tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80500142078992585042024-02-08T07:41:29.827-05:00Cafe LitDunk it in your coffee: language, media, culture, politics.Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-35068144731919265972015-09-02T11:08:00.001-04:002015-09-02T11:08:53.336-04:00JUST SO YOU KNOWSomeone recently wrote online that she didn't understand why lately there are so many stories about Planned Parenthood. If you only watch majority news on TV or only read mainstream media sources online you might have missed the recently released videos about Planned Parenthood's selling of baby parts.<br />
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You can catch up here at the <a href="http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage/">Center for Medical Progress</a> where you can find the videos and the transcripts.<br />
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As soon as the first video appeared it was clear that a number of things would happen.<br />
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One, people (i.e. most Americans) who accept abortion as not only legal but OK aren't going to be more than briefly disturbed (to use Hillary Clinton's word) about the idea of cutting up the dead ones to sell to clinics for whatever reason. The mental image is gruesome, but is it any more so than the actual killing? You need to be informed on exactly how that takes place. So of course many or most people would ignore this story.<br />
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Second, Planned Parenthood would try to kill the messenger. This has been attempted in various ways. PP said the videos were heavily edited and "edited" has been echoed by people everywhere who will not, cannot say, the story is false. But while they say the shorter versions of the videos are "out of context" they cannot explain what if anything has been edited out to change the reality. Then they say the people who taped these interviews have an agenda to get rid of abortion entirely. Again, if so that does not change the facts as revealed in these videos where people blithely explain themselves:<br />
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1. Dickering about pricing of parts.<br />
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2. Using a still living baby and cutting its face open to extract the brain for sale.<br />
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Third, many people no matter how repulsive these videos are, will rationalize it by saying it's all for medical research. Probably the same people who object to medical research on non-human animals (and ignoring the fact that using embryonic stem cells is a failed technology compared to using adult stem cells). Or they insist that anything is permitted as long as women are allowed to abort.<br />
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Now you can't say you didn't know. If you're not sure why this is important, remember the good Germans in the Nazi era. And read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-We-Cant-Not-Know/dp/1586174819"><i>What We Can't Not Know: A Guide</i> by J. Budziszewski.</a><br />
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Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-48257968351854806802012-12-31T18:46:00.000-05:002012-12-31T18:46:21.009-05:00Parvum Opus 396: WOOT<br />
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One last Parvum Opus before the year ends. I haven’t written one since July, but I haven’t been totally slack (see the end notes). Today we return to the usual sources of linguistic despair, eyebrow twitching, and smirks: Dave daBee is alert as always and shoots a lot of material my way, most often via Facebook now rather than e-mail. Let’s start with his finds. There are a lot but they were collected over half a year.</div>
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<b>HERE’S DAVE!</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-color: yellow;">My wife has the most creative ways of unwittingly abusing the English language. Tonight she (earnestly) referred to "the Israeli peacefire."</span></i></div>
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Brilliant. Depending on your political slant, there’s more than one way to read that.</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add_strip.php?iid=90047" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">A cartoon about the Grammar Police</a>: <i><span style="background-color: yellow;">People, unless we maintain vigilance, the errorists will win.</span></i><span style="background-color: yellow;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>Found headline: <i><span style="background-color: yellow;">Meet Mars Rover’s MIT alumni team, brain in a dish</span></i></div>
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Where else would you put it? A pathologist friend of Dave’s said brains go in buckets.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>Dave linked to a story about <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ada-lovelace-google-doodle-20121210,0,1375011.story" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Ada Lovelace</a>, Byron’s daughter, of all things and people, who was an early computer genius, called <span style="background-color: yellow;">“the enchantress of numbers”</span>. These “ess” female endings are now usually considered offensive, and Dave objected to my use of “programmeress” but I was just riffing off “enchantress”.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>This is a little outside PO’s scope, but I include it to tip the hat to Dave daBee, who is also E-Patient Dave deBronkart, engaged in a great work to improve medical information access for patients all over the world. Being a tech guy too, he has tracked the rate/instances of web traffic for these terms, or “e-patient memes”:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>“e-patient”</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>“patient empowerment”</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>“patient engagement”</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span>“participatory medicine”</div>
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If you run across any of them, you will know Dave is probably lurking. He calls this <a href="http://e-patients.net/archives/2012/08/state-of-the-meme-summer-2012.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">“state of the meme.”</a> His response to the uptick in instances of these terms and their searches is “Woot!” (I don’t think he means the <a href="http://www.woot.com/faq" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">web site</a> of that name.)</div>
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<b>LOOKING STRAC</b></div>
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One of my most satisfying discoveries this year was finding out from Bill Roberts what “looking strike” means. Sometime in the 1980s I taught English composition to Army sergeants at Fort Carson, Colorado, where we had a discussion about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Dress_Uniform" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">new uniforms</a> (BDUs, battle dress uniforms; now ACUs, Army Combat Uniforms) as a set-up for an essay topic (compare and contrast). The old Army uniforms were solid olive drab, as you may recall, and I believe were all cotton. The new ones were camo colors and made of special material, they told me, that couldn’t be seen by night-vision equipment, or something like that. So they were better uniforms for military purposes, although I believe the guys said they were hot. And you were not supposed to starch or press them because that compromised the special properties of the fabric. One soldier said he preferred the old ones because he liked to get his uniforms tailored and have them laundered, starched, and pressed with sharp creases, because he liked “looking strike,” at least that’s what I thought he said. And no, it’s not “looking striking” or anything like that. Recently the phrase came to mind again so I asked about it on Facebook, figuring there had to be some soldiers on my list who’d heard it. But I must have misheard the pronunciation. From <a href="http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=33252" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">“The return of STRAC”</a>, sent to me by Bill Roberts:</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Former Secretary of State </span><a href="http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=33252" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: yellow; color: windowtext; text-decoration: initial;">Colin Powell</span></a><span style="background-color: yellow;">, writing about garrison life in the Strategic Army Corps (STRAC) in the early 1960s, said the acronym became Army slang for a well-organized, well turned-out soldier, but that style ended up overrunning substance.</span></div>
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Thanks, Bill. That’s one more neural pathway smoothed out.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I BE YOU BE DOOBY DOOBY DOOBY</span></b></div>
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Another linguistic puzzle was the short-lived* Ebonics fad. In Anne Coulter’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230998/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=angelpawscatnipv&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1595230998" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><i>Mugged</i></a><i> </i>(p. 9), she writes:</div>
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<i><span style="background-color: yellow;">Even what is risibly called Ebonics—black dialect—can be traced back to the British highlanders, who used such words and phrases as “I be,” “You be,” “ax” (ask), “acrost” (across), “do” (door), “dat” (that). As [Thomas] Sowell says, “No such words came from Africa.”</span></i></div>
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I expect black English dialect is a mix of influences, but here she and Sowell are really talking about pronunciation and grammar, not words as such. However, the “I be” etc. formulation is notably preserved in a <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/101/237.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">poem by English poet George Wither</a> (1588–1667):</div>
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<tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in;"><i><span style="background-color: yellow;"> If she be not so to me</span></i></td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in;"><i><span style="background-color: yellow;"> What care I how kind she be?</span></i></td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in;"></td></tr>
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*<i>Remember, it’s a long “i” in “lived”.</i></div>
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<b>EMOTICONS</b></div>
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A little history on the origins of the emoticon; prototypes were invented for actual type as far back as the 19th century, but <a href="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0919fahlman-proposes-emoticons" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Scott Fahlman in 1982 invented emoticons</a> as we know them. And I proposed, on Facebook, a thumbs-down icon since Facebook refuses to provide one:</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">Doing a study </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">—</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> what works as a thumbs-down sign:<br /><br />"",<br /><br />,""<br /><br />"";<br /><br />;""<br /><br />Or…</span>?</div>
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Karen Hickerson suggested ¿"", but using the upside-down Spanish question mark is too much of a hassle unless you have a Spanish keyboard, or create a macro to access that symbol.</div>
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Chris Stephens offered his rendition of a finger up — n[]nn — but that wouldn’t suit my conversations. I can induce enough hostility with plain speech.</div>
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<b>KITTY SUBJUNCTIVE</b></div>
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I put this phrase in my notes with no elaboration, but I’m pretty sure that I meant the special grammar used to talk to cats (OK, and dogs too). If I say “Was it a good kitty?” (or bad kitty), I am not using the past tense. It’s the subjunctive. And when I say “Was him a good kitty?”, “him” is a special form of the nominative, or subjective case, used with the kitty subjunctive.</div>
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<b>THE VANISHING POINT</b></div>
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My favorite site for reading about people dumber and angrier than me is Not Always Right (along with its companion site Not Always Working), as in, the customer is not; true stories of unsatisfactory commercial encounters. One story began, <i><span style="background-color: yellow;">“We are a small hotel in an even smaller town.”</span> </i>Perhaps some physicist could explain this to me.</div>
