Gryphon's Word of the Day, January 19, 2008

The word of the day for January 19, 2008 is "wastrel" — noun — 1 : vagabond: waif. 2 : one who expends resources foolishly and self-indulgently : profligate,

Rae suggested today's word. We get a cartoon strip in our newspaper called The Born Loser. One of the recurring characters is a neer-do-well named Wastrel P. Gravesite. He is the sort of character that gives "chutzpah" a bad name.

I think it is a good thing for many of us that we haven't won the big lottery prize. So many of us have no idea what we would do with more money than what we have. Come to think, few of us know what we should be doing with the money we have. Our ideas of thrift and waste sometimes seems odd to others. For instance, I have spent over $400 on a formal dress for my daughter, not considering it a waste, but I will scrimp on the cost of underwear for myself every time. The theory behind this is that my daughter's high school graduation and wedding were once-in-a-lifetime events where everyone was looking at her, but nobody — barring my husband — will ever see my underwear.

Our quote for the day is from Karl Kraus (1874–1936), Austrian satirist. Sprüche und Widersprüche, ch. 4 (1909), trans. in Half-Truths and One-And-A Half-Truths, “Lord, Forgive Them ...,” ed. Harry Zohn (1976):

     Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance
     which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

;^) Jan

Tags: wastrel