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Tuesday 10 May 2011

Thing To Do Today: be capricious.

Capricious means impulsive, or jumping from one thing to another.

And what could be more fun than that? Variety is the spice of life, after all: and it keeps people on their toes.

So: be unpredictable. Wear a tutu in Tesco's. Discuss Balzac with the bus driver. Make a daisy chain for your nearest cow. Take up crochet. Or blacksmithing. Or the bassoon. Dye your moustache.

And surprise everyone - including, of course, yourself.

Thing To Do Today: be capricious. Capricious means jumping from one thing to another like a mountain goat. Now the Italian for goat is capra, so the word capricious obviously comes from the Italian word for...

...hedgehog.

Oh yes it does. Capricious comes from the Italian capriccio, meaning shiver, and before that from capo, head, plus riccio, hedgehog.
I think the idea is that something capricious is hair-raisingly unexpected.

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