Alternatives, Six Impossible Things, and Being Thankful

Alternatives is a recurring post in which I give synonyms for an over used word. Click on the tab above for a "complete" list of over used words.

Today's word is:

"A few" is very similar to "a couple," both of which I bet all of us have used a few more times than necessary. Some of these synonyms didn't (and don't) make a whole lot of sense to me, like "manifold" and "marked." In fact, after I had snared these words in my net, I deleted a few from the list. It's probably of no consequence, a piddling matter to be sure. 

Depending on how you use it, this list may come in handy for finding another way to say the same thing.

a couple, a lot, abounding, abundant, any, atom

between

considerable, copious, countless, crumb

few and far between, fragment

grain

handful, hardly any, heaps

imperceptible, inconsequential, inconsiderable indefinite, infinite, infrequent, innumerable, innumerous, insufficient, iota

jot

lean, legion, less

manifold, many, marked, meager, middling, minor, minority, minute, modicum, molecule, multifarious, myriad

negligible, not many, not too many, numberless, numerous

occasional, one

paltry, particle, particular, petty, piddling, plural, populous, precise, profuse, proportionate

quite a few

rare, regular

scant/scanty, scarce, scarcely any, scattered/scatter/scattering, scrap, seldom, semi-occasional, separate, several, short, shred, single/singular, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small number, smatter/smattering, some, sparse, special, specific, specified, sporadic, sprinkle/sprinkling, stingy, straggling, sundry

teeming, thin, tittle, trifling

uncommon, uncountable, uncounted, unfrequent, unnumbered, untold

various, voluminous

whit, widely spaced

***

It was the White Queen, from Through the Looking Glass, who said to Alice: "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 

When life gets you down think of, or believe, six impossible things before breakfast. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. If you are aren't smiling by the sixth thing, think of six more. Keep thinking of impossible things until you smile, or until you understand that life itself is impossible. Yet here we are.

Here, for your entertainment, are Six Impossible Things. You can believe them or not as you wish.

1. Flying monkeys on Mars (Maybe the first travelers to Mars will take The Wizard of Oz with them.)
2. Time travel (There are scientific hints that it might be possible.)
3. Having tea with Gandhi (Which is why I could have tea with Gandhi.)
4. Snakes with legs (When they are able to recreate dinosaurs from DNA, they will be able to make snakes with legs.)
5. Turning green and disappearing into the foliage (I could dye myself....)
6. Being a bolt of lightening (Well I suppose I could get struck by lightening which would probably be the same as becoming a bolt of lightening.)

See? Believing in six impossible things isn't so impossible after all!

***

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for dogs I've had in my life.

Happy

Bozo (brown) Anna (white)

 Atta Fohat 

(Atta for "Attagirl" and Fohat meaning spiritual energy in Hindi)

 Ursa

 And there are other dogs, like Tricksy, Lassie, Cheese, and Whitey, each of them with a unique personality who hold special places in my memories.

What are you thankful for? Have a favorite pet? Care to share an impossible thing? Got a preferred alternative for A FEW?