Beeswax: (n) a person’s concern or business.

“None of your beeswax.”

I’m not so sure anyone under the age of 50 would know what that phrase means. I haven’t heard it for years. It sounds like a throw-away line from the musical, Grease.

But of course, if you are unfamiliar with the phrase, its origin lies in the sarcastic response one gives another person when they’ve stepped over the line and started interfering in one’s life.

In other words, “none of your business.”

You know what the interesting thing is about that idea? More often than not, it may very well be my business. The fact that someone gives me an adolescent, bratty response doesn’t change the fact that they may be making decisions that affect my life without consulting me.

But by the same token, “none of your beeswax” would be a very appropriate response to many things being discussed today as if we actually have some say-so in the conclusion.

1. How somebody worships God.

None of your beeswax.

2. Someone’s sexual orientation.

Not your beeswax.

3. The personal freedoms we are meant to enjoy in this country despite our differences.

Removed from your beeswax.

America may have become more intelligent or technologically savvy, but with the introduction of Facebook and social media, it has also become more intrusive, opinionated and mean.

Some things are none of my beeswax.

I suppose the genesis of the term is that whatever a bee needs to do to make honey is none of my damn business.

Exactly.

I think I’ll just stand on the other end of your life and enjoy your honey. How you get it there is up to you. But understand–we are human.

It better be sweet.

Thank you for enjoying Words from Dic(tionary) —  J.R. Practix

Beer: (n) an alcoholic drink made from yeast-fermented malt and flavored with hops.

I like good taste.

This does not mean I have good taste. Let me make that distinction before it is thrust upon me.

I am one of those odd people who has never smoked marijuana, taken recreational drugs or chugged beer.

It isn’t a moral issue to me.

It isn’t any kind of sense that I am superior by abstaining.

It’s just that I’m a “watcher.”

Yes, if I had been a cave man, I would have stood back and observed what happened when my buddies ate the berries from a nearby bush, to see if they keeled over and died. I might have had a growling belly while I watched them devour the treats, but then would have been very grateful later as I saw them convulsing on the ground–delighted I delayed.

I never liked what beer does to people, and I certainly found it to be personally distasteful.

Marijuana always seemed to take people to a different place, when I was completely satisfied with the place I had located, renovated and furnished inside me.

People who drank beer also smelled of beer, or threw up a lot. (And by the way, as bad as the brew may be going in, it is even worse coming out.)

I’m always reluctant to discuss this matter because it seems I’m taking a self-righteous profile against Milwaukee’s finest. But honestly, I’ve been to Milwaukee, and the frothing stuff in the brown bottles is not their finest.

So I have come to the same conclusion on the subject with beer that I have with many things I’ve encountered in my life:

• I’m glad you enjoy it.
• I’m not preaching against it.
• But I would rather not participate.

Thank you for enjoying Words from Dic(tionary) —  J.R. Practix