Parvum Opus 336 ~ Truth-Shaped Tattoo

Watch Those Acronyms

Our little surburban town is offering training for volunteers to assist in case of an outbreak of epidemic. These volunteers are called Point of Dispensing Core Volunteers. In other words, POD people. I won’t be volunteering.

Who gets the job of naming? Is that a political patronage job for one’s political enemies?

Foreign Accent Syndrome

Interesting story about a radio announcer who had a stroke, lost her voice, and resumed speaking with what sounds like some sort of British accent. I don’t think the narrator should have said she was “afflicted” with an English accent but her friends did tend to think she was faking it. Some of my adult ESL students must feel they are afflicted with English, and that if they develop a convincing American accent, they are being unfaithful to themselves.

The switch in accent makes sense when you consider that sounds are produced by the shapes our tongues and lips make, and if brain or nerve damage changes one’s control over the mouth, the sounds naturally might be different.

I had some sort of tiny episode about ten years ago that left me unable to speak quite as quickly as I used to, but I only noticed it had happened when I couldn’t say one particular phrase as quickly as before: “That’s a good idea.” I stumbled before the word “good”. I must have used that phrase quite a bit. Better than saying “That’s a bad idea.” My speed has improved somewhat over the years.

Worst Stadium Name

I thought Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland) was the worst new stadium I’d ever heard of until I heard the corporate name of the new stadium at my alma mater, The University of Akron: InfoCision Stadium. Akron U., which is in the center of town, was due a new stadium. For decades they’d used the Rubber Bowl, which was a few miles out on the outskirts of town, next to Soap Box Derby Downs. Akron thrived for a long time as Rubber City when the big rubber companies set up shop there. The Rubber Bowl sounded good and paid homage to a whole industry and region. But InfoCision? What is it and how long will it last?

Akron’s school team is the Zips and the mascot is Zippy the Kangaroo. Someone has suggested “The Pouch” as a nickname for the new stadium. Beats InfoCision, which sounds like a surgical procedure.

Speaking of my alma mater, as fond as I am of Akron U., I can’t think of it as my soul mother. Maybe my soul aunt: alma amita?

Spinner, Necker, Suicide

After I broke my right arm in July, it took longer than it might have to resume driving because I have a stick shift, so I thought it might be helpful and fun to put a knob on my steering wheel to allow me to turn it more easily with just my left hand. And it would look cool. I’m driving that stick shift now with approximately 1-1/2 hands.

Fred said when he was a teen they called the steering wheel attachment a “necker knob”. You could use one hand to steer and one hand to hold your honey. (Do kids still use the term “neck” or “necking” to refer to whatever, or do they just go immediately from physical proximity to intercourse with no stops along the way?)

Anyway, Fred had a job done on his truck and when he asked the man at the auto shop about necker knobs, the guy said they called them “suicide knobs” because they can break off when you’re driving. So I didn’t get one. (Actual name: spinner knobs.)

A Little Proofreading

I’m reading Lie Down With the Devil by Linda Barnes, whose mysteries I enjoy because they’re set in and around Boston, and she writes a good story. But she could use a bit of editorial help.

For instance here: “I sat in the car, the feeble heater eking out a stream of warm air…” Eke is an old Anglo-Saxon word that is used wrongly most of the time. People have heard the old expression “to eke out a living” which they understand means to make a paltry living. What it means literally is to add to a small living with something else. You can, for instance, eke out your pension with a little moonshining on the side. People seem to have the idea that it means squeeze out a living or produce something with difficulty, but eke is really like add or augment. When I read “eking out a stream of warm air” I pictured the heater adding a bit of warmth to some other heat source, but that didn’t make sense. It made more sense to think that Barnes misused the word the way so many others do, professional writer though she is.

Barnes also wrote that someone had a “rose-shaped tattoo”. Shaped is extraneous and in fact misleading. A rose-colored tattoo would be pinkish but might not really be a picture of a rose. Something could be shaped like a rose yet be intended for something else, like a fluffy pink cloud (in the case of a sloppy tattoo artist). You might as well say an anchor-shaped tattoo, a cross-shaped tattoo, a tiger-shaped tattoo, or a hula-girl shaped tattoo.

Creative Nonfiction

I know a grad student who’s taking a class in Creative Nonfiction. I jokingly asked (on Facebook) if that meant lying. She said “hahaha...no, not really...falsification is certainly frowned upon, though truth will more than likely be revealed as subjective...”