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<b>TRANSLATION</b></div>
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You’ve heard, and maybe read, “Cast thy bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.” That’s the King James Bible version. The Geneva Bible translates this as “Lay thy bread upon wet faces.” If I were you I wouldn’t spend too much time meditating upon this scripture from the Geneva Bible.</div>
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<b>NO EXCUSE</b></div>
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This and that from here and there:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-color: yellow;">Miles makes plans for he and Lou.</span></i> (TV menu)</div>
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Obvious point: You wouldn’t say “Miles makes plans for he.”</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-color: yellow;">I’m a sophomore English teacher. As a part of the curriculum, all sophomores must complete one MLA style research paper in their second semester. We’ve just gone through all the basics and we were finally able to begin writing. Please note that this is my “Pre-AP” class, which is the highest level of sophomore English.</span></i></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: yellow;"> Student:</span></i></b><i><span style="background-color: yellow;"> Do we have to use well grammar?</span></i></div>
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Obvious point: Um, as opposed to ill grammar?</div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Symbol;"><img alt="*" height="13" width="13" /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><i><span style="background-color: yellow;">My boyfriend, a friend of his, and myself were out to eat….</span></i></div>
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Obvious point: You wouldn’t say “Myself was out to eat.”</div>
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<b>HAPPY NEW YEAR</b></div>
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Instead of resolutions I’m making a to-do list, which includes a new music CD by bluesman Sonny Robertson, a book of short stories by Ray Vincent, whose book of poetry (see below) I published earlier, and a few other projects that may or may not be completed this year. I’ll be in touch.</div>
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Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-70040193042699532072012-07-04T20:28:00.001-04:002012-07-04T20:29:13.602-04:00Parvum Opus 395: Plundering the Depths<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-style: none none solid; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; padding: 0in 0in 1pt; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT',serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT',serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></div>
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<b>OVER FOUR MONTHS OF NO PO MAKES ONE WEAK</b></div>
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It’s been months since I wrote a Parvum Opus, partly because I’ve been especially busy, with more students than usual, and I also got five books into print. Although today is a holiday and I’ve taken the day off from energy drinks, I was prodded into writing another PO today, on the Fourth of July, by two things.</div>
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One, Dave DaBee sent me a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/semicolons-a-love-story/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">New York Times article</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>about a young man’s journey away from semicolons and back again. I have my own semicolon story. On my first editing job, as assistant editor at the University of Tulsa publications office, my boss, the editor, said semicolons essentially don’t exist. Her theory was that we do not use semicolons when we speak. But I thought then as now that you might as well say periods and colons don’t exist, nor hyphens nor en dashes and em dashes. I know full well that I feel a difference between a comma and a semicolon when I speak. That woman also didn’t like “over” with numbers, as in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“It’s over 100 degrees today”</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“It costs over $500”</i>; she said “over” didn’t make sense. But this common idiomatic preposition meaning “more than” is not confusing to anyone.</div>
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Later I had another editor who objected to sentences starting with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“There is / are ...”</i>. For example, I had to change sentences such as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“There are objections to semicolons”</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“Objections to semicolons exist”</i>.</div>
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Another editor objected to “per” and insisted on the English “a”, as in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“Corn is $1 a dozen today”</i>.</div>
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To be fair, they were good editors and I learned from all of them. I just didn’t always agree with them. But editors have their quirks, and writers and proofreaders and assistant editors have to accommodate them.</div>
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The second PO trigger is that since CreateSpace, the online publishing service I’m using for my books, introduced European distribution, I have actually sold a copy of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Europe; don’t know where or to whom; could it be someone on this mailing list? Anyway, thanx and a tip of the Revolutionary tricorne.</div>
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<b>SYKES</b></div>
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If for no other reason, I shouldn’t have neglected PO for so long because I received more good contributions from Mike Sykes, and here they are, in blue.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>Why does<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>télécharger</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>mean<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>download</i>? Of course to the English ear it sounds like you’re recharging something.</div>
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">True. But the answer to your question is that, in French,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>charger</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is the word for 'load'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>Every once in a while there’s a flap about changing English spelling to a phonetic system. But whose English pronunciation are you going to attempt to reproduce? The Queen of England or Bostonian John Kennedy? A Southern belle or an Irishman?</div>
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">Aye, there's the rub. What makes the problem even worse is that pronunciation also varies over time. I believe someone has shown that aforesaid queen's pronunciation has changed since she came to the throne. Not to mention the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_English_Vowel_Shift" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: cyan;">Great Vowel Shift</span></a><span style="background-color: cyan;">.<br /> I once attended a performance of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Julius Caesar</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>presented as it would have been in the Bard's day, and it was quite difficult to follow.</span></div>
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An extra thanks to Mike for mentioning the Great Vowel Shift.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span>Re his discussion of Starbucks’ names for coffee sizes, read this story from Not Always Right and get back to me:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://notalwaysright.com/?s=how+to+show-up+a+show-off" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">How to Show-Up a Show-Off</a>. Quote: “She probably looked at you, assumed you were a man, and was therefore completely confused by your non-fat non-sugar orange mocha chip frappuccino order. Real men drink real coffee.” Real men drink it straight. OK, I’m willing to concede that real men sometimes like sweet drinks.</div>
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<span style="background-color: cyan;">I'm not.</span></div>
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<b>AUTOINCORRECT </b></div>
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We should start collecting the crazy autocorrect spellings that pop up on not so smart phones. This story is from ThisIsTrue.com, by Randy Cassingham.</div>
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DAMN YOU, AUTOCORRECT! A student at a technical college sent a text message: "Gunna be at west hall today." West Hall is a combination middle and high school in Gainesville, Georgia. There were two problems with the message: he sent it to the wrong number, and his phone auto-corrected the spelling of the first word — to "gunman". The alarmed recipient called police, who advised the school to go into lockdown to deal with the apparent threat. Once the message was tracked down to the sender and it became apparent that it was all a mistake, the lockdown was lifted. (RC/Gainesville Times) ... And to anyone who can type on a phone without ever making a mistake, we say this: You're a better man than I am, Gunman Din.</div>
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What would have happened if the student had used the typical spelling “gonna”? On my Android, I got “gunman” for gunna, though “gunna” was listed as a choice, but got “gonna” for gonna.</div>
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<b>THERE THERE</b></div>
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An ad for heating and air conditioning systems:</div>
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An HVAC system comforts rooms…</div>
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No, it doesn’t. You can comfort people but you make rooms comfortable. I don’t know if the ad writer just wanted to abbreviate the sentence and thought all similar words are equivalents, or if he consciously wanted to get potential customers into a thumb-sucking mood.</div>
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<b>TREASURE HUNTING</b></div>
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Heard on the radio: “Plundered new depths of cynicism” instead of “plumbed new depths of cynicism”. “Plumb” comes from a root meaning “lead”, like the lead weight you use on a plumb bob, a hanging weight for determining verticality. We use plumb weights on fishing line too, to take the hook down. Maybe that’s why the speaker or writer confused it with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>plunder</i>, which perhaps he interpreted as digging down into something for treasure, in addition to the visual similarity of the words. However, a few more seconds of thought might have suggested that cynicism is not a treasure trove from which to steal gems.</div>
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<b>CHAV</b></div>
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I came across the word “chav” when I was watching the series “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”, not to be confused with “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding”, wherein “chav” does not pertain. You can find amusing definitions for “chav” in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chav" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">UrbanDictionary</a>, all of the definitions written in a supercilious tone, not by chavs themselves, who perhaps are illiterate. In the course of looking up this word, I ran across this in Wikipedia:</div>
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One former<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_officer" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="Police officer">Police Officer</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>who worked at the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London_Police" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="City of London Police">City of London Police</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Constable" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="Special Constable">Special Constable</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in 2004 and later another Force as a paid full time officer in the United Kingdom<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav#cite_note-londonpolice-13" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><sup>[14]</sup></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>published a book in 2010 entitled 'Stab Proof Scarecrows' that stated Chav was an abbreviation for '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_house" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="Council house">Council Housed</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and Violent',<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav#cite_note-stabproof-14" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><sup>[15]</sup></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>however this is a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title="Backronym">backronym</a>.</div>
