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Lottery numbers for Sunday, April 17

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Former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley released from Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

<p>I&#8217;m learning a second language.</p><p>Every day I pick up bits and pieces of my new vernacular &#8211; a word, a phrase or a fragment of a sentence. It&#8217;s something I&#8217;m doing not to pass the time or even to prepare for a trip to a distant country.</p><p>I&#8217;m doing it out of necessity.</p><p>My new language is being taught to me by my 3-year-old twins, Hunter and Kelly Ann. As they continue to grasp the words and sentences of my language, I&#8217;m doing the same with theirs.</p><p>And until these two master the English language, learning their vocabulary makes life easier. How else would I know that when Hunter asks for &#8220;chalk milk&#8221; he really wants a nice, cool sippy cup of chocolate milk?</p><p>Or when Kelly Ann pleads for &#8220;ocean juice&#8221; in the morning, she&#8217;s really craving a cup of orange juice.</p><p>My twins&#8217; introduction to the English language, and speaking in general, was pretty straightforward. Their first word was &#8220;moo,&#8221; a sound they heard quite often during trips to our barn to visit the cows.</p><p>They were pretty proud of their new &#8212; and only &#8212; word, and used it frequently. As we walked to the barn, the twins would moo incessantly, and the cows would greet them with a confused gaze.</p><p>In the summer, the use of their new word increased. Hunter and Kelly Ann&#8217;s favorite spot in the house quickly became any of the windows upstairs that overlook the pasture. From there, the twins could shout &#8220;moos&#8221; to the cows below, trying to evoke a reply.</p><p>Soon, it became clear that our surroundings were shaping the way in which Hunter and Kelly Ann learned to speak. After becoming proficient with the word &#8220;moo,&#8221; the twins added &#8220;barn&#8221; &#8220;hay bales&#8221; and &#8220;tractor&#8221; to their vocabulary.</p><p>I could follow along, but as their language grew, I found it harder to keep up. There are just too many mystery words in the 3-year-old dialect.</p><p>It took a while, but I soon learned that &#8220;odd-tide&#8221; meant outside, &#8220;flute&#8221; actually translated into fruit and &#8220;play hard&#8221; was interpreted as play yard, although once in the play yard, they always play hard.</p><p>I first heard my favorite word of the 3-year-old language when I saw the twins standing in front of our dog shouting &#8220;gout.&#8221;</p><p>The dog&#8217;s name is Scout.</p><p>While I&#8217;ve progressed in my study of the 3-year-old language, there are still plenty of times when Hunter and Kelly Ann will converse with each other so fluently and flawlessly &#8211; in their own vocabulary, of course &#8212; that I look to my wife, waiting for an interpretation.</p><p>After spending all day with the twins, she has a much better grasp of their language. While sometimes their language is so confusing, or complex, that even my wife can&#8217;t understand it, she can usually pick up enough words to at least guess the topic of conversation.</p><p>Still, there are times that, no matter how bizarre or puzzling their words and phrases may sound to me, I know exactly what it all means.</p><p>This one I hear every day: &#8220;I loaf you.&#8221;</p><p>No translation necessary for that one.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption"><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Tom Venesky </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_Venesky-HS.jpg</photo0><caption0><strong>Beyond the Byline</strong> Tom Venesky </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Venesky is the outdoors writer for the Times Leader Media Group. Reach him at 570-991-6395 or at tvenesky@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: ‘I loaf you’ from a 3-year-old is music to my ears