My Favorite Word: Fruition

I wrote this like years and years ago. It originally appeared on ChuckJerry.com. That's how old it is. My computer says it was last modified in August of 2004. There's sort of a random reason I wanted to post it here, but an ancillary reason is that I just needed this to exist on the interweb. Ok, that's all.

Fruition is definitely my favorite word. This word is pleasing on so many different levels that it makes me think that all words should be so functional. To start, lets define fruition. Dictionary.com defines it as the realization of something desired or worked for, an accomplishment. Therefore the word had a clearly positive connotation. That's a plus right off the bat.

In looking at the word, clearly it is related to fruit. One gets the sense that the meaning of this word comes from the fact that all of one's efforts have finally come to bear fruit. And that is precisely its meaning. This is a great analogy to make and by simply using the word 'fruition' the analogy is built in. One can extrapolate fields of grapes or apples or anything like that and imagine that after having toiled in the fields and cared after each plant, the harvest is here and is successful and that all is right with the world.

The root of the word is from the Latin root fru- which translates as enjoyment. This is great. That means that the root of fruition comes from enjoyment, which is fairly pleasing. Even better, however, is the fact that the same root is used in the noun fruit. Fruit is therefore derived from enjoyment. One would think that fruit would be one of those words that would exist as a tangible force long before the abstract idea of enjoyment. One would also think that the inherent enjoyment of fruit as a food and source of life and so on, while certainly evident upon thought, wouldn't be the driving force behind the coining of a word, yet here it is, plain as day.

To get back to fruition, then, we can see that, in a sense, fruition is the root for fruit, whereas logically we would assume that fruit would be the root of fruition. I suppose this is a slippery slope. After all, these two words wouldn't really be described as roots of one another, but rather brothers with the same paternal root. In the end, however, the idea of enjoyment is clearly the root of fruit and the idea of enjoyment is clearly encompassed in fruition, which is what I meant to say in the first place.

Aside from the absolutely thrilling link to its original root, fruition is a great word simply because it is so phonetically pleasing. To hear the word fruition is like a small three syllable symphony. It takes on a space in the air which clearly points to it as the apex of the sentence it inhabits. If you're hearing it for the first time the essence may not be immediately apparent, but the meaning is clear after only a moment's thought. In deriving the meaning one must clearly go through the aforementioned built in analogy, which then makes the meaning of the word so utterly clear, that no explanation is necessary from the user of this wonderful word.

In any event, I've wandered and veered off point and made several tangents that are certainly relevant, but don't point directly at the brilliance this word holds. Put simply, 'fruition' is a word that, when used, points clearly at the brilliance of the human mind and the simple eloquence of the English language.

Carmelo Redux

Adrian Wojnarowski (once and possibly still of Bergen Record fame) has a great article on Yahoo! Sports this morning about the role that Isaiah played (or, more accurately, did not play) in the Carmelo acquisition. Read it.

After going back and reading all the comments yesterday, I actually think we are all in more agreement than it originally seemed:

1. It is amazing that the Knicks have Carmelo.

2. The Knicks very likely could have gotten him for less (either by waiting until the last second before the trade deadline, or waiting until the offseason).

3. There is no way to be absolutely certain that the Nets, the Lakers, or some other team could not have convinced Carmelo to sign with them had the Knicks tried to wait this out. So even with what they gave up, it was probably worth it to get Carmelo. But it is hard to be totally thrilled about it without getting distracted by number 2 and number 4.

4. Isaiah Thomas is a delusional, disingenuous, conniving wretch who, perhaps more than anyone other than James Dolan himself, is responsible for completely ruining this franchise and pushing it to the brink of irrelevance. Reports that he had Dolan's ear on this and is now taking credit for the acquisition, and that, as a result, Donnie Walsh might bounce when his contract expires on June 30 make us all want to puke. On Isaiah.

Things That Are Still Awesome

A few years back my wife bought a Super Nintendo on eBay. Now we have a 3 year old who likes to play Super Mario World but, quite frankly, sucks at it. I guess it's not his fault, he's only 3. The upshot here is that he asks to play Mario except what he means is that he wants to watch while my wife or I play. And he holds the extra controller and gets excited when each board is finished.