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So,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>backronym</i>, something like a back formation.</div>
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The Urban Dictionary definitions of chav seemed unnecessarily dehumanizing of these kids, until I remember that people<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>can</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>be dehumanized and decivilized; at some point, they choose to become so. We think people must choose the highest when they see it, but sometimes they don’t. This is why we need missionaries.</div>
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<b>RAY VINCENT</b></div>
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The latest book I published is a new edition of poems by my late friend, Ray Vincent. I’d published my small collection of his work 20 years ago, 10 years after he died, and this spring suddenly decided to republish them in a better edition. I expanded my intro, and gathered a few memories of Ray from three of his friends. In the course of tracking down people, I got in touch with Ray’s sister, who was publishing her larger collection of Ray’s poems for the first time, by chance at exactly the same time I was working on my book. We met in Akron a few weeks ago. Some of the poems appear in both books but most do not. My book is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1475061773/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1475061773" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><i>The Prisoner of Magic City: A Book of Pottery</i></a>. Karen Vincent’s book is<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477100008/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477100008" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><i>What Made Him Sing: Poetry 1964-1980</i></a>. (Note that the typo on the Amazon page, “Poerty”, was not her mistake. But “Pottery” on my cover is intentional.) Both books are available on Amazon; mine is also at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.createspace.com/3829050" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">CreateSpace</a>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://rayvincentpoetry.com/index.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><i>What Made Him Sing</i></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>also has its own web page.</div>
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<br /></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-87381399654126423092012-03-02T21:54:00.000-05:002012-03-02T21:54:22.618-05:00Parvum Opus 394: Toujours Arriere<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:DoNotShowRevisions/> <w:DoNotPrintRevisions/> <w:DoNotShowMarkup/> <w:DoNotShowComments/> <w:DoNotShowInsertionsAndDeletions/> <w:DoNotShowPropertyChanges/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">LINQUES</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">As you know, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise">French Language Academy</a> tries to keep the French language under control, and somewhat stable. They want to avoid importing too many words from other languages (like “le jazz”). When entirely new terms enter the world, such as technical words, translation cannot always be direct. Probably most languages simply imported and adapted the terms from their home of origin, but the French like to frenchify them if possible.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are numerous French/English computer dictionaries online, but the <a href="http://quizlet.com/781808/french-computer-terms-flash-cards/">flash card</a> site lets you click through and make a little game of looking at the words. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 76.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>They did borrow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">surf</i> directly: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">surfer </i>(the infinitive verb). To imitate the English history of this computer term, you’d have to know the French word for the ocean surf, then know or invent a verb for riding the waves on a board, then use that verb as a computer term. Maybe “surfing” was already been entrenched in the French language but it’s definitely Surfin’ USA. </div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 76.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">navigateur</i> (Web surfer) and it reminds me of the old Navigator search engine, which I liked for its neat little graphic. </div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 76.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Why does <span class="qword"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">télécharger</i> mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">download</i>? Of course to the English ear it sounds like you’re recharging something.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: 76.5pt; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>A scroll bar is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">une barre de defilement</i>, which I can’t help reading as something like a chastity belt. I invented a fake translation for the family motto of the Douglas branch of my ancestry: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jamais arriere</i> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Never behind</i>), which I “translated” as “I may be an ass” because it applied more accurately to one or more of my relatives. (OK, and maybe me too.) Why this Scottish clan has a French motto I don’t know.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="tab-stops: 76.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PATOIS</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Improbable Research reported on a <a href="http://www.improbable.com/2012/02/17/jamaican-patois-paper/">paper published by Hubert Devonish in Jamaican patois</a> (and in English). Example paragraph:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“In plentii konchrii, di piipl-dem no taakin di seem langgwij an no fiil se dem iz seem neeshan. So, dem wa in chaaj a di setop in di konchrii doz chrai mek di piipl-dem get fiilinz fo neeshan.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">“In many countries, the populations do not speak the same language and, therefore, do not feel they belong in the same nation. In these circumstances, those who run the state apparatus often try to create a shared national consciousness.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As you see, the patois spelling indicates pronunciation (the grammar is different from standard English also).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While we can understand it, this sample shows why standardized English spelling is important. Every once in a while there’s a flap about changing English spelling to a phonetic system. But whose English pronunciation are you going to attempt to reproduce? The Queen of England or Bostonian John Kennedy? A Southern belle or an Irishman? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">IT’S YOUR NAME</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;">Of course I care about correct pronunciation, but the rules don’t apply to people’s names, as <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/relationships-and-special-occasions/columns/miss-manners/people-can-say-names-as-they-choose/article_02e8a3bd-5189-52e5-b626-df25a0094d39.html#ixzz1mvffBJeT">Miss Manners</a> knows:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: 1.0in;">Dear Miss Manners,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: 1.0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am a multilingual person who has lived in four continents, only recently back in the United States. In the U.S., I frequently meet first-generation Americans who mispronounce their own names.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: 1.0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As someone who can speak the relevant languages and thus know how to say the names properly, do I refer to these persons as their names should be said? Or do I defer to the majority, and distort the names as they do?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: 1.0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Does etiquette explain what is helpful and what is obnoxious in this instance?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My answer, which agrees with Miss Manners’:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A name is personal. Pronounce it (and spell it) as you wish. People in other countries will pronounce English names as they wish, or as they can.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HARD DRINKING</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 81.0pt;">Here’s an old column from <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/23/2603762/a-tall-order-grammatically.html">Dave Barry’s “Ask Mr. Language Person”</a> that I don’t think I’ve linked yet.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Re his discussion of Starbucks’ names for coffee sizes, read this story from Not Always Right and get back to me: <a href="http://notalwaysright.com/?s=how+to+show-up+a+show-off">How to Show-Up a Show-Off</a>. Quote:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: 46.5pt;">“She probably looked at you, assumed you were a man, and was therefore completely confused by your non-fat non-sugar orange mocha chip frappuccino order. Real men drink real coffee.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>OK, I’m willing to concede that real men sometimes like sweet drinks, but wouldn’t it be a good idea for Starbucks to rename some of its drinks in the interest of preserving their dignity? Possible male drink:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>non-fat could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stripped</i> (sexy); non-sugar could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hard</i> (as in hard cider, though it’s not alcoholic); orange could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sinensis</i> (scientific); mocha chip could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cacao stone</i> (scientific + tough); frappuccino could be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whip</i> (tough like Zorro). So:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 92.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 92.25pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Give me a stripped, hard, sinensis, cacao stone whip</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 92.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 92.25pt;">Definitely more manly. Although nothing is more manly than a cuppa Joe. I’d like to see a coffee shop that just sells coffee. For a buck.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in 92.25pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Oh, and the sizes. As you know, a Starbucks small is Tall (uh-huh), medium is Grande (hmph), large is Venti (huh?). They have their reasons, but after years and years of going to Starbucks I still have to stop and think, just like I have to stop and think about the multiplication tables above the 6-times.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I CAN’T MAKE MY LEGS DO ANYTHING</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;">Heard in a commercial for stockings or something:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“They always make your legs look flattering.”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My legs haven’t flattered me or even appeared to do so lately. Of course I don’t flatter them much either.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Surely any ad has a script and a bit of lead time even if it’s a live production. Wouldn’t anyone write, or automatically say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“They always make your legs look good”</i> or long or whatever? Or, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“They always flatter your legs.”</i> I’m hoping this is just a brief moment of synapse failure. Otherwise it’s a level of illiteracy too low to countenance in someone who makes a living writing or reading ads.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">LOOK ABOVE</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I see this kind of construction fairly often:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Look at the above comments.