Dephlogisticated air; perks

I am posting tonight, treating myself to a bit of esoteric soliloquy. Just that I can even think to use those two words pleases me immensely. I do believe the more reading I do, the more my vacabulary increases. When you see the word used time and again and you look it up a couple of times and FINALLY write it down...it sticks! Actually, that doesn't seem to be always true for me. Some of the words and phrases I have been reading don't mean anything to me much. I read the entire book by Kuhn using my very OLD dictionary....it's the one I used in my Freshman year of college. (Please forgive my excursis.) Kuhn kept using the word "dephlogisticate" and it wasn't in my dictionary. For two days of reading (very long days I might add...I think it took me nearly 18 hours to read the book) I kept reading that word over and over. Tonight, I totally finished the book and looked up the word. I had to actually check a couple of places to find it...obscure word. The best definition I could find said it means "fireproof." I puzzled over that and then it was like a lightbulb over my head. It's from an old theory of gasses where somebody figured out there was oxygen in the air that fires need so they can burn. Actually it's the reverse of that which inspires the term. If air is fireproof, it has no oxygen in it. And that can lead to REALLY fireproofing means that whatever chemicals are used, they can't change to create oxygen (maybe none of those gasses that can burn.)

Enough of that stuff though. Let's see. Today I heard my sweet Sarah on MSPR Public Radio. She was playing that banjo (Jesse called it a banjer a couple of times) and singing; she sounded like a fine Kentucky woman. I do love this music myself but I find the singing a bit harsh. I guess it's because I know what a sweet voice Sarah has and I miss hearing it. I guess I'll have to pull out an old CD of her Irish ballads, and that Russian song (Millions of Roses) she used to do. The banjo, and especially the guitar, I love. The fiddle is fun but my ears don't like the pitch for long - it bites. If I could play anything in a band, I think it would be bass. I realize that vocalists have to sing like that to be heard at all. A banjo is LOUD and so is a fiddle. Using a mic is just not done so much with that Old Time....it loses the Old Time sound somewhat with amplification.

Words for today?? Some of them are:

seriatim - serially
perquisite - gratuity; privilege (Do you suppose this is where we get "perks"???) >:-( That word is not in my dictionary EITHER!! I need a new one!
salient - noticeable
approbation- praise
heterodox - heretical (like from a heretic)
elucidate - explain
tout court - simply; quite short (pronounced too 'coor)
excursis - digression; lengthy point

So I must fold laundry now and practice some KARATE. I must practice the first two parts of (I can't spell it but it sounds like) Pin Yon Yee Don. Also, I will practice (sounds like) Pin Yon Show Don. I need to practice some new combinations as well...3rd set. There are three new ones and I have learned (hopefully) two of them. To all a good night.