Diary of a Word Nerd

Every vote counts! A reminder from a one vote winner

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 0 Comment

A year ago at this time, I was passing out candy at football games and trunk or treats, greeting people with my campaign flyers, and getting to as many civic meetings as possible. I was running for local office.

I competed with three other candidates for the At Large School Board Seat, and the political party most dominant in my county had endorsed one of my opponents. School board seats are supposed to be non-partisan, but this type of endorsing went on all over Virginia. Concerned, but not daunted, I called on friends and acquaintances, and even my introvert husband, and together, we spread my image and message across the county. Election Day involved a spreadsheet of volunteers and a tour to the 12 different voting precincts in my county to pitch myself to strangers. I smiled nonstop from 7am to 7pm.

But my campaign didn’t end on Election Day. The work did, but the waiting just began. At 9pm on Election night, I sat in front of my laptop watching results on the Virginia elections site. First I climbed up, then I feel behind my opponents. By 10, I took my husband’s advice, turned off the laptop, and went to bed.

The next day, it looked like I had won by 99 votes. The day after that, I got a call from the county registrar. The county had tallied votes correctly, but Richmond made a mistake recording our county votes, and I was suddenly behind. And not all of the absentee ballots had been cast. By the next week, after all mail-in ballots were counted, I led my opponent by a handful of votes. He called for a recount. I didn’t blame him. I would have done the same.

So, on a morning in December, I gathered in the basement of the county court building with election officials, the clerk of court and his staff, and a panel of three judges for the recount. I also was allowed to bring two friends who could observe the counting for me and speak on my behalf. The recount took more than seven hours. My opponent was there and also had ballot observers with him.

A few ballots were contested. In both cases, the voter had put a mark by more than one candidate for the same office on the ballot. What had the voter intended?

The election volunteers and officials did an excellent job of attending to detail and keeping things impartial and fair. In the end,

I won by a single vote.

That’s right. One.

Me, getting sworn in by the judge who dubbed me “Landslide.” 😉

To those of you tired of hearing about swing states, polls, and the Electoral College, let me assure you of this: YOUR VOTE MATTERS. Especially for local and state politics. Please, please, educate yourself, make a plan, and vote this election.

I learned a lot during my campaign, both about the power of local political parties and how many mistakes people make on ballots. Fill in the entire box. Choose only one candidate. Direct questions to your local election officials.

And lemme say it one more time…

Every vote counts! Including yours. Vote!

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Improving vocabulary

What you should know about the term “Fascism”

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 0 Comment

Politicians and pundits have tossed around big words this week, including “fascist.” Unfortunately, those same pundits and politicians don’t explain words in nuanced terms, which can leave many of us confused or misinformed. Recently I explored the etymology of “incumbent.” This week, let’s dive into “fascism.”

The origins of fascism – the word

According to Merriam-Webster, the term fascism arises from the Italian word fascio (plural fasci), which literally means bundle and can figuratively mean group. In ancient Rome, officers carried bundles of rods with an ax head attached to clear the way for magistrates. Starting in the late 1800s, fascio or fasci was used to name labor and agrarian unions. In the early 20th century, dictator Benito Mussolini climbed to power, and the members of his political party were called fascisti in Italian. The fascisti used fasces, bundles of rods connected to an ax, to symbolize Italians united and obedient to the authority of the state.

As the result of Mussolini’s influence, fascism entered English as a term to describe a political philosophy or regime that favors nation or race above individuals. A fascist country is usually run by a dictator who imposes a severe social and economic structure and suppresses opposition. Fascism can also describe a tendency toward strong dictatorial control. Here’s the important part to grasp: in a fascist country, a dictator controls the lives of the people and does not tolerate dissent. The regime also tends to favor far right political perspectives and a nationalist agenda. Many fascist dictators held power in the early to mid 20th century, including Fransisco Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, and Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Knowledge is power

I was shocked to learn that fascist parties have existed in the United States. In the late 1930s, several pro-German groups with fascist ideology formed in the states, and one group, the Silver Legion of America, got a fascist candidate for president on a third party ticket. Once Germany declared war on the US in 1941, the group was outlawed.

