Events will be a love-in for words

Could you be a linguaphile? Symptoms include a passion for crosswords puzzles and games such as Scrabble.

You've got good company, according to Anu Garg, of Woodinville, the man who coined the word that means love of language and words. Linguaphile now appears in dictionaries.

Garg's Web site, wordsmith.org, and word-a-day service (sent to your e-mail inbox) has more than 650,000 subscribers. The daily word includes a pronunciation guide, the origins of the word and a quote.

He's also written three books about words. His latest is "The Dord, The Diglot and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange Origins of Words."

He will be speaking about the books — and words — at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park and at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle.

A perfect evening for a linguaphile, or, as his publicist, Christy Cox, said, good for "anyone who is a devoted philomath [a lover of learning]."

Hey, there

Although folks associate him with Bellevue Square and other downtown developments, Kemper Freeman Jr. once ran a highly successful haying business in the Sammamish Valley. You can hear about his time on a tractor as well as other family tidbits when he speaks at today's Eastside Heritage Center program at Bellevue City Hall at 7 p.m.

Freeman will talk about "Generations," by Robert Spector, a recently published history about his grandfather, father and himself.

Lamb's landscapes

Jim Lamb's paintings of adorable puppies and other critters are well known among people who collect limited-edition plates and specialty calendars. He's also done stamps for the U.S. Post Office.

But Lamb is also a highly-respected and sought-after plein air (painted outdoors) impressionist. A display of those landscape paintings opened last week in the Sammamish City Hall Gallery.

The Sammamish Arts Commission didn't have to go far to find Lamb. He and his wife, Cathy, live in Sammamish.

On the mend

A week ago I wrote about Nicole Andergard, of Portland, donating a kidney to her lifelong friend, Anna Lytle, of Renton. Lytle was on dialysis after her kidneys were damaged by lupus. Andergard, who has been friends with Lytle since they were 5 years old, immediately offered one of her kidneys.

During preliminary tests, doctors discovered the women were friends to the core — they are more genetically similar than most twins.

The surgery, Friday at Virginia Mason Medical Center, was a success.

Andergard was released Monday. She's been recovering at Lytle's Fairwood home and was excited Wednesday afternoon because Lytle was due home any minute.

"It is so much easier to recover at home," Andergard said. "I didn't get to see Anna much in the hospital because I was pretty nauseous."

That's over, she said and she's back on solid food.

"Anna's mother-in-law brought me a pecan pie," she said. "I've eaten almost the whole thing."

To follow the whole story go to www.onekidneysjourney.blogspot.com.

Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com