To which I added, “Oh, that kind of ‘truth’. There's yours, mine, ours, theirs, and some in unclaimed freight.”

I never took writing classes in college, neither fiction nor nonfiction and certainly not creative. Not even journalism. It must be since I graduated that truth began to be subjective, and no one sent me the memo. Nevertheless, so often I’ve noticed that when I voice or write an unpopular opinion, there is no cheerful chorus approving “my” truth.

Alinsky

Bob O. wondered if I was reading Saul Alinsky just to put Obama in a bad light. I’m reading Alinsky to understand the source material first hand, and fortunately the books are very short. From all I’ve read, Obama was much influenced by Alinsky, and it’s up to the reader — up to you — to decide if this is good or bad. Last week I mentioned the restaurant scam anecdote last week. I don’t fault a person for stealing if he’s starving, and the Depression was a tough time. But people handled it in very different ways.

Now I’ve bought Rules for Radicals, originally published in 1971; my edition is copyright 1989. The dedication to Lucifer remains in this edition. Whether or not you think this reflects poorly on Obama perhaps depends on how you think about Lucifer, the most beautiful of the angels. Or maybe this is a part that O skipped, like some details he missed in 20 years of Jeremiah Wright sermons.

I’m still reading the prologue. He refers to the revolutions in Russia and China as the “panaceas of the past”. Depends on who you talk to. Any kulaks remaining to ask about the Russian panacea? Alinsky writes that “all values and factors are relative, fluid, and changing” (that truth thing again) so the kulaks’ truth will be different from his.

My Week on Examiner.com

CIA may undergo further investigation

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Will Obama once again stop his people from investigating CIA interrogation techniques,

The resume of a czar

Monday, August 24th, 2009

The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power...
Fear of death not a NOW story

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Fathima Rifqa Bary is a 17-year-old girl who ran away to Florida from Ohio because she converted from Islam to...
Mass murderer goes home a hero

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Who is surprised that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was received as a hero in Libya after ...

______________________________________________

ONLINE PUBS

I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and now also on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store and Lulu.com.

The Man from Scratch is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for Adventuress Magazine. Novel.

A Walk Around Stonehaven is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. Short article with photos. (Lulu.com only.)

The Wish Book is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. Novella.

Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn is about a young gambler who finds himself upright in a cornfield in Kansas with his feet encased in a tub of concrete; how would you get out of a spot like that? Short story.

Still Ridge is about a young woman who moves from Boston to Appalachia and finds there are two kinds of moonshine, the good kind and the kind that can kill you. Short story.

Whither Spooning? asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Humorous sports article.

Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats: One woman's tale of menopause, in which I learn that the body is predictive; I perceive that I am like my cat; and I find love. Autobiographical essay.

Parvum Opus Volume I. The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. Collection of columns.

10% discount on my Lulu publications:

Browse to: http://www.lulu.com/landing/lulu_coupon_10?a=4001629

Click "Buy" and enter 'BESTSELLER10' at checkout.

Save 10% on your order.

NEW PRODUCTS:

Scot Tartans: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).

T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs

BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)

SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT Parvum Opus CafePress shop: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)

NEW: FRESH PICT items

Graphic covers of my books

Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I

BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum

No Pain, No Pain

Star o’ the Bar

Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia

Flash in the Pants

If you're so smart why aren't you me?

PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)

I am here maternity tops

I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)

If you don’t see exactly what you want — a particular design or text on a particular item — let me know and I’ll customize products for you.

______________________________________________

Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: Parvum Opus discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. Parvum Opus by Rhonda Keith is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Back issues from December 2002 may be found at http://www.geocities.com/keithops/; 2009 issues are at http://cafelit.blogspot.com.. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2009. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.