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I can’t say absolutely that it is incorrect, but it definitely sounds wrong. Dict.org gives various usages for “above” <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">—</span> preposition, adverb <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">—</span> but not adjective. If you say “Look at the comments above” is it an adjective, which ordinarily precedes the noun in English, or an adverb modifying “look”? It certainly is not a preposition in this case. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It could be an elliptical adjective (“Look at the comments that are above”), but I’m voting for adverb, similar to “Look at the comments over there”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Look at the comments above” sounds right. Same goes for “below”. Does anybody ever say or write, “Look at the below comments”?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 46.5pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">READ THEIR BOOKS</b></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><a href="http://fishermanslanguage.com/" title="In A Fisherman's Language"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In A Fisherman's Language</i> </a>is an autobiography by Captain James Arruda Henry, who didn’t learn to read until he was in his 90s. (Kindle only.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-Is-So-Good-ebook/dp/B000Q9II90/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330616334&sr=1-1">Life Is So Good</a></i> by George Dawson is another book by a man who didn’t learn to read till he was almost 100. (Kindle and print.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 272.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 195.0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">READ MY BOOKS</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve been working all winter at putting my Kindle books (and other) into paperback format. So far:<b><span style="color: red;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 332.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 332.25pt;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1469988240/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1469988240">The Gritty Bits</a></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> is a collection of my political commentary as the <a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/rhonda-keith">Cincinnati Independent Enquirer</a>. A bit indigestible but cleansing. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Articles.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 332.25pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466383097/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1466383097">The Wish Book</a> </b>is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466461284/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1466461284">The Man from Scratch</a></span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> is a medical sci-fi crime thriller. <i>Novel</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1468014595/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1468014595">Parvum Opus <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I</span></a></span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> is a collection of the first year of <a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/">Parvum Opus</a> columns. <i>Articles</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Audio Book on Amazon</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00635AZR4/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00635AZR4">When Sonny Gets Blue</a> </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">is the first volume of bluesman Sonny Robertson’s autobiography. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Audio book.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-68471296716705326962011-12-31T15:44:00.002-05:002011-12-31T15:44:53.400-05:00Parvum Opus 393: Conascend with Me<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:DoNotShowRevisions/> <w:DoNotPrintRevisions/> <w:DoNotShowMarkup/> <w:DoNotShowComments/> <w:DoNotShowInsertionsAndDeletions/> <w:DoNotShowPropertyChanges/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">POSTCOCITY</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It’s not that the world has run out of material for Parvum Opus to kvetch about. Maybe next year I’ll get back to a more frequent schedule. This year I’ve worked on other things.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When I was a little kid I had an unformulated desire to publish. I didn’t write much to speak of when I was a child, outside of school, but I remember wanting to make a book out of a piece of cardboard. I think I copied the alphabet on it. I wasn’t precocious enough to really make a book, though. But eventually I began to write, and now I can publish too, thanks to new technology. I write, edit, and design the covers; I have a new publishing name, Who Art, and designed the Who Art logo too. You might say I’m postcocious. If I were an actor I guess I’d want to direct.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So now I’m putting my writing (much of which I already published as e-books) onto real paper. Then I will continue with the epistolary biography of my late high school Spanish teacher, Ellen Rowe (who contributed a bit to the early Parvum Opus columns), as well as other new writing projects.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I’ve just published the first year of collected <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Parvum Opus</i> columns in paperback, now </span><a href="https://www.createspace.com/3737599"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">online at CreateSpace</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and also on </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1468014595/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1468014595"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Amazon</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Also now in paperback is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wish Book</i>, a bit of brain candy, lots of fun (</span><a href="https://www.createspace.com/3697739"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CreateSpace</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466383097/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1466383097"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Amazon</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">). I used this </span><a href="http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Yeats/Circus.htm"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">verse by Yeats</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> from The Circus Animals’ Desertion as the coda to the novella:</span></div><div style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Those masterful images because complete<br />
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?<br />
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,<br />
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,<br />
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut<br />
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,<br />
I must lie down where all the ladders start<br />
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Man from Scratch</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> will be available in a few days on CreateSpace, and on Amazon within a week or two after that. It’s a murder mystery about cloning and the ethics of genetic engineering. Bitterly humorous but not as sweet as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wish Book</i> (and not suitable for kids).</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When Sonny Gets Blue</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> is an audio book, the first volume of an autobiography by my friend <a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/">Howard Sonny Robertson</a> (</span><a href="https://www.createspace.com/1991036"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CreateSpace</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00635AZR4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00635AZR4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Amazon</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">). I produced it but it’s entirely Sonny’s voice. Fascinating.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CreateSpace is an excellent Amazon affiliate for DIY publishing and distributing books, CDs, and videos. You do everything online, for nothing or next to nothing, and you end up with a real book. I learned about CreateSpace from reader </span><a href="http://epatientdave.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dave DeBronkart</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, who has published two books, also as both Kindle books and paperbacks:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer (And What Healthcare Can Learn from It)</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466302895/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1466302895"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Facing Death - With Hope: What one patient learned as he faced the end</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Thanx and a tip of the Keith Stephens hat to Dave DaBee.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/12/07/143265882/vowels-control-your-brain"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">VOWELS CONTROL YOUR BRAIN</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In case you weren’t sure, now we know that it’s the vowels, at least in advertising. Stanford linguistics professor Dan Jurafsky says so. All along I thought it was the consonants. Professor Jurafsky has a blog on </span><a href="http://languageoffood.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">the language of food</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">. I think that boy is hungry. Somebody throw him a turkey leg.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, so right now I’ll interrupt my writing for some early festive sipping:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Germain liqueur. Good sprinkled on corned beef too, by the way.)</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">HOW JOURNALISTS ARE BORN</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Years ago I was an associate editor for a large Midwestern university, in the publications department, which was next door to the news department, all of which was an arm of the public relations office responsible for fund-raising. One day a hard-hitting journalism student hit me hard with this question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if the university needed money for something? Would we cover it up, or write about it, he probed shrewdly. I explained that our office was all about asking for money, all the time, for everything.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He was probably a classmate of the girl who wrote in the school paper that she was disappointed by London. She’d just come back from her first visit, and asked plaintively, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where were the tickertape parades?</i> A British professor responded that it’s New York, not London, that is noted for tickertape parades. Even New York doesn’t have them every day. Too bad she couldn’t find some other way to amuse herself in London.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">HOW FICTION IS BORN</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I have other stories from that editorial job that will appear in a future novel. I just add in the murders.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">HISTORY OF ENGLISH</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Or, Whatever happened to the Jutes?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Open University has a clever video cartoon about the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s">history of the English language</a>, all told in only 11:21 minutes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/english-language"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Open University</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> is European, and not all cartoons.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">BAD SEX WRITING AWARD</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Dave DaBee tipped me to the </span><a href="http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/badsex.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bad Sex Writing Award</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, sponsored by the Literary Review. Actually I’d mentioned this award in 2009 in </span><a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/2009/12/parvum-opus-350-nerdcaps.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">PO 350</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The 2010 winner, whose name doesn’t deserve a mention but you can find it along with his book title on the web site, wrote this:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I suggest to any ladies and gentlemen out there contemplating sex for the first time with someone that you ask the object of your speculation to give you an erotic writing sample first (along with the blood test).