IMPROVISE

My son-in-law is a MacGyver of sorts.  "MacGyver" was a TV series from 1985-1992 starring Richard Dean Anderson.  MacGyver, the main character, was known for getting out of harrowing circumstances with almost no props.  He would maneuver a toothpick to a string and blow up a building.  It was ridiculous, highly unrealistic and also somewhat creative.  My son-in-law can improvise with very little materials to fix or create something.  I too can do that, but he is the master of improvising.  I may get him a box of toothpicks for Christmas as I am most confident he would find as many uses for them as there are toothpicks in a box.  Now improvising is a bit different than jimmy-rigging.  Jimmy-rigging, though creative and a cheap way to fix something, is usually shotty.  The jimmy-rigging usually ends up highlighting the the jimmy-rigging instead of the object or project:)  I am not a proponent of jimmy-rigging.  There are a few I know that are masters of that art.  No one really asks them to help with a project unless it's something you don't care how it looks!  Improvising is taking what you have and making it into something that is workable, useful, less expensive.  Many times in cooking I improvise.  I might not have all the exact ingredients so I swap out the things I don't have and use other things.  My husband says I am great at that - improvising as I cook - creating something from what is in front of me.  Most of the time it works out ok.  Occasionally, well not as much!  I do the same thing with words.  Sometimes when I can't find the exact word I want, I create one - a combination of two words that are close to what I am trying to say.  I use the word bleckie alot.  It is my catch phrase to my husband when referring to something that I don't really like or my response to his statement of, "You are so beautiful.  So sexy!" said when I am just crawling out of bed with scrubbly hair and morning face.  Bleckie is not in the dictionary nor is it in the Urban Dictionary which is a collection of cultural words not found in Webster's Dictionary.  It is a combination of two words; yucky and icky and, a sound that I make when I don't like something.  The emphasis is on the CK like a bit of a German touch.  My husband, who lived in Germany for some years while growing up, says my made-up word actually better than do I.  I think improvising is a form of creativity.  A highly under recognized form.  There is no awards - no Pulitzer Prize, no Nobel Peace Prize for it though.