Thing To Do Today: blather.

Or should blather be a Thing Not To Do Today?

After all, life is stern, or so they say, and life is earnest. Perhaps we should be terse and consisely logical at all times.

Perhaps we should think what we are going to say, and then say what we think.

Perhaps we should omit unnecessary words.

Be unambiguous.

Be business-like.

Perhaps even be laconic...

...oh, but good heavens above, where's the fun in that?

No, let's have a good blather (or a blether if you're from the north of Britain). Let's talk a bit of nonsense, even if it's foolish and people call us blatherskites.

It's useful, after all.

Well, who's to know what's foolish until someone's said it?

Thing To Do Today: blather. This word comes from the Old Norse blathra, from blathr, which means nonsense. In Northern England, though, to be blethered means to be weary.