Mind Your Ps and Qs

Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here.   It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet.  Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate.

This fun meme has now progressed to the letter P

Minding my Ps

 Minding your Ps and Qs.  Ever wonder about that expression?

According to The Phrase Finder, the origin of this Phrase is unknown, but can be dated as far back to the early 1600s. Perhaps we can ponder a pair of possibilities:

1.  Printers apprentices often confused the backward facing metal type lower cases letters of P and Q and were warned frequently to watch for those mistakes. Even now when we write the lower care p and q, it matters where we draw the line.

2. Some historians think Ps and Qs refer to pints and quarts as in drinking our ale or it might refer to minding your pea (jacket) and queue (wig). Pea jackets were short rough woolen overcoats, commonly worn by sailors in the 18th century. Perruques were full wigs worn by fashionable gentlemen

I was surprised to find out how many words start with the letter P. One website reported that in the entire world there were 260 millions words beginning with this letter. No wonder I had such a hard time picking prizes from such a plentiful pool.

I should be serious and write something about Prayer or Passion or Pious Ponderings, but am going to let you peek into my latest pleasure: Pinterest.

Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pinterest is a popular social media phenomenon. Pinterest is a picture saving website where you create theme based boards and “pin” or save an image to them. For example I have a board to collect ideas for remodeling my sunroom. I also gather inspirational quotes I like, places I want to visit and my favorite books. By looking at other people’s boards I get more ideas. 

It is like tearing pages out of a magazine or clipping an article you like and tacking it on your bulletin board. This is much more organized and easy to keep.

But I am discovering other benefits. I am connecting with new people, exploring this site is pleasurable, and I love having images for my dreams. BUT I do need to minds my Ps and Qs and draw the line at the right place or I will be prone to procrastinate on Pinterest and my priorities will be on pause permanently.

Perhaps I have pushed the P word beyond prolonged on this page and have you partially paralyzed in pain or in peril of unsubscribing from reading this blog. (Please don’t) My purpose was only to perk you up, not plummet you into pointlessness.

I will end with my two favorite Peas in a Pod: my precious progenies (twin grandsons):

Do you have a fun and favorite word that begins with the letter P?