Parvum Opus 335 ~ Around Town

Around Town

||| Penquin Cleaners: In case you’re reading fast, the sign has a Q instead of a G in penguin. There’s a picture of a penguin with a top hat and cane, so the bird is not in question. Was the spelling intentional? Probably not. Incidentally, when I searched “penquin” on the Web, I found someone’s comment on the gay penguins in a German zoo, asking, “Are we not as smart as a penquin?” Well, we can almost spell as well as they would if they could (or could if they would). Since you can find all kinds of behavior in the animal world, from adorable to zoologically unspeakable, comparing human behavior to penquins, penguins, black widow spiders, seahorses, or lions is a bad practice.

||| Hair Weeving: Also an unintentional spelling, that is, it’s not designed to attract attention, and it calls to mind weevils.

||| Bean Counters: An aide in a Congressional representative’s office was much impressed with the Congresswoman’s wit when she used the phrase “bean counter”. The young (let me stress young) fellow didn’t know it was a very old phrase, no doubt going back to the time of the pharaohs if not earlier. They’ve found hieroglyphics meaning “accountant” that resemble this: o+o+o+o. Well, I too run across words I’ve never heard before. Sometimes they’re brand new and sometimes they’re very old.

||| Repurpose a Chair: In a newspaper article on house decorating in what’s left of the newspaper, the writer said a woman who bought a new house “repurposed” a chair from her old house by … moving it to the new house. Even if she’d reupholstered it, it would still have the same purpose.

||| Corner of Park and Don’t Park: The city painted PARK in big letters on a street that you can’t park on. In all fairness, I have to say that it was painted right next to a park entrance.

||| Advertising a radio trivia show: “We ask queries.” You can’t say that. You can say “We ask questions” but even though queries means the same as questions, you just can’t say that. You can say “We answer queries” though. It just is that way.

||| Cheese ad:

Under the skilled hands of Master Cheesemakers in Wisconsin, fresh pasteurized cow's milk is stirred, drained, salted and drained again before being pressed into forms, cut and then OVEN BAKED until the outside is toasted to a golden brown. Yes, this cheese is BAKED ... but because of the freshness of the milk and the nature of natural proteins, it retains a supple texture that is remarkable — really, once it squeaks against your teeth, you can't resist remarking on it. You'll see ... AND THE FLAVOR — it expresses a mellow toastiness with a buttery subtlety that's purported to make the world's strongest wrestlers fall to the floor for nary a nibble.

If only I could channel S. J. Perelman to really do something with this ad. Anyway, I’ve included most of the ad because of the lush, almost cheesy writing, but the highlight is “nary a nibble”. What might happen to the world’s strongest wrestlers if at least one nibble were forthcoming? Have today’s young copywriters lost the understanding of “nary”?

I heard a modifier dangling on State Street yesterday

Overheard in New York:

Woman #1: Kate and I saw a snake walking down State Street yesterday!

Man: What?

Woman #2: Wait... walking?

--Central Park

Getting Caught Is a Crime

One of those Facebook polls:

Do you believe that getting caught dog fighting should be a felony?

For those of you who don’t follow American sports criminals, this question is about football player Michael Vick, who was arrested and imprisoned for being vicious with dogs. He’s back in football now, has a good job making big bucks, and presumably is really sorry that he got caught.

The poll question might have been written by him or someone else into dog fighting. If getting caught were a felony, would the catcher or the caught be at fault? Perhaps the felon would still be at fault since he was stupid enough to get caught.

The form of the question, of course, reveals the mind set of someone who evaluates crime or morality in terms of getting caught or not, rather than in terms of what is intrinsically right or wrong, even if said writer didn’t understand his own sentence.

TMI Yet?

The nonprofit Internet Archive is building a free digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. So far they’ve archived about half of all Yiddish texts plus moving images, software, and much more.

I wonder if this archive is holding all the files or just links to the files. Since web sites disappear, it’s useless unless the actual files are saved. Which means when it’s fully archived, the Web will more than double in size and keep increasing.

Not TMI Over There

AP Reports further tightening of controls on Web access in China, while on the other hand a TV station in California supported by a large population of Iranian immigrants distributed thousands of camera pens with flash drives in Iran.

Required Reading

I’ve been reading a bit of Saul Alinsky, who was a big influence on community organizer Barack Obama’s thinking. (Hillary Clinton wrote her thesis at Wellesley about Alinsky.) Can’t find much in the library here but I’ve got The Professional Radical, Conversations with Saul Alinsky by Marion K. Sanders. It’s a short book and I’ve only read a few pages so far. Alinsky graduated — “cum laude I guess” he wrote modestly — in 1930 with a degree in archaeology and quite naturally had trouble making a living in that field during the Depression, but he figured out how to pull a scam on chain restaurants to eat practically for free. His first “stirrings of social conscience” led him to organize meetings to teach other kids to do the same thing, and all went swimmingly until the restaurants figured it out. Note that his stirrings of social conscience did not extend to the restaurant owners. Then his acolytes kept after him to tell them what to do next. He found that they resented him when he didn’t have anything else to tell them, and wrote: “There’s an old saying about favors extended becoming defined as rights. I found out it’s true.” This did not turn him away from scamming. He was just getting his feet wet.