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">WHY NOT?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Conascend</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do we have the word “condescending” but not “conascending”? If you condescend, you deign to go down to someone else’s level. But don’t we attempt to go up to a higher level at times? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think we should try introducing this new coinage as a group Parvum Opus project. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“We will conascend to add to the English vocabulary.”</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Urbia</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do we have the word “suburbia” but not “urbia”? “Suburbia” is a bit different from “the suburbs” which simply refers to the communities that surround a city, the small towns and residential areas. But “suburbia” usually implies a state of mind and a way of life, and is often derogatory. People who sneer “suburbia” usually grew up there and think they became cool when they left.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So why not “urbia” as a companion word? Its meaning would depend on who uses it. I leave that to you — <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“You know the type, he lives in urbia.”</i> Send your definitions, and we’ll try to introduce that word too.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">PREPOSITIONS ARE IMPORTANT</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… but not always logical. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On a reality TV show about people who get done in by their own dangerous exotic pets, the narrator said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“James had a fascination for snakes.”</i> This means that the snakes were fascinated by him. It should have been, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“James had a fascination with snakes.”</i> (He was fascinated by them.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now it’s true that the preposition “for” seems ambiguous here since it can be used with different meaning in other formations, e.g., <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“James had a weakness for snakes.”</i> (He was a sucker for their cold little eyes.) But that doesn’t matter. The rule, and the idiom, are what they are. Yes, I understood the meaning, but my attention shouldn’t have been distracted by the misuse of “for” in this instance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MAN UP</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I don’t know when the expression “man up” came into use. It means, of course, to act like a man, do your duty, show courage, etc. Same as “cowboy up”. I recently heard “rooster up” — didn’t note the context, but it must be more like trying to be aggressively dominant, not quite the same as to cowboy up.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JUST SO YOU’LL KNOW</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A clumber is a type of field spaniel that hunts silently. Neat, huh?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in 13.5in 14.0in 14.5in 15.0in 15.5in 16.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">TYPOSTROPHIC</span></b></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As I re-read my books in preparation for paperbook publication, I find errors no matter how many times I’ve read them before. Here I reprint a poem I wrote at the end of 2003 about my mistakes — slightly edited.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2003:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As Lewis Carroll wrote in preface to “Hiawatha’s Photographing”: </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“In an age of imitation, I can claim no special merit for this slight attempt at doing what is known to be so easy. Any fairly practiced writer, with the slightest ear for rhythm, could compose, for hours together, in the easy running metre of ‘The Song of Hiawatha’.”</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Thus, my end-of-the-year meditation on doing wrong when I know what’s right:</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Unattainability of Impeccability, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I’m Not Bothering to Make A New Year’s Resolution This Year</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the bowels of my computer</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Or perhaps my nether brain cells</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lives a typographic gremlin</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Who cares not that I’m a speller —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Disregards my grammar knowledge —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Laughs to think that I’m a writer</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Let alone pretend to edit) —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And to keep from overheating</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I must give my thoughts expression,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And attempt perfect composure</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When I lay them on the line.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So the gremlin jerks my fingers,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Struts and frets upon my keyboard,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Clouds with floaters my right eyeball,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Even when I type correctly,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Read and proofread till I cannot</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Find and fix another error:</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Everything looks just as it should be</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But it’s all a sad delusion.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Tart” is “taart,” not even English.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Verbs do not agree with subjects.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Words drop out and strange ones enter.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Print does not match with my brain waves.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GIGO — input leads to output —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Garbage in means garbage out — does</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Not explain the situation</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Though perhaps it’s instant karma</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As I point my ink-stained fingers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">At others' harmless flubs and glitches).</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Like the ancient carpet weavers</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Of the fabled looms of Turkey,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Should I thread a flower in backwards,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Use red yarn instead of purple,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Purposely distort the pattern,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So Allah will not be offended</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By presumption of perfection?</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I don’t need to fool my gremlin</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By pretending to be flawless.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">No god could ever be affronted</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By my warp and woof of language —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Vocabulary, syntax, spelling —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">All are ways and means to blunder.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Any god who’s worth a prayer</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Won’t find hubris in these pages,</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Only lots of gag material.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So I’m assigned a lesser spirit —</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Just a lowly typing demon</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Copyedits all my writing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By R. Keith, 2003</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Happy New Year, and may all your typos be harmless, unlike the one that said “Love me not” instead of “Love me now”.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">~ From Rhonda and Fred, 2011</span></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-56795307930793456252011-11-05T00:27:00.002-04:002011-11-05T00:27:38.308-04:00Parvum Opus 392: Real-Word Experience<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b>PREPOSTROPHOUS</b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Rich Lederer agrees about short- and long-lived:</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;">In brief, all major dictionaries cleave to your argument for sounding the i in short-lived and long-<wbr></wbr>lived as a long i. These compounds mean "short/long of life." It should be noted, though, that the Brits prefer the short i in these words.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">We both beg to differ with the Brits.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">He also wrote:</span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;">Most folks who have seen <i>The Help</i> agree that the film is destined to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But with all the care lavished upon the writing and filming of <i>The Help</i>, in slithers the following prepostrophe: </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;"> Skeeter Phelan, the film's protagonist and writer of the book <i>The Help</i>, is typing up a notice for the Junior League's newsletter. The camera homes in on the text, which includes: "Come to the Holbrook's to drop off old coats," which she changes to "old commodes" in order to befoul Hilly's front yard.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;"> You'd think that Skeeter — or at least the writers of the screenplay — would know that Holbrook's should be Holbrooks'. </div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(By the way, I know someone who did put an old commode in her yard, in hopes of lowering the sale price of the house she lived in when it went up for sheriff’s auction, because she wanted to buy it cheap. It’s a long story.)</span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">AIXELSID TNOF</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Dave DaBee posted this reference to a <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-font-helps-dyslexics-read" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">newly invented type font</a> called Dyslexie, designed by Christian Boer of the Netherlands, that is supposed to be easier for dislexics to read. Boer, himself dyslexic, designed the letter shapes to be less confusing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">One of Dave’s Facebook friends, Victoria Haliburton, disagrees. She works with dislexics. I include most of her comments — unedited (she probably wrote in a hurry) — because she is as amusing as she is opinionated (but presumably not dyslexic herself).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;">Sorry to disappoint you and everyone who wants a miracle cure, but this guyis wrong in so many directions that it is hard to know where to start. First, as the article mentions -- and then ignores -- dyslexia is NOT a vision problem. Every few years somebody comes up with a new snake oil guaranteed to cure botts, glanders, and the hives, shows positive results from their own testing -- and then disappears as mysteriously as they appeared. …. since it is NOT a vision problem, playing around with visual efforts is on the level of curing a cold by sacrificing a chicken -- irrelevant, but the cold gets better in seen days anyway so you can prve the cure . . .. In fact dyslexia can be treated and in many cases "cured" (ie the student looks and acts and tests well within the normal range, although perhaps with a few quirks). The statement in the article "there is no cure" is dead wrong. The treatment has been well-known and used for over a century -- my grandmother could have told you -- and has passed every *scientific* test thrown at it over the last sixty years. read the NIH study on Teaching Children to Read, 1999 (not the hysterical attacks on it since, but the actual study). Be forewarned: you are used to reading medical studie where there is a standard of proof; education so-called "studies" have no such standard and are 90 percent laughable. Anyway, the treatment that works, and works with a ery high success rate, is traing not in vision but in hearing - phonetic discrimination etc. The reason for the high rate of dyslexia and "dyslexia" (much higher) in English is twofold -- the problem of partially inconsistent (only 15 percent by the way) sound-symbol correspondence, and the much uch worse probelm of poorly-prepared teachers who are taught things that just ain't so and who try to teach their students by guess, hope, and pray rather than actual reading instruction.