So I was playing Super Mario World yesterday and I'm happy to report that it is still freaking awesome. This is one of the best video games ever made. I'm amazed at how entertaining it still is. And it's actually still somewhat challenging. Not challenging in the sense that I'd ever lose. I played like 5 boards and collected 22 lives and I don't think I ever died once. But challenging in the sense that a lot of the boards have secret exits and you ahve to find the switch palaces of different colors.

In my opinion, the biggest leap forward in Mario gaming was from Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario World. It is basically the same foundation of a game, except it's way better. It's more expansive, takes advantage of the greater capabilities of the Super Nintendo, and really doesn't have many, if any, flaws. Now I can't really speak for Mario games after this one. If you have a Nintendo 64 or if there are Mario games for the Wii, I don't know about any of that. But Super Mario World is still awesome.

Queens, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways.

I got married in 2002. My wife is from Queens. When we got married my wife worked in Queens and I worked at a job that allowed me to transfer from where I was working, in Englewood, NJ, to a branch in New York. That was one of the many reasons why it made a lot of sense for us to settle in Queens. If you had asked me in 2002 I would have guessed that we would live in Queens long enough for me to save some money and convince my wife that we should move somewhere else. I was wrong.

I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that me and Queens are soulmates. (Let's ignore the poor grammar. This is some Joycian shit right here.) I love Queens more than I ever could possibly have imagined. I love the diversity of experience available throughout the boro. I love its suburban nature. I love its urban parts. I love that there's a working farm. You can live in Queens and have any experience that you want.

And if you want to have all those experiences together, you can have that too. You can find a spot in Queens where you can have a house, like a real house, the convenience of a car, easy access to the subway and therefore the city, places to go within walking distance, and access to the quasi-suburban lifestyle that seems to be exactly what I was looking for in life.

And I know you're reading this and thinking that this is my experience and that you wouldn't love Queens like this, but I thought the same thing. So I'm not getting on a soapbox or anything, but I think this is something that would hold true for a lot of readers of this blog. I suppose it's not even testable, the chances that any of you would move to Queens is essentially zero, so I'll just rest in the confidence of this statement without actually having to put up.

If I didn't have a family I would guarantee you that I'd live the rest of my life in Queens. As an adult, I couldn't ask for more. Unfortunately, there are some experiences that I had as a youngster (that's such a funny word) that are unavailable in Queens. And there's going to come a time in the near future where we'll have to decide if those are experiences that are vital to the upbringing of a family. Most of them relate to education and the insular nature of a prototypical suburb versus a pseudo-suburb, of which Queens is the only one I know. On the other hand, I know that we could supplement those experiences with ones that are entirely unique to coming up in such a diverse and open area. And at the same time, I know I have an ideal in mind that is probably not necessarily available anywhere.



I'm debating with myself whether I should end the post at this point. I have finished what I originally wanted to say, and I've rambled on a bit more in a tangentially related way. You can keep reading, but consider the rest of this a secondary post. Imagine if I had written it weeks or months later.





Additionally, moving out of Queens, the best place to live, would mean most likely moving to Long Island, arguably the worst place on Earth (this logic goes as far as the idea that I wouldn't ever consider moving out of New York Metro, so among those options, Long Island is the one that settles least with me). The nature of our jobs and such would mean that we'd have to either change everything, which I don't really want to do, or move to the Guyland. That prospect kindof skeeves me out. As someone from New Jersey, I have a natural hatred of Long Island, bred from the realization that New Jersey and Long Island are essentially the same, except that Long Island sucks way more (flawless logic). Being on Long Island genuinely skeeves me out. Ninety percent of the towns are laid out in the same way just based on the geography of the island. Every town in essentially a repeat of the last, branching of the LIE down a county highway and spreading out from there. There are a few towns that escape this genuinely unsettling feature, and I suppose I would consider moving there, the same way that others might consider moving to a suburb in New Jersey.

All else being equal, I don't think I could ever live in New Jersey again. It's hard to put my finger on. I loved growing up there. I don't think I'd trade it. But I also look at the nature of the state, essentially a giant suburb, the ludicrous taxes, the awfulness of the state government, and something intangible that has changed in me, and I just know that I don't want to go back. I guess that's the reason that this Long Island idea is fermenting inside of me. As much as the nature of a New Jersey native is diametrically opposed to Long Island, it would sortof be a way for me to go home again without actually going home again.