I may have to actually purchase "Rules for Radicals" as the library doesn’t have it, though online I find that the means justifies the ends is a big part of his thinking. I’ve read that it’s got a smokin’ dedication, or at least had this one in an early edition:

From all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.

Examiner

Latest Examiner.com items:

News stories go in pairs

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Like shoes, news stories should always travel in pairs, one right and one left....

Report kidnapping by domestic airlines

Friday, August 14th, 2009

When I first heard a story about airplane passengers being trapped on a grounded plane for hours with no food or toilets, I thought it was a fluke. …

______________________________________________

ONLINE PUBS

I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and now also on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store and Lulu.com.

The Man from Scratch is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for Adventuress Magazine. Novel.

A Walk Around Stonehaven is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. Short article with photos. (Lulu.com only.)

The Wish Book is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. Novella.

Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn is about a young gambler who finds himself upright in a cornfield in Kansas with his feet encased in a tub of concrete; how would you get out of a spot like that? Short story.

Still Ridge is about a young woman who moves from Boston to Appalachia and finds there are two kinds of moonshine, the good kind and the kind that can kill you. Short story.

Whither Spooning? asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Humorous sports article.

Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats: One woman's tale of menopause, in which I learn that the body is predictive; I perceive that I am like my cat; and I find love. Autobiographical essay.

Parvum Opus Volume I. The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. Collection of columns.

10% discount on my Lulu publications:

Browse to: http://www.lulu.com/landing/lulu_coupon_10?a=4001629

Click "Buy" and enter 'BESTSELLER10' at checkout.

Save 10% on your order.

NEW PRODUCTS:

Scot Tartans: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).

T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs

BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)

SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT Parvum Opus CafePress shop: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)

NEW: FRESH PICT items

Graphic covers of my books

Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I

BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum

No Pain, No Pain

Star o’ the Bar

Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia

Flash in the Pants

If you're so smart why aren't you me?

PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)

I am here maternity tops

I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)

If you don’t see exactly what you want — a particular design or text on a particular item — let me know and I’ll customize products for you.

______________________________________________

Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: Parvum Opus discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. Parvum Opus by Rhonda Keith is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Back issues from December 2002 may be found at http://www.geocities.com/keithops/; 2009 issues are at http://cafelit.blogspot.com.. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2009. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.

Parvum Opus 334 ~ O Say Can You See

TV Land

>>> Quite some time ago I mentioned the original meaning of “cute” as something like clever, derived from “acute”. The word was still in transition in 1937, as I discovered in my weeks-long movie marathon while waiting for my arm to heal. In Marked Woman, with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis, one thug asks another about some criminal plan: “Is it cute?” “Everything I do is cute.” They were serious and they weren’t asking if they were adorable.

>>> A more modern bit of criminal jargon is “lick”, heard on the crime series 48 Hours. A criminal in Dallas said, “We went in for a lick”, meaning to rob the place.

>>> On LA Ink (about a tattoo parlor): “It ain’t rocket surgery.”

>>> In a new British production of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mystery, Murder Is Easy, someone says, “He was mentally deficient, or to put it more kindly, a simpleton.” The book was first published in 1939, and assuming the movie kept the original dialogue, we have here an interesting example of changes in euphemistic fashion. Why was “simpleton” a kinder term than the slightly clinical sounding “mentally deficient”? Nowadays it doesn’t sound so genteelly neutral. Perhaps any synonym that has been used as an insult goes out of favor: You simpleton! Idiot! Moron! Fool! Retard! The currently acceptable pseudo-scientific term (unless I’ve missed something newer) is “developmentally disabled”. The terms for everyday use in referring to someone who is unfortunately congenitally and constantly, uh, slow get more and more bulky.

Romeo and Juliet in the Park

For years I’ve caught Shakespeare in parks when I can, starting in Boston and now around Cincinnati. Even the most amateur productions have some merit, and I’m always impressed with the effectiveness of very simple sets. Last weekend we saw Romeo and Juliet, not my favorite but of course always engaging.

