100 things, part 11
- Small pebbles are rattling around in the heels of my winter shoes. The heels are thick, rubber, and apparently hollow. I picked up the pebbles on the icy sidewalks of Sweden a year ago, as I slipped and slid my way to the office there. I can't hear the pebbles knocking around if there's background noise, but at work, or in my empty house, the gentle rattling reminds me of glögg (think mulled wine with trail mix in it), ginger cookies with gorgonzola, and girls singing with candles on their heads.
- I'm surprised that there's no perfect synonym for "rattling." With the whole shoe thing, I edited out a few uses, but it was difficult. The closest word, "clattering," is too hectic to describe the sound of pebbles in my shoes. "Knocking around" is OK, but it describes what the pebbles are doing, not the noise they make. And "hitting the walls of the inside of the heel, resulting in the sound of many pebbles tapping at once" is way too long.
- I think someone should make cold/flu medication called "The Nuclear Option." I would take some of that right now, and damn the consequences.
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