Chrysti The Wordsmith: A Piece of Work

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. The legendary Bette Davis was what might charitably be called a real piece of work. That's what author Jeanine Basinger wrote about the film star in a 2007 New York Times article. Basinger cites Davis's drunken tantrums her faked illnesses during filming and the insults she hurled at her fellow luminaries as evidence to justify the moniker. A real piece of work. Now here's an expression that describes not only the Serb movie star but also the Curmudgeon provocateur or someone running just slightly afoul of normal. He's a real piece of work. The phrase is not of recent vintage over five centuries old it was immortalized though not invented by William Shakespeare in his 60 no one play Hamlet. When the young prince and one of his many ruminations contemplates the nature of humankind what a piece of work is a man Hamlet says how noble in reason how infinite in faculties

how like an angel in apprehension how like a god the hamlet speaks admiringly of the reason grace and beauty of man. And what a piece of work he therefore is. We modern English speakers have taken the same phrase and inverted its meaning. Today we might admire the piece of work whose cantankerous and perverse. But we do so grudgingly. I'm Christi the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. Good day verb of yours Christie the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.