person is you.  What would be running through your mind if you were walking that same street, passing that same house, looking at that same car, running your eyes over the same well-manicured lawn and the same car in the driveway with the McCain-Palin bumper sticker?

Life is a state of mind.

We choose what to focus on.

Our vision can be narrow or broad.

We usually pick one element out of any experience and focus exclusively on that.

More often than not, it’s a utilitarian element, a pet peeve or a hobby horse.

Our mind runs in well-worn grooves.

Often determined by our conditioning, or what the French call idée fixe.

So what’s wrong with that?

Because your thoughts are the horse which draw the wagon of your other thoughts and your emotions.

So maybe you need to watch them like hawks.

They are capable of ruining a perfectly normal and good day.

Besides why would you want your mind-life to consist of the same old same old rehearsals and replays?

When there are so many new and wonderful things to think about.

Change your thinking. Change your life.

P.S.  There are a number of different ways you can control your thought processes...meditation, self-hypnosis and prayer are 3 of them. Developing perspective is helpful too.  My post Lessons From My Personal Heroes might help you in this regard. And if your thinking on certain issues is stuck and causing you grief and interpersonal problems, you should also consider reading Feeling Good, which is a self-help tool-kit to correct faulty thinking and the emotions that arise out of faulty thinking. 

Written by Dr Burns, one of the most well-known cognitive psychotherapists and currently an adjunct Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, the book will help you tackle not just unhealthy emotions such as depression, guilt and anger, but self-sabotaging behaviors such as procrastination, perfectionism and seeking validation through other people’s approval, by addressing the root cause of them – faulty thoughts. (Example: just because you believe and follow the Golden Rule, thinking that others should too is faulty thinking, per Dr. Burns).

P.S. 2: Interested in Behavioral Psychology as a field of study? Feeling Good will introduce you to some of the current thinking and practices, as well as giants in the field, including...

Aaron T Beck, who is considered the father of Cognitive Therapy. An emeritus professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the Aaron T. Beck Psychopathology Research Center, his current research focuses on cognitive therapy for suicide prevention, dissemination of cognitive therapy into community settings, and cognitive therapy for schizophrenia.

Stewart Agras. He has established a comprehensive eating disorders treatment program at the Stanford School of Psychiatric Medicine where he currently works.

P.S.3:  As always thanks for reading and if changing your thinking in any area of your life has changed your life, I would love to hear about it.

The Simple Life...

(Or how I went from Why Do I Not Have It? to Do I Need It?)

I internalized Suze Orman.

I started meditating. (The book “How God Changes Your Brain” gave me both my motivation and my technique).

I stopped being a nervous Nellie about my future, accepting that the future was hamarey bas ki baat nahi (Hindi for “beyond my control/capacity/competence”).

I channeled stories such as the Farid ud-Din Attar story about King Mahmud and the Beans.

I started tracking my expenses. I found that knowing my average monthly expenditure was within a certain range made me oodles less anxious.

I searched for and read books on downshifting like Your Money or Your Life.

I found out how simply some folks were living (friends and relatives in India) and how happy and content they were. It helped me develop perspective.

I realized that things are not always what they seem. That people who looked better off than me with expensive cars, nice houses, the latest gadgets and who went on fabulous holidays might actually be reeling in debt and have negative net worth.

I also observed how many people who are better off than me fret more than me. This is because though they are rich in externals (the visible accoutrements of a successful life), they are poor in internals (their internal life is messy). Peace and contentment can’t be bought. It is a gift you give yourself. You can be at peace even living in a crowded noisy apartment complex, whereas you can be in a state of turmoil even in the quietest most luxurious and secluded waterfront mansion. I know this sounds like a “sour grapes” rationalization, but I really do fret less than many people who are materially far better off than me.

I discovered “Asteya” and made it one of my goals. Asteya is the discipline of taking from the world only what you need – without greed, excess, or wastage.

I realized that producing something (expression) was more satisfying than owning anything (consumption). 

I observed that more stuff made me less happy rather than more happy – giving me more house cleaning, maintenance and security to worry about.

And finally, I observed what made me happy. They were not things, but experiences. A good conversation. A good read. A walk or talk with a friend. A simple hearty meal. A guest post (hint,hint). A satisfying workout at the gym. Giving and receiving appreciation. Learning something new. My meditations. A fear or weakness conquered. An intellectual puzzle solved. A physical challenge met. And realizing this, I was able to cheerfully and contentedly declare “I’m good!”