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 29.2pt;">As far as fonts, by the way, it has been found that one of the *easiest* to read is a serif font, <span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;">Century Schoolbook</span> -- which was designed as an easy-reading font for children's texts by peple without scientific credentials but wth a lot of real-word experience. The basic rules for font design and calligraphy, which include consistent slant (unlike this new font) and a minimum of additional frills (he's good here) and a balance of open white space and dark letter (he's right here about openness) are designed to maximize readability. Uneven slopes give the reader a headache; I know, I read juior-high kids' papers. They slow you down, quite badly if you are a fast reader.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>LITERALLY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dave also sent an article from the Boston Globe by Christopher Muther, <a href="http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-19/lifestyle/29791304_1_literal-meaning-linguists-character" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">“Literally the most misused word”</a>. Is it literally a hopeless case?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>Literally</i> is used, incorrectly, as an intensifier, in the grand tradition of exaggeration that is so American. How many things are really awesome, after all? Is your yes always absolutely a yes?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Proposing substitutes for <i>literally</i> may be useless. For instance, the article quotes Ben Zimmer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com, on Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas saying, “This is literally a dream come true” when they won the Stanley Cup. Zimmer suggests substituting something like “unquestionably a dream come true”, but is that really any better? It depends on what you mean by “dream”. Possibly Thomas didn’t actually (really truly) dream in the night about the Stanley Cup, though it wouldn’t be surprising if he did, but he could have literally had a dream in the sense of a strong imaginative desire for a future outcome.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Another Bruin, Andrew Ference, said, “I can’t wrap my mind around how many people were there. I literally can’t wrap my head around it.” Well, that’s half true. He couldn’t wrap his head (a physical object) around a concept. But maybe he could wrap his mind (a more abstract sort of thing, really a though) around an idea.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In any case, if <i>literally</i> is used incorrectly more than not, what will take its place?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>ARTFUL</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Another intrusion of political correctness into art commentary distorts the intention of a 19th-century painting by George Inness, <a href="http://www.artfinder.com/work/classical-landscape-march-of-the-crusaders-george-inness/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">March of the Crusaders</a>, which depicts knights traveling through the Italian countryside. On the linked page here, the comment points out the reference to death in the picture of the noble procession, but in a local Inness exhibition, a curator was compelled to write apologetically that “At this time, many saw the Crusaders as heroes.” This disparagement of the Crusaders has developed largely since the recent unpleasantness, of course, and makes sense if you’d prefer to be living under sharia law.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Lest we forget, the phrase “political correctness” came from Trotsky, and was adopted by the American Communist Party, which would announce that its members had to back certain policies because they were politically correct (i.e. practical) even if they were wrong, or statements even if they were false; the party line shifted often. Unlike the Bolsheviks, we probably won’t be imprisoned or killed for being un-PC, though that could change, but how comfortable would you be in speaking positively about the intrepid knights of the Crusades at your next social get-together?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>WHO ART</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I am now republishing my e-books in paperback under my new publishing label, Who Art. The first of these is now available on Amazon, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466383097/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1466383097" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">The Wish Book</a></i>, an amusing light read about the old Sears catalogs, a clandestine midnight burial, and a bit of romance. Paper is so much more satisfying than pixels.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The first volume of Sonny Robertson’s audio autobiography, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00635AZR4/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B00635AZR4" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">When Sonny Gets Blue</a></i>, is also on Amazon now.</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-77971568127397727712011-09-20T23:35:00.001-04:002011-09-20T23:35:12.865-04:00Parvum Opus 391: Near Language Experience<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Then and Now, There and Here</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Re-reading Agatha Christie, I ran across this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0007111487/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0007111487" target="_blank"><i>Postern of Fate</i></a> (1973).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">If I’d been a nice ordinary child of nowadays I wouldn’t have learned to read so easily when I was young. Children nowadays who are four, or five, or six, don’t seem to be able to read and quite a lot of them don’t seem to be able to read when they get to ten or eleven. I can’t think why it was so easy for all of us. We could all read…. I don’t mean we could all spell very well, but we could read anything we wanted to . I don’t know how we learnt. Asking people, I suppose. Things about posters and Carter’s Little Liver Pills. We used to read all about them in the fields when trains got near London. It was very exciting.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>She was writing about England, of course. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span><i>Postern of Fate</i> is not one of Christie’s best. In 1973 she was 83 years old. Her style became too discursive for a tight mystery, though she hadn’t totally lost her ability to plot. But her observation indicates that most children can learn when they’re expected to, and if they want to, and if vocabulary, for instance, is not purposely dumbed down. Of course reading might be more exciting for someone who’s not drowned in TV all the time.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>More recently, circulating the web is an <a href="http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp" target="_blank">eighth grade exam</a> from a school in Salina, Kansas, much more difficult than what students face today. The myth-busting web site Snopes does not say it’s not a real exam (Snopes also adds a teacher’s exam from Zanesville, Ohio, in the 1870s) but that, uh…. Well, you read it. Snopes doesn’t argue the authenticity of the exams; my guess is that the Snopes writers are defending their own educations, which were undoubtedly less rigorous than those of the 19th century. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Once again I refer you to the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471294284/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0471294284" target="_blank">McGuffey Readers</a></i>, which my parents might well have used when they attended one-room schools back in the mountains. Compare with today’s elementary school readers. You can find the <a href="http://www.learn-to-read-prince-george.com/support-files/eclecticprimer.pdf" target="_blank">McGuffey texts online</a>. Here’s an example of a reading lesson from the primer, the book before Book One.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">One day Nat and I sat on the high hill by the sea, where the tall lighthouse stands. We could look far out, and could see the ships at sea. As we sat there, we saw a man near by, with some sheep and lambs. The man had a pipe in his mouth. He sat with us, and let the sheep eat the grass. What fun it is to see lambs play! It made us laugh to see them. The man said that once, when the sheep and lambs were out in the snow, an old wolf took one of the lambs, and ran off with it. I think that men should watch their sheep, so that a wolf can not catch them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The sentences are longer than six words and some of the words are longer than six letters. Today, of course, books would have few rural settings, and no one would be allowed to smoke a pipe. Probably a wolf would not be allowed to steal a lamb either. (Note, by the way, the archaic spacing of “near by” and “can not”, which now are spelled as one word.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Dave DaBee Still Busy</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">We (the editorial “we” consisting of me and Fred) had the pleasure of lunching with <a href="http://epatientdave.com/" target="_blank">Dave DaBee</a> last week. Dave is a goldmine of information. Do check out his web page to learn about his trip from near death to his intercontinental talks on beating cancer by using the Internet.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Dave gave me a copy of his newest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466302895/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1466302895" target="_blank"><i>Facing Death with Hope</i></a>, a follow-up to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0981650430" target="_blank"><i>Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer (And What Healthcare Can Learn from It)</i></a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>He also sent a great <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/the-price-of-typos/?ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tya2" target="_blank">New York Times article on spelling</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Near-Language Experiences</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">In an advice column:<span> </span><i>“A small child who couldn't have been more than 7 years old had a near-drowning experience at the pool.”</i> Is this like a near-death experience? Why wouldn’t the writer say the child almost drowned? He also had a survival experience, since he’s alive. “Experience” is one of those words like “area” and “field” that are used to increase word count and add a vague sense of importance to plain speaking.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>And somewhere I read about “the estimable Herman Cain”. Mr. Cain is to be esteemed, but the idiomatic expression is either “esteemed” (respected) or “inestimable” (his worth is too high to be evaluated). “Estimable” or “inestimable” has to do with estimation, with rating, rather than esteeming. If the writer was thinking about esteem, he should have written “the esteemed Herman Cain”. You could argue a case for “estimable” but it won’t fly.<span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Perhaps some writers fear using clichés so much that as soon as they recognize a familiar expression, they feel they have to twist it into unfamiliarity to be original. But you have to know what and when to twist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Grammar Nazis</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Did I tell you already about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Grammar Nazis</a>, caught on YouTube? Brilliant. <i>Sic semper tyrannis!</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Littachur Nazis</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Tom Simon told me about this one. The URL says it all: <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/school-board-removes-sherlock-holmes-novel-as-derogatory-to-mormons/1" target="_blank">School board removes Sherlock Holmes novel as derogatory to Mormons</a>. The fact is that Mormons were polygamists. Do we have to erase history to be respectful? Other people are polygamists today. So you can’t disapprove, and you can’t even mention anything that anyone might disapprove of.