purely fantastic
his work so esemplastic
despite being sick

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophillus Amadeus Gottlieb Sigismundus Mozart... !

• Mozart could write music before he could write words.
• By the age of 3, Mozart had learned to play a clavier, which was an old-fashioned stringed instrument that had a keyboard. By the age of 5, he was playing the harpsichord and violin as well as a professional. He was playing in front of royalty when he was just 6 years old. Mozart was a rare musical genius.
  
• While in Vienna as a child, Mozart performed for Empress Maria Theresa. He amused her when he asked one of her young daughters to marry him. She was Marie Antoinette, the future queen of France.
  
• He was also good at math and spoke some different languages.
• He wrote half the number of symphonies he had ever wrote from the ages of 8-19. Mozart wrote his first symphony when he was just 8 years old.
• If you listen to his all his music he has ever made for 8 hours a day, it would take you almost 1,500 years to listen to it all.
• Mozart could listen to music just once and then write it down from memory without any mistakes.
  
• People nicknamed Mozart Wolfie through his life.
• Mozart was really short for his age.
• Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the September 6, 1791, premier of his opera La clemenza di Tito. He died in his home on December 5, 1791. Even while ill, he was occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem.
  
• Researchers have hypothesized at least 118 causes of death for Mozart, including rheumatic fever, influenza, trichinosis, mercury poisoning, kidney ailment, and streptococcal infection.
  

DEFINITION of this 4-syllable adjective:

1. having the ability to shape diverse elements or concepts into a unified whole: the esemplastic power 
   ​of a great mind to simplify the difficult.

the hoity-toity
try for joy monopoly...
annoy hoi polloi 

Allen Leech as Tom Branson on Downton Abbey.

One of our favorite quotes was a simple question asked by Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, at the dinner table one night: "What's a weekend?" 
Brilliant writing. 

We're sad there were only five seasons! 

DEFINITION of this 3-syllable noun-phrase:

1. the common people; the ​masses (often preceded by the).

interests only
pecuniary withdraw
on a rich, full life

Steve's point is that there are things besides money that have great value. It's high time we humans started to honor those other things. 

I once started a website and content under the name "Valuenomics.co" and I still own the domain. It was just one more project than I could handle, so I took it down and shelved it. 

It would make a great book. 

DEFINITION of this 5-syllable adjective:

1. of or relating to money: pecuniary difficulties.
2. consisting of or given or exacted in money or monetary payments: pecuniary tributes.
3. (of a crime, violation, etc.) involving a money penalty or fine.

blood pressure on high
will somaticize from stress
to hospital bed

DEFINITION of this 4-syllable verb:

1. Psychiatry. to convert (anxiety) into physical symptoms.

their smiles endemic
in this happy, goofy place
went to Disneyland!

When I was a kid, we lived in Southern California, and went to Disneyland at least once a year. When I got older, the experience changed, but was still wonder-full. When I brought my own kids, the experience was again very different seeing it anew through their eyes. 

Disneyland is one of the best places in the world to just sit and people watch. It's just amazing who shows up there... like, everyone! Kids of ALL ages, badass biker dudes wearing Goofy hats, princesses, hipsters, newlyweds, goths, people of every class, race, orientation, nationality, country, you-name-it... they all come. That's the real magic of Disneyland. 

It is truly a special place. 

DEFINITION of this 3-syllable adjective:

1. natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous: endemic folkways; 
   countries where high unemployment is endemic.
2. belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place: a fever endemic to the tropics.
3. an endemic disease.

our wafflestompers
looked like pancakes, needed soles...
renewed hiking souls

Last year we went on a 14-mile hike in Yosemite — Glacier Point to the Wawona Tunnel on the south rim of the Valley — and I needed new boots. I bought a brand new pair of Vasque boots about two days before we were to leave... no time to properly break them in! Risky business! They worked out great — look ma no blisters! — solid endorsement. I was very fortunate!

Yosemite is our forever favorite. There is a reason it is the most photographed place on our planet. If you've never been, go. Just go. Mere words cannot express.

DEFINITION of this 4-syllable noun:

1. ankle boots with ridged soles, used especially for hiking.

I've written a number of puzzle haiku or "puzzleku" which are a lot of fun, and take the form in a different direction, but stay with storytelling. 

As for mosquitos, I find them darkly fascinating... and bothersome. Why do they exist? They seem to serve only nefarious purposes... chiefly as a vector of diseases, lately, notably, the zika virus. They serve as a food source for some insects and birds — maybe bats too, but aren't a chief diet of any species. Why. Do. They. Exist?

They are magnificently efficient creatures. Read more here. 

DEFINITION of this 1-syllable verb:

1. British Dialect. to lurk out of sight.