This production was rather odd since Romeo was not the most romantic looking boy on stage or even in the park, and further because Romeo and Juliet both were played for comedy in the first half. They played high-strung teens totally lacking in romance, at least to my ears. The transition from farcical “love” to tragic death was clumsy.

The set consisted of walls covered with small posters for the Capulets and the Montagues. The Capulet posters were red, vaguely Communist looking with three upthrust arms holding AK-47s in the air with flowers stuck in the barrels. The Montague posters were black with bastardized versions of the American eagle and anti-American slogans about greed, etc. Shakespeare made it clear that the two feuding families were “alike in dignity”, not divided by ideological differences, so when I saw the posters I started to wonder if someone was going to rewrite the dialogue, but fortunately not.

O Say Can You See The Great Gatsby

Did you know the F in F. Scott Fitzgerald was Francis? What’s more, did you know his full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald? Yes, the writer of the American anthem.

De Gustibus

Regarding my complaint about argument, Mike Sykes wrote:

De gustibus non disputandum. Of course, if you actually enjoy an argument, ...
I seem to remember a quote from GKC: I hate a quarrel because it interrupts an argument.

I keep trying to stick to argument but I keep getting slapped with abuse from odd quarters, a la the Monty Python’s Argument Clinic.

Much of PO concerns rhetoric, which today is often mistakenly taken to mean false or misleading argument. Actually it just means the techniques of speech and writing that we use to help convey our point or convince others. These are not automatically dishonest.

One rhetorical device I use when discussing anything controversial (political) is to be careful which links I use to report a source. Many readers will accept anything printed in the New York Times but will reject the same information from Fox News (although they don’t always report the same stories; there are holes in the news). So I try to use the most popular or apparently neutral source for a story.

For instance, in “Smelt survive farmers” below, I found a link to the story on www.gaypatriot.news. “Patriot” is a positive conservative word, not that liberals aren’t patriotic but let’s get real; gay is a positive buzz word for liberals as well as many others. I want to filter out or balance as many buzz words or memes as possible so we can think about the smelt. As long as the facts are correct, this technique is honest.

When you only speak to people who agree with you about everything, it’s not necessary to be careful. In the past, my opinions were usually the popular ones. Now they’re not (the world changed and some of my opinions changed), and I don’t assume I’m writing to or speaking to people who agree with me on everything or who have walked in my steps, so PO has been an exercise in developing rhetorical technique. I seem to have started in training as a young girl in arguments with my parents. Logic didn’t work them, at least what logic I was able to muster. And if I thought I was logical in the past and I think that I’m logical now, when my life and ideas are quite different, where does that leave logic? I don’t know how often people are swayed by logic, or even facts.

Rhetoric involves logic, appeals to the emotion, and appeals to authority (such as the selected Web links), none of which might work when self-interest or ego are involved.

Personally attacking people who disagree with you (or me), i.e. calling names, may be honest, but it’s not sound argument and I usually draw the line there.

I’ve been reading about the Rules for Radicals propounded by Saul Alinsky, who was a great influence on both Obama and Hillary Clinton. He dedicated RforR to Lucifer, the “first radical”. His “community organizing” rules were really rules for people outside a community to use the community to take power. He was all about the ends justifying the means, and the ends were power, not truth. One technique is ridiculing your opponents and their ideas, precluding discussion.

There’s no need to discuss anything you don’t care to, but often people are not playing by the same rules. So we need to learn the various rules.

Examiner.com

Here are my new Examiner.com posts (if links don’t work go to http://bit.ly/12LU6s).

Redistribution of green in Sahara Desert

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

According to National Geographic News, the Sahara is turning green in places — due to global warming. Or...
Obama offers Post Office as loser business model

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Obama does seem to be getting more open or transparent, as he promised. On a clear day you can see right through...
Smelt survive farmers

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

What’s a recession without a dust bowl? Some California farmers are posting signs in their parched fields and...
U.S. birth rate declines for the first year in decade

Monday, August 10th, 2009

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. birth rate fell in 2008, the first annual decline for a decade. Experts...
White House scans Web

Monday, August 10th, 2009

The White House seems to be using sophisticated web scanning programs to search for and pick up selected...

Rule

The spider must be killed today

But the web of yesteryear can stay.