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Misnomer</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">More than once recently I’ve heard or read “misnomer” used incorrectly. It literally, and obviously, means “wrong name” but people use it to refer to a mistaken idea. I didn’t note specific examples but you get the idea.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Lived Again</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Someone on CNN pronounced “short-lived” correctly. I’ve written about this in the past – PO 29 in 2003, to be exact, and I will reproduce my note in its entirety:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">LONG LIVE THE LONG-LIVED QUEEN</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">"Lived" in "short-lived" or "long-lived" is usually pronounced as the past-tense verb ("he lived") but I think it ought to rhyme with "jived". My reasoning (and there are others who agree) is this: Someone or something that is short-lived has a short life; I think the phrase came from the word "life" and took the same path as wife-wive-wives ~ "I have come to wive it wealthily in Padua" (<i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>). In other words, it comes from the noun, not the verb, like calling a person short-sighted, not short-seen.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The CNN line was: “The Pony Express was short-lived.” The reporter said “lived” to rhyme with “jived”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Eternal Proofreading Plagues</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I listened to much of the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060859512/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0060859512" target="_blank">Misquoting Jesus</a></i> on my recent road trip, which was not so much about theology as about copying manuscripts in the old days. Mistakes were made, either through carelessness, or because the scribe wanted to change text he didn’t agree with. In one case, a scribe was copying a double column of text about the “begats” but read across instead of down, leading to God being the son of somebody or other. I was amused to learn of these verses, Revelation 22:18-19:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt; width: 1.56%;" valign="top" width="1%"><br />
</td> <td style="padding: 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt; width: 428.65pt;" valign="top" width="572"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: 29.2pt;">18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:</div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td nowrap="nowrap" style="padding: 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt; width: 1.56%;" valign="top" width="1%"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div></td> <td style="padding: 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt 2.25pt; width: 428.65pt;" valign="top" width="572"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: 29.2pt;">19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.</div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In other words, to hell with sloppy editors, proofreaders, and typesetters.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Publishing/Music Shakedown</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">I recently discovered that CafePress discontinued its CD printing service, thus the autobiographical CD of Sonny Robertson that I produced isn’t available right now. I will find another producer soon. Sonny, by the way, will be performing in England at the <a href="http://www.shakedownblues.co.uk/events.php" target="_blank">Shakedown Blues</a> event on September 24.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-42524673733899875702011-08-04T13:50:00.003-04:002011-08-04T13:50:54.236-04:00Thanks!<div style="background-color: white; color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thanks to everyone who bought any of my writing on Amazon Kindle! I received my tiny royalty check with great pleasure, and have new writing projects in mind.</span></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-75317977630864619572011-07-14T22:33:00.001-04:002011-07-14T22:33:07.702-04:00Parvum Opus 390: Summer Read<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: "Engravers MT","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Arty Bollocks</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">My work explores the relationship between <b>new class identities</b> and <b>urban spaces</b>. With influences as diverse as <b>Kierkegaard</b> and <b>Roy Lichtenstein</b>, new <b>synergies</b> are <b>created</b> from both <b>explicit</b> and <b>implicit</b> <b>textures</b>. Ever since I was a <b>student</b> I have been fascinated by the <b>traditional understanding</b> of <b>the</b> <b>mind</b>. What starts out as <b>hope</b> soon becomes <b>corrupted</b> into a <b>hegemony</b> of <b>lust</b>, leaving only a sense of <b>chaos</b> and the <b>chance</b> of a <b>new</b> <b>reality</b>. As <b>spatial</b> <b>phenomena</b> become <b>clarified</b> through <b>boundaried</b> and <b>diverse</b> practice, the viewer is left with a <b>glimpse</b> of the <b>possibilities</b> of our <b>future</b>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is an image or even a thought forming in your mind now? This is an artistic statement generated by <a href="http://10k.aneventapart.com/Uploads/262/" target="_blank">David James Ross</a>, whose Arty Bollocks is another one of those automated statement generators that I love. They’re like MadLibs but with a point. The variables are in bold type. Make your own list of trendy and abstract nouns, adjectives, verbs, and names, and try your own artistic, personal, or mission statement. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>If you like Arty Bollocks, be sure to read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312427581/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0312427581" target="_blank"><i>The Painted Word</i></a> (almost typed “Pained”) by Tom Wolfe.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>By the way, wouldn’t Arty Bollocks be a great name for a band? (American translation: arty B.S.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Summertime and the Readin’ Is Easy</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Today I picked up a book on the clearance table — <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002U1K4Y4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B002U1K4Y4" target="_blank"><i>Perfumes: The Guide</i></a> by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. Writing about perfume must be like writing about wines. We can compare unfamiliar or complex smells and tastes to familiar ones, but cannot reproduce them with words, though much of the terminology in this book is chemical. Visual images can be approximated in writing — or does it just seem so? — but the language of smell is more esoteric.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Examples from the glossary:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><b>Drydown</b>:<span> </span>The late stage of a fragrance that develops after the top and heart notes subside and before the smell completely fades.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><b>Green</b>:<span> </span>Smelling of cut grass or leaves.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><b>Heart note</b>:<span> </span>The middle portion of a fragrance, after the top note subsides but before the drydown, often considered to be the fragrance’s true personality.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><b>Sillage</b>:<span> </span>French for the wake left in the water by passing ships; fragrance industry jargon for the scent trial left by a perfume at a distance from the wearer.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;"><b>Top note</b>:<span> </span>The first few minutes of a fragrance, when the materials with the lowest molecular weights and highest volatilities evaporate first.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>I was pleased to find that two of my favorite scents are highly rated. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Diorissimo, from Dior, though not sold anymore in its original formulation, “is the archetypal muguet [lily of the valley]…. The original 1956 Diorissimo established Edmond Roudnitska as the Mozart of postwar French perfumery. And Diorissimo was a truly Mozartian fragrance, with a catchy jaunty presto tune like the overture to <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKU94kxv-o" target="_blank">The Marriage of Figaro</a></i>…. The best way to describe [the new version] is as the voice of a great soprano close to retirement. The melody, the timbre are there, but some of the high notes are a little forced and have lost the effortless soaring, the liquid fluency of old.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Grey Flannel is, “despite the fact that [it] can occasionally feel a little crude, a masterpiece.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>I could go on. If you’d like me to look up the description of a fragrance, let me know, though there are some I couldn’t find, and not just because they’re too cheap. The books lists a number of cheap, low rated scents, but some cheaper ones are well rated too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Years ago a woman said to me, apropos of nothing (though we were in a restaurant), that when you smell something, molecules must actually enter your nose, thus your body. Which is obviously true but I’d never thought about it before. That steak or that flower or that guy next to you is actually getting inside your head, and elsewhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>I’m also reading <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595230769/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1595230769%22%3eThe%20Secret%20Knowledge:%20On%20the%20Dismantling%20of%20American%20Culture" target="_blank">The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture</a></i>, by David Mamet, in which the famous playwright writes about, around, under, over, and above his conversion from left to right politically. If you like his theatrical work before, you should like this book. I’ve seen some of his movies, and <i>House of Games</i> stuck with me, a pretty good suspense movie with a weird atmosphere.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>And the entry for trash is an out-of-print bodice (or toga) ripper by satirist Florence King. In <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312143370/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0312143370" target="_blank">The Florence King Reader</a></i> she excerpted a chapter from an early novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425037010/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0425037010" target="_blank">The Barbarian Princess</a></i>, which she said is mercifully out of print. But I got a copy from a used book dealer. King made money writing genre fiction and wanted to get in on the gravy train that was the lurid “sweet savage” fiction she says was a backlash to the feminist movement of the era. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>She made a lot of money from this book under the nom de plume Laura Buchanan, in which a Celtic princess, Lydda, is kidnapped and escapes, is forced into wedlock, is ravished and raped, escapes and becomes a Druid warrior priestess, from Britain to Rome to North Africa and back with stops along the way, and so on and on until she finally marries her true love, the Saxon invader Thel. The book is ridiculous yet gripping. King knew her history and her Latin. She even threw in Saint Patrick as Lydda’s youthful boyfriend, who later unites her and Thel in Christian (at last) wedlock.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>I’m thinking about writing to King about this 1978 paperback. The characters on the cover were painted by someone who didn’t read any part of the book: <span> </span>the red-headed Celtic princess is a brunette and the big blond Saxon looks like Charles Bronson. And on the back Lydda, wearing half a robe, appears to have no pelvic bones. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>If you don’t like trash, you’ll at least like Florence King’s other work, especially her book reviews. These days her columns appear in <i>National Review</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Serial Karma</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dave DaBee notified me that the Oxford Style Guide now advocates dropping the <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/oxford-comma-dropped-by-university-of-oxford_b33357" target="_blank">Oxford comma</a>, which is the serial comma, the one in a series before the final conjunction. We’ve talked about this before, here, so I won’t go into detail, but this is a horrible development and further evidence of weakening standards everywhere. What can it hurt to keep the comma? It often aids in comprehension, and when it doesn’t necessarily, it adds a sense of order, logic, and completeness to a series.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>The only bright note is that it seems that it’s the Oxford PR office style guide that perpetrated this shabbiness, not the Oxford University Press.