Words, and their history, are important. I hope you’ve learned something today and will share it during this election.

If you’d like to learn more about fascism, visit these sites:

What other politically charged words are you interested in? I promise to tackle “filibuster” soon!

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Improving vocabulary

How the football game got its name: a history

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 1 Comment

We wonder things in my family. We wonder why a hamburger is called that when it doesn’t (usually) have any ham. We wonder why a soccer field is called a pitch. And, we wonder why football is called football since players use their hands to play. I spent the weekend with American football games blaring in the background, (My goodness, a lot of people were at that Tennessee game!), and now I must answer this question about the origin of the game “football.”

The origins of football

American football grew out of a group of games broadly called football that required teams to move a ball to a target using the feet. From that broad category, two games most often receive for the development of American football: soccer and rugby. Their names have an interesting history.

Soccer was originally called “association football.” Newspapers covering the sport shortened the name to “assoc.” In the 1870s, college men fond of playful slang, especially young men at Oxford, liked to shorten words and add “-er.” So breakfast became “brekker.” Assoc was shortened to soc and er was added, leading to soccer, which was first recorded as “socker” in 1891.

Rugby was another football game, but in 1821, a player named William Webb Ellis made a fundamental change to the sport. Instead of kicking the game ball over a goal line, he picked the ball up and ran over it. This significant play happened during a game at Rugby School, and thus the game of Rugby was born.

American football gets its start

Soccer and rugby came to the United States during the 19th century, and a hybrid of these two games morphed into what we now call football. The first football game played in the US was between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. The match had few rules and was more chaotic than the highly technical game we watch now. In the 1880s, Walter Camp, known as “The Father of American Football,” introduced changes to make the game unique and also more safe.

Camp got rid of the chaotic scrum and added the line of scrimmage. He also added the concept of downs, which increased the strategic component of the game. Scoring methods changed under Camp’s direction, with different points awarded for a touchdown, field goal, or safety. This increased the need for planning and strategy.

Moving into the 1900s, players started wearing protective equipment, including helmets and pads. In 1906, the forward pass became a part of the game, in part to address continuing concern about player safety and the dangers of tackling. (Interesting to note that safety has been an issue from the start of the game.)

Close ties to rugby

American football has more in common with rugby than soccer. The games use similar strategy to advance a ball on a field and require robust tackles and physicality. The oblong shape of a football comes from rugby, as well as the basis of scoring.

As the daughter and granddaughter of avid Green Bay Packers fans, I understand football and most of its complicated rules, including the downs and the penalties. But over the years, I’ve developed a skepticism of the sport in general, particularly over concerns about its safety (after reading Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas) and a distaste for the aggressive and at times sexist and racist overtones of the sport. But I am glad to learn how it got its name and how it is different from soccer, my favorite sport. (Which also requires strategy and physical strength, without all the stoppage time and time outs. Just sayin’ 😉 )

For more details about the history of football and how it got its name, visit:

Who’s watching football this season?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Improving vocabulary

Election vocabulary: what you need to know about the term “incumbent”

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 2 Comments

Incumbent. It’s a silly word, and since it’s election season, we hear it every day! Most of us understand it means a person currently holding an office. But have you ever wondered where incumbent, which can also be an adjective meaning obligatory, comes from?

Incumbent serves as a noun or an adjective. It derives from the Latin verb incumbere, which means “to lie down on.” What does that have to do with holding office? First used in English way back in the 15th century, incumbent named someone who held a paid position in the church. They usually held the office for life, unless certain legal conflicts forced them out of office. So, I guess a responsibility was laid on the incumbent. By the 17th century, incumbent was used to describe a person holding any office, included elected positions.

These days, we use it most often to describe the person already in an office during an election. But we also use it as an adjective with multiple meanings, including

imposed as a duty, obligatory
lying or resting on something else
bent over so as to rest on or touch an underlying surface

Now you know! Over the weekend, when political discussion gets too spicy, wow everyone with your new election vocab knowledge. Thank you, Merriam-Webster!