~ by Fred

______________________________________________

ONLINE PUBS

I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and now also on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store and Lulu.com.

The Man from Scratch is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for Adventuress Magazine. Novel.

A Walk Around Stonehaven is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. Short article with photos. (Lulu.com only.)

The Wish Book is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. Novella.

Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn is about a young gambler who finds himself upright in a cornfield in Kansas with his feet encased in a tub of concrete; how would you get out of a spot like that? Short story.

Still Ridge is about a young woman who moves from Boston to Appalachia and finds there are two kinds of moonshine, the good kind and the kind that can kill you. Short story.

Whither Spooning? asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Humorous sports article.

Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats: One woman's tale of menopause, in which I learn that the body is predictive; I perceive that I am like my cat; and I find love. Autobiographical essay.

Parvum Opus Volume I. The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. Collection of columns.

10% discount on my Lulu publications:

Browse to: http://www.lulu.com/landing/lulu_coupon_10?a=4001629

Click "Buy" and enter 'BESTSELLER10' at checkout.

Save 10% on your order.

NEW PRODUCTS:

Scot Tartans: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).

T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs

BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)

SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT Parvum Opus CafePress shop: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)

NEW: FRESH PICT items

Graphic covers of my books

Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I

BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum

No Pain, No Pain

Star o’ the Bar

Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia

Flash in the Pants

If you're so smart why aren't you me?

PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)

I am here maternity tops

I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)

If you don’t see exactly what you want — a particular design or text on a particular item — let me know and I’ll customize products for you.

______________________________________________

Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: Parvum Opus discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. Parvum Opus by Rhonda Keith is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Back issues from December 2002 may be found at http://www.geocities.com/keithops/; 2009 issues are at http://cafelit.blogspot.com.. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2009. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.

Parvum Opus 333 ~ Flag Me

Back in the Saddle

I’m back and I can type though I can’t lift my right arm. Too much pain, not enough strength, but it gets better every day. Thanks very much to all of you who sent your good wishes. They really do help, even with a relatively minor, though disabling, injury. I say “minor” because now everywhere I go I see the lame, halt, and blind. (Lame and halt are really the same, aren’t they? Maybe we should make that cliché more efficient by changing it to lame, blind, and rashy, or something.)

I’m now writing items for Examiner.com (Cincinnati version). The short URL is http://bit.ly/12LU6s. I’m still trying to get the hang of their editorial guidelines, but I guess what I post there, I can post elsewhere, and vice versa, so here I’ll show you what I’ve already done, since I’m still not able to type too much. I’m not focusing on language for the Examiner, but I’m still not quite clear why the Oprah bit below was rejected because it’s not about “Cincinnati politics” yet the tax rebate item was allowed. So far, the health care bill item is still up.

I should get a few pennies if I get enough Examiner clicks, and great oaks from little pennies grow, so clicks are appreciated.

Ain’t No One Happy If Oprah Ain’t Happy

An old philosophy exercise is this question: If you get a hole in your sock and patch it, then you get another hole and patch it, and so on until you’ve replaced every original fiber in the sock, is it still the same sock you started out with?

When Michael Jackson died, was he still the same person he was in, say, 1993, when Oprah Winfrey interviewed him? Clearly he didn’t want to be the same person.

Why is he being mourned as a black hero? He didn’t want to be black. As the old joke goes, America is a wonderful country, where a poor black boy can grow up to become a rich white woman. He didn’t even want his children to have his own DNA, or any black DNA from their mother.

Oprah Winfrey did not chime in with the chorus of memorial hosannas, although she throws in with every important or famous black person. The recent presidential election, when she supported Obama “not because he’s black, but because he’s brilliant,” left many of her fans feeling that she’s more about her black identity than her female identity. And certainly not about the issues.

But her black identity has limits. Oprah’s 1993 interview touched on Jackson’s abusive father. According to one blogger, years after that interview she lost her temper when the subject of Joe Jackson came up. But the interview must have taken place before the first lawsuits against Michael Jackson himself

Apparently Oprah doesn’t find Michael’s childhood abuse sufficient justification for his own (alleged) peculiar relations with children. Oprah was raped when she was a child and has zero tolerance for abusers, who ought to know better than anyone the pain they cause. This has to explain her silence on Michael Jackson’s death. Everyone wanted to pretend he was a black role model for young black men, but for Oprah, his money alone didn’t qualify him.