At the end of the day, I think I'd love to find a way to stay in Queens. I mean, I wouldn't have to find a way, I guess I'd just have to do it. My suspicion is that the perceived trade-offs are a smaller deal than I'm making them out to be. And my eternal happiness at living in the perfect location would undoubdtedly rub off on my family in a positive way. I mean, part of me is wondering why I would ever consider finding the perfect place and then leaving it. Seems pretty stupid.

This Will Ultimately Cost Me A Lot Of Money

Ok, so Pandora Radio is a website where you type in the name of a band or a song you like and then they create a radio station for you based on that selection. You have the opportunity to rate every song that they play, which further refines the selections. First off, this is just a really good idea. It's like you love a certain type of music, but maybe you're tired of listening to the same albums over and over again or you want to discover something new. Also if you have a job where you sit in front of a computer all day or something of that nature, this would be way better than listening to a real radio station. Every few songs they play a sponsor commercial, but only one. You can just stream it over the internet and hook up some headphones or whatever. They also have a free iPhone app so you can listen to it anywhere.

So today is the first time I've listened to this for any extended period of time. To start with, I put that I wanted to hear songs similar to Arcade Fire, whom I love. So obviously they play an Arcade Fire song first. Cool. Then the next song is "Let Down" from Radiohead. I have also developed a recent pseudo-obsession with Radiohead. And "Let Down" is easily my favorite Radiohead song. So we're off to a good start with this Pandora thing. The next song they play I've never heard before, but it's awesome. It's called "Hummingbird" by Wilco. Then the next song is similarly awesome. A song called "Nothing Better" by The Postal Service. Anyway, the point is that this Pandora thing is a pretty amazing idea along with similarly amazing execution to this point. Not all the songs are super fantastic, but they are all at least pretty good.

Anyway, I go to iTunes and I end up buying those two albums from Wilco and The Postal Service based on the previews and the strength of those songs. I'm afraid that if I keep listening to Pandora Radio, I'm gonna end up spending a lot of money on iTunes. Now, I've listened to about 20 songs so far and I haven't ended up buying all of the albums, so that's good. But I have a real fear that this may be something I end up putting a lot into.

UPDATE: PS - I strongly encourage everyone to go to Pandora, put in A Tribe Called Quest and sit back and relax. Make sure you have like 3 hours to kill, though, because once they play "The Reminisce Over You" by Pete Rock and CL Smooth, you'll never want to turn it off.

The Awesomest Event

Seriously, dude, curling is the best sport in the winter Olympics. Yup, curling. I have watched several hours worth of curling so far during this, the XXI'st winter games. And once I start watching it, I can't stop. It's ridiculously engaging. When you first put it on it's like, "this is so weird. They're sweeping the ice and there's a target and I just don't get it." But then as you watch it, everything comes into focus. It's actually sortof like if you put pool and darts together with air hockey, you would get curling. Someone was in a bar one day and came up with this sport.

It's basically just a spatial reasoning game. But then once you put together the strategy you have to go out and execute it. But it's not like the NFL where executing the strategy involves being more athletic than 99.5% of the people on Earth. You just gotta shoot yourself down the ice a little bit and gauge the strength of your shot correctly. I want to join a curling club. Do you think they have that at Chelsea Piers or something?

I know I'm not an Olympic level curler, so I guess I'm clearly wrong, but it seems to me that these teams take the wrong strategy a lot of the time. I seem to almost always disagree with the way the teams play particular shots. Also, the US sucks at curling. The men's and women's team are a combined 0-7 so far. And the captain of the men's team, who is 0-4, has missed 4 game winning shots to date. The womens team hasn't missed bad shots, but in the two of their games I've seen, they've suffered from one really super bad end in each game (the games are separated into 10 innings, except they're called ends instead of innings). They've ended up giving up like 3 points in a particular end in each of these games when the general wisdom of the game says that they should have scored one or two points instead. So both the teams have shot themselves in the foot. And at the same time I'm sitting on my couch having never curled in my life and I'm disagreeing with the strategy the whole way. And then I think to myself, "Yeah well you painted yourself into that corner and that's why you gave up 3 points," but the announcers seem to think it's just bad breaks, and I guess they know more than I do.

Anyhow, I haven't really been glued to this Olympics as I have in every other Olympics that I can think of, but I definitely love curling. I wish it wasn't only on every 4 years. Also I'm clearly drawn to the more technical sports, because the other sport I love to watch is speed skating. Regular speed skating, not that short track nonsense.