Are there other election words you’d like to learn more about? I’ve also taken a deep dive into Trial Balloon and Parity.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Who I Am

Embracing emotions: lessons from a beautiful wedding

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 3 Comments

This past weekend, I had the honor and privilege to officiate the wedding of my best friend’s daughter. I have known the bride since she was a baby, and she’s like a niece to me. Who knew three days could hold so much? I reconnected with old friends, made new ones, and officiated my very first wedding service. I also cheered on newlyweds, cried at speeches, and danced with my kids- oldest son even taught me a few spin moves.

While I marveled at the enthusiasm of youth, as well as the cute figures of the young bridesmaids, I also appreciated what 53 years of life have taught me. Lessons that I have already learned, but need regular reminders about.

First, the superficial.

Weddings require preparedness

Superficial, by the way, comes from the Latin roots super meaning “on top” and facies meaning face or aspect.

First, always pack hair products! I have easy hair – it’s got natural wave and usually only requires some product and a bit of scrunching to look good. However, this weekend, the remnants of Hurricane Helene doused Pennsylvania with rain, which not only wreaked havoc on travel plans, plane schedules, and train routes, but also created brought humid conditions. On the day of the wedding, I started with well defined curls, but by the reception, without the benefit of hair spray and a curling iron, my waves coalesced into a frizzy, thick mushroom. ☹

Second, find COMFORTABLE dress shoes, or better yet, bring cute sneakers to change into. One of the bride’s aunts traded her heels for sparkly silver and green Eagles sneakers during the cocktail hour. And the bride proudly displayed her floral tennis shoes during her dances. The stone dance floor plus no cushion heels brought stinging pain to the balls of my feet, so after the third song, I got rid of my heels and spent the rest of the reception shoeless. Even, to my daughter’s horror, in the bathroom.

Helene also brought chilly temps, and while we ate dinner in a tent with the sides lowered to protect from the wet and the cold, I borrowed a wrap to keep warm. I now have three dressy, yet stylish, wraps saved in my Amazon cart. Everyone should have at least one. Two if you care about friends.

Weddings celebrate love

Weddings aren’t all about appearances, or they shouldn’t be. They celebrate love, and we certainly did this weekend. Most importantly, the love of a couple who met in college and have sustained their relationship through many adversities, including the groom’s long deployments in far away seas. The readings and vows also reminded me of my own precious marriage, now 30 years long, to a man who truly cherishes me and is my life partner.

This event allowed me to reconnect with friends I do not see enough, and found family I will always treasure. Bonus: two of my four adult children also attended, granting us valuable time together. I’ve spent a quarter century building pathways for communication and grace in my immediate family, and moments like this weekend, when we gather in laughter and love, validate the work.

In a world currently tainted by war, natural disasters, and political unrest, it was refreshing to immerse myself, and my people, in love.

Weddings churn up multiple emotions

The Word Nerd needs help with a word. How do you describe the state of overflowing with a multitude of emotions? A few weeks ago, I wrote about ambivalence, which means feeling more than one way about something at the same time. But this is different. Over this wedding weekend, I experienced joy, excitement, and sadness, sometimes all at once. While a wedding offers the opportunity to celebrate love and connection, it can also stir up grief. We miss the people who are not present to share the experience, like grandparents who have passed away and aren’t there to hug the bride and groom. Most tragically, at this wedding, a young woman from the bridal party died earlier this year from breast cancer. She was 24 years old.

Most relevant for me, a resident of Appalachia, I knew that while we danced under fairy lights, people in the southeast were watching their homes and businesses drift away on flood waters. As we dined on salmon and salad, thousands couldn’t access electricity or clean water. Author David Joy summed up the frustration well:

The bride and her father danced to “I Hope You Dance,” the Chris Stapleton version. The lyrics fit the occasion perfectly.

A wedding is one of the rare occasions in life when the people you care about most gather together in joy. Weddings offer the precious opportunity to treasure what truly matters. I’m happy to report, I was fully present. And next time, I’m packing hair spray and sneakers.

Now, who can help me with that word that means holding multiple emotions at once?

