Big John Talking

ANYONE who knew John, knew he was a talker. When Trina was a kid she often didn’t know how to explain her dad’s profession. Owning newspapers didn’t sound like something someone did at work all day so she explained it like this: “My dad reads newspapers and talks on the phone all day!”

John had quite the vocabulary, often leaving us scurrying to the dictionary to figure out exactly what he meant with “that” word. Here are a few words we’ve now added to our vocabulary. Maybe you will too (feel free to look them up at your own leisure):

Fastidious Feckless Superfluous Machinations

Capricious Capitulate

Histrionic Sycophant

Sardonic

Schnick (ok, we will define this one as it was a made up word, he liked those too).

[Shh-nik]: noun

A small bite or taste of someone else’s food. Often asked for when you didn’t order food that you really wanted, but pretended you didn’t. i.e. “Can I have a schnick of your cheeseburger?”

JOHN was also famous for one liners and idioms. We often heard him say, “In our company we have a saying . . . .”

“No decision is a decision”

“Numbers don’t lie”

“Cash is King”

“Tompkins don’t do that”

“I’ve had enough now”

“In our company we have a saying”

“I don’t do guilt”

“Leaders are readers”

“Make me”

“I don’t make decisions with a gun to my head”

“Don’t tell me what to do”

“Fish is brain food” (he was way ahead of the times on this!)

“Maintain low tones” (quoted from The Coneheads movie)

“Ya think?”

“People Don’t Change”