An Immodest Proposal

I have a proposal for an economic stimulus plan that will definitely get the economy moving immediately, and will be popular with everyone: Give full tax rebates to everyone. I want money to pay all my taxes — federal, state, local, and sales. And anything else that comes along. I think we could ease into this program with, say, 90% rebates, but just as Obama thinks it might take 10 years for his federal medical insurance plan to wipe out private insurers, we can give the government a bit of a margin and delay the 100% rebates for a few years.

Well, Flag Me

The White House wants to know if you receive scary e-mail about Obama’s health insurance plans. Go to the White House “Facts are Stubborn Things” blog site, where officially approved blogger Macon Phillips says the President has been consistent about his positions. If you get e-mails saying he hasn’t, the White House wants you to turn them in. They don’t want you to be upset by —

"scary chain emails and videos … starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to 'uncover' the truth about the President's health insurance reform positions. … There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

If your neighbor disagrees with the official White House line — or, to give him the benefit of the doubt, “misunderstands” it — just let them know. If you know anyone who’s actually read the health care bill, report that to the White House. [Note: You can read the bill yourself online . They could have made it a lot shorter by single-spacing.]

If you find any little inconsistency or change of position on the part of a politician or president, as unlikely as that seems, alert them. Then go flag yourself.

What will the White House do with these e-mails and the names of the senders? Don’t know.

And by the way, what color is that flag?

Apropos of flagging your e-mailers, here at home we just had another instance of someone asking to not receive e-mail from old friends who disagree politically and are “crazy”; no discussion of the issues wanted. In my experience, both active and passive, that’s always a one-way action: “liberals” (including myself in earlier years) do not want to discuss issues with people who have different opinions.

Boojie-Woojie

Here at PO, we’ve discussed floogy and floozy, but not boogie-woogie, and I haven’t told you the Little Richard story. In PO 331 I wrote: As for “floogy”, listening to the song by Slim Gaillard on YouTube, I discovered that the G in “floogie” is pronounced like J in jam, not G in good, making it a bit closer to the sound of “floozy”.

We’d expect it to rhyme with “boogie-woogie” which has a hard G sound, but there’s an exception. I haven’t been able to locate this on YouTube or the Web, so I’m relying on my non-digital memory. Years ago I saw Little Richard on TV introducing the song “Don’t try to lay no boogie-woogie on the king of rock and roll” (I thought he had written it). I can’t find a recording by him online, but it was composed by Jeff Thomas. Little Richard told a story about being arrested in England for rocking lewdness or something like that, and the judge said he would not permit any of that “boojie-woojie” (J sound) in his town, mispronouncing it as well as confusing boogie-woogie with rock and roll. Long John Baldry also tells the story and sings the song but not with Little Richard’s verve and hilarity.

Now let’s all imagine “Boojie-Woojie Bujle Boy of Company B”.

(Note: By the way, the Charlie F. who wrote to me about “Flat Foot Floogie” is Charlotte, not Charles.)

Coup

And a bit more on coup:

Bill R. reminded us of Chuck Berry’s:

As I was motivatin' over the hill

I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville

“ And it certainly wasn’t a coo-pay de Vil…” sez Bill.

Dave DaBee wrote:

To tell the truth, my first memory of the word in conversation was in summer 1958, when my family was about to leave on vacation, with a neighboring teen as our cat-herder / sitter. (5 kids, 8 and under, good job for a 16 year old.) I was at her house when a bunch of other teens were there and a couple of guys mentioned a coup(e), and I (having seen how it's spelled) generously corrected them with coupay. You should have seen the looks these greasers gave this 8 year old punk. And the moment seems to have stuck with me for a half century.

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Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I

BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum

No Pain, No Pain

Star o’ the Bar

Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia

Flash in the Pants

If you're so smart why aren't you me?

PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)

I am here maternity tops

I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)

If you don’t see exactly what you want — a particular design or text on a particular item — let me know and I’ll customize products for you.

______________________________________________

Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: Parvum Opus discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. Parvum Opus by Rhonda Keith is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Back issues from December 2002 may be found at http://www.geocities.com/keithops/; 2009 issues are at http://cafelit.blogspot.com.. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The PO mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive Parvum Opus, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list. Copyright Rhonda Keith 2009. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.