P.S.  I owe the phrase "hamarey bas ki  baat nahi" to a well-wisher who left a comment using that phrase on my post Which Household Object Best Symbolizes You?  I am not sure if I am using it right, but many thanks to you, well-wisher.

P.S. 2:  This post is for Aarathi who enjoyed my previous post on Wabi-Sabi.  Aarathi, this is for you.

P.S. 3 Asteya is one of the Yamas of Yoga. Yoga has eight limbs in all, of which Yama is the first (it is Sanskrit for moral discipline), Niyama is the second (it is Sanskrit for moral guidance), and Asana (Sanskrit for body postures) is only the third. If you want a quick introduction to the 8 limbs, you can read about them here. Also, please note that though I have made Asteya one of my goals, I have taken only the first few steps in what appears to be a journey of 1000 miles.  Greed, excess and wastage are very hard to rid oneself of.  But I am on my way by being aware.

P.S. 4: I discovered the Yamas and Niyamas through reading Judith Lasater’s Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life. I highly recommend this book. 

P.S. 5: If you are interested in the story of King Mahmoud and the Beans, click on this link which takes you to a page containing some of the best stories of Farid ud-Din Attar. Quick note: Farid ud-Din Attar is a classical Sufi author.

P.S. 6:  Below are links to the books mentioned in this post.

P.S. 7:  As always, thanks for reading and wishing you peace and contentment, above all!

Fasten Your Seat Belts! (Economy And Wall Street Edition)

I have never ridden Drop Tower Scream Zone at California's Great America, but what’s more frightening than watching the Dow plummet 1000 points during the Flash Crash of 2010?

I have never ridden Barracuda Blaster or Blue Thunder/White Lightning at Raging Waters in San Jose, but I did get completely soaked and found myself underwater with my investment in KKD (Krispy Kreme Donuts) in 2004.

I have never seen David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear at a Las Vegas casino, but I’ve seen an investment in IndyMac Bank go poof overnight.

I have seen the movie Jaws, and I wonder whether corporate predators are just as much to be feared, since they can leave a company for dead like Mervyns.

I have marveled at the grafting ingenuity behind Gilroy Gardens’ Circus Trees many times, but I empathize with Time Warner investors who wish the grafting of AOL onto Time Warner was nipped in the bud, or HP investors who feel the same way about Compaq.

I have never ridden Delirium at California's Great America, but for dizziness, I think the head-spinning changes in the banking sector can’t be beat. Such as World Savings becoming Wachovia. And Wachovia becoming Wells Fargo. Wamu becoming Chase. And Merrill Lynch becoming Bank of America.

I have never ridden Disneyland’s Haunted House (okay, I did, once, with my eyes closed) but tell me, don’t you think what happened to Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns was just as spooky!

I have been on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, but I wonder whether it’s better to deal with a straightforward enemy like a pirate than with a wolf in sheep’s clothing such as a Bernie Madoff.

And finally, I have marvelled at how big a bubble can grow at the Bubbalogna exhibit at the Children’s Discovery Museum, but the bubble to beat all bubbles, you will agree, is the housing bubble that began in 2001 and burst in 2007.

P.S. I am sorry if I am dragging up all these nasty things you’d much rather forget. The stock market rout of the last week made me think of what a wild ride it has been in the economic and business arena. I realized that for thrills and gore and giving one the heebie jeebies, many of the events of the last decade have been every bit as hair-raising and eye-popping as the thrills we seek out at popular entertainment venues as Disneyland, Las Vegas, California’s Great America, Raging Waters, Gilroy Gardens and Children’s Discovery Museum.

And so before you could say Jack Sparrow, this post had written itself.

As always thanks for reading!

Which Household Object Best Symbolizes You?

A TV:

Compulsively spewing out the latest news, gossip, crimes, tragedies of the hour

A Phone:

Serving as a communication bridge between people

A Throw:

Creating warmth wherever you are

A Calculator:

Keeping track of the numbers, the money going in and out

A Lamp

Shining a light where there is darkness, ignorance, prejudice, or fear

A Sponge:
Absorbing everything



A Work of Art

Finding joy in being looked at, admired, complimented and desired

An Alarm Clock

Keeping everyone and everything on schedule

None of these? Have fun thinking of the one household object that best symbolizes who you are.