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

Book reviews/How to encourage reading

2023 marked the highest number of book bans yet

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Julia Tomiak / 2 Comments

Happy Banned Books Week! This week, September 22-28, 2024, the American Library Association (ALA) will lead the country in discussions about book banning. And with good reason. In the past few years, book challenges have grown exponentially, with individual people or groups of people challenging multiple titles at one time. This trend has sparked increased concerns among book lovers. I want to highlight a few of the trends and share a review of a book that has made the top ten banned book list for several years, Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. First, let’s look at some data.

Book banning trends in 2023

Every year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), a part of the ALA, collects data about book challenges based on reports from librarians and news stories. When a person or group asks for a book to be removed from a collection or classroom, that’s a book challenge. When the material is removed, that’s considered a book ban.

2023 was a significant year for book banning. Persons or organizations targeted 4240 unique titles for removal from libraries! That’s half the number of books in my local middle school library! The number of challenges jumped by 65% over the data from 2023. The increase alone is concerning, but the OIF noted four trends:

Groups challenged multiple titles at once, which is a new, but growing, trend.
There were more challenges filed a public libraries in 2023- an increase of 92%. School libraries and classrooms aren’t the only targets.
Almost half of the challenges were of books that featured LGBTQIA characters and/or themes OR people of color.
There were at least 100 books challenged in 17 states. That’s one third of our country, and includes my home state of Virginia!

For more details on the data, visit the American Library Association website.

Banned book review

A librarian friend shared a copy of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The YA novel is based on Alexie’s own experience, being born with hydrocephalus and growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Spokane, Washington. I knew it had been challenged frequently over the past few years and decided it was time I learned more about this novel that won the National Book Award for young people’s literature in 2007.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian has been challenged for several reasons, including profanity, sexually explicit content, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author. I confirm the book includes frequent swearing, and on more than one occasion, the main character references masturbating. And according to NPR, around 2018, several woman accused the author Sherman Alexie of inappropriate sexual behavior. He publicly responded that “there are women telling the truth” and apologized for hurting people.

Despite the controversial content, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is an insightful book that offers thoughtful reflections on the challenges of growing up on an American Indian Reservation and choosing to deviate from what everyone in your culture expects you to do.

What I liked

Arnold, the main character and narrator of Part-Time Indian, endures many challenges. His father drinks too much and disappears on occasion. In fact, alcoholism plagues many of his friends and family on “the rez.” And he was born with hydrocephalus, which caused seizures and made his head big. As he says in the opening chapter,

My head was so big that little Indian skulls orbited around it. Some of the kids called me Orbit. And other kids just called me Globe. The bullies would pick me up, spin me in circles, put their finger down on my skull, and say, “I want to go there.” So obviously, I looked goofy on the outside, but it was the inside stuff that was the worst.

Arnold has a lot going against him. However, he’s very smart, and very brave. In high school, he decides he wants something more for his life. He transfers to an all white school in the all white town of Reardon so he can get a better education. Some days, when his dad doesn’t have money for gas or the wherewithal to drive, Arnold hitchhikes from the rez to get to school. His choice to attend Reardon gets him shunned by his Indian tribe and bullied by the white kids at his new school. Despite the obstacles, he persists.

Throughout his trials, Arnold makes astute observations about life and people. Regarding addiction, he says, “There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away.” Another time, after a new friend from Reardon drives him home, Arnold says, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty amazing.”

After his grandmother dies, Arnold finds very constructive ways to deal with his grief without any support from the adults in his life. Primarily he makes lists- of people who bring him joy, of musicians who play joyous music, of his favorite books. He is a resourceful and observant character, and one I loved reading about.

What I didn’t like

I could have done without the cussing or the sexual commentary, however, I also know some teens use vulgar language. Part Time Indian portrays the life of a Native American teen with unapologetic realism – the dialogue and habits of its characters fit the context.

Word Nerd Recommendation

Despite some objectionable content, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian offers some thoughtful and nuanced observations on the challenges of growing up as a Native American on a reservation. I recommend it for anyone who is interested in learning about understanding people different from themselves and who like a good underdog story. (The book ends well for Arnold. 🙂 )

Have you read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian? What did you think? Have you read any other books that have been targeted for banning? See my reviews of some other commonly banned and challenged books via the links below.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!