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Daily Writing Tips has a good array of examples of where and why to use commas in <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-comma-cases-in-which-more-is-more/" target="_blank">10 Comma Cases in Which More Is More</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Beauty vs. Cutey</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hopping to another on the Oxford Comma site, I found an article on the <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/33908_b33908" target="_blank">most beautiful words in the English language</a>, with a short list of suggestions. This is purely subjective as you have to distinguish between the sound of the word and its meaning. For instance, <i>onomatopoeia</i> is on the list, but why? It’s rhythmic but its meaning isn’t particularly beauteous. Someone once complained about the sickening sweetness of something like “summer afternoon” offered as most beautiful words. (Sorry about all the esses.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Are words with hard K sounds less beautiful, like <i>cookie</i>? <i>Cookie</i> is a beautiful word if you’re looking at a tray full of freshly baked cookies with chocolate chips — especially if accompanied by a bottle of Coca-Cola. Maybe <i>cookie</i> is a cute word rather than a beautiful word, but no one ever discusses cute words.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>Because of the contrast between sound and meaning — both of which are subjectively pleasing or otherwise — we have a panoply of names given to babies by parents who were more attuned to sound that meaning, such as this one invented by a comedian, Le<i>mon</i>jello, with the stress on the second syllable, a sort of aural allusion to Michelangelo; and the mythical twins Syphilis and Gonorrhea. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Throwback</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Heard on the radio:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FBD4B4; margin-left: .5in;">“He’s taken some deserv-ed time off.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Deserved” was pronounced with three syllables, which is an antique pronunciation though it remains in some words, such as “bless-ed” alongside of “blessed” (blest). But shortly after, the same speaker on the radio said “deserved” with two syllables. I kind of like hearing the old version, a bit of the past popping up unexpectedly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Not Quite</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Someone/s wrote:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>“A saying chalk full of wisdom.” Could sound like that in speech but it’s actually “chock-full”, possibly from “choke full”, which would suggest choking because your gullet is too full.<br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>“It’s a shoe-in.” Should be “shoo in”, an easy winner, from “shoo” meaning to urge something or someone in a particular direction.<br />
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</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-74074589767577038642011-06-03T12:30:00.000-04:002011-06-03T12:30:02.877-04:00Parvum Opus 389: Esprit d'Logoff<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________</span></i></b><span style="color: #474b4e;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>HILARY’S VALET</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The wife of Congressman Weiner (who may or may not have tweeted a photo of himself in his underpants) is Hilary Clinton’s valet.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">What’s wrong with this sentence?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Of course it is “valet”. The word valet is related to “varlet” and “vassal”. It pretty much has always meant “boy”. A valet is the personal servant of a gentleman and is always a man. Hilary Clinton is not a gentleman, and ought not to have a valet, at least not in public. She would have a personal maid. Perhaps a lady in waiting. The pretention of calling her employee a valet is a failed feminist/populist attempt to elevate the job. All jobs with female titles are lowly. A maid is a girl. A servant serves, which is lowly, though waiters (and former waitresses) now call themselves servers. A valet is for rich men. The job is the same, though, taking care of the employer’s clothes and personal needs.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Like other failed euphemisms, this one further denigrates the job it attempts to elevate. You mean there’s something shameful about being a personal maid? It’s honest work, no different, really, from a beautician or drycleaner or waitress or personal trainer.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It’s like when secretaries became administrative assistants. Professional secretaries used to be proud of their jobs and their skills. Administrative assistants want to move up. I crossed the path of one who would not accept campus mail for her boss, the university president, if she spotted a correction on the letter paper –before word processing when mistakes were erased or covered with white-out. “Administrative assistant” has had a good run, so I’m waiting for the day when it will become “administrator”.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Why would Hilary Clinton need a valet? Why not just an aide or personal assistant? Because those words now imply office work, not personal wardrobe assistance.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Obama can have a valet if he wants, but Hilary Clinton’s lady valet reminds me of Nixon’s palace – I mean <a href="http://misterleroy.blogspot.com/2011/01/1970s.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">White House guard uniforms</a>. They looked like something from a musical comedy by one of those European immigrants who entered the movie biz, still dreaming of old Vienna.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Of course, the undercurrent of all this name change is not merely feminist angst. It’s a desire to remove all hierarchy. A job and its title are often defined by their relation to a different job and title. A small company of two people can get away with no titles: it’s just Jim and Bob. A larger organization with different jobs assigned to different people requires an acknowledgement of separate duties, and Jim and Bob decide what jobs they need done and may assign titles: widget designer, widget part procurer, widget maker, widget seller, and so on. If the widget part procurer decides he has equal decision making ability, does he start ordering gadget parts?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If Jim and Bob try to avoid any inequality among themselves and the people they hire, they may try calling them by numbers instead of work functions, but you know number one is always going to be on top, so that won’t work.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My dad was a career military man and he liked to use the phrase “man of rank and title”. My dad was a man of rank, not an officer, but he understood and appreciated discrimination in its best and worst forms.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Matter without any hierarchy or discrimination is an amoeba.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But calling a maid a valet is like the woman who had a sex change operation on the visible parts and then when she got pregnant, said she was the first man to get pregnant. No, she was a woman who’d fooled around with plastic surgery, and with the language. If it looks like a duck but moos like a cow, take a closer look.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">(By the way, valet is pronounced val-et,<span> </span>not val-ay.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>STILL CRAZY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Read “<a href="http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/04/_after_spending_four.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Writing Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years</a>” by writing instructor Mary Grabar, on a meeting of 3,000 writing teachers in Atlanta, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (April 21, 2011), then pull your kids out of college. Why should you have to pay for this?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Not only is it in vogue (has been for years) to see all literature, past and present, as coded or overt explications of sex and race and class oppression – the coded stuff being essential to the decoders’ (teachers’) having jobs – but the professors also decry classist (note: not “classic” or “classicist”) notions like grammar, i.e. clarity and logic. (And let’s not forget the writer who eschews capital letters because they privilege some letters over others.) Apparently all students need is a few words and grunts to express themselves. Anything beyond that is elitist.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A co-director of a “Poverty Studies” program said we need to “think critically about how dirty work can be reframed, recalibrated, or refocused to honor all work and workers” (e.g. maid becomes valet). OK, honor it, then say Americans won’t do it and let the illegal Mexicans do it; maybe stoop labor can become earth-proximal agricultural work. In a different professional field, thus have prostitutes become sex workers, without all the unpleasant moral connotations. Next up, whatta ya wanna bet: <span> </span>academic majors and minors in sex work, complete with history classes, medical classes, and business and accounting classes for the pro. You think not? Northwestern University professor J. Michael Bailey has already pioneered with an optional sex demo for his students. Universities just have to take the next step.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>OY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Toyota trucks have TOYOTA in big letters on the back and owners sometimes like to paint out part of the word, like the truck I saw with YO on the back, which sounds truckish. A Jewish driver could have OY. You could do TO OT. You might have TOY; they’re small trucks.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>ESPRIT</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As you know, esprit d’escalier means staircase wit: the clever riposte that comes to you after you’ve already left the room and it’s too late to say it. How about esprit d’logoff, the idea that comes to you just after you’ve shut down the computer? You want to write one more thing or look something up. This is why I’m looking forward to getting my Android phone, really a little web device that I can keep in my pocket or by the bed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And by the way, wouldn’t Esprit be a good name for a carbonated beverage?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>FOUND</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>“a person in affluent clothing”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">While “affluent” and “rich” are synonyms, they are not interchangeable. People can be rich or affluent, but clothing does not possess riches, it displays wealth. It may be luxurious.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>BANNED IN TEXAS</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/03/judge-issues-extreme-ruling-against-texas-high-school-graduation-prayer/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Words you can’t say at a Texas graduation</a>:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">God (of course) and other deities; join in prayer, bow your heads, amen, prayer, invocation, benediction</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">No free speech permitted, says judge. I bet you can add to his list.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>SUMMER READING</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">20 classic novels you can read in one sitting, according to <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/20-classic-novels-you-can-read-in-one-sitting/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Daily Writing Tips</a>:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>1. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193659434X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=193659434X" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens</span></a><br />
<span>2. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594567301/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1594567301" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain</span></a><br />
<span>3. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451527747/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0451527747" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll</span></a><span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>4. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452284244/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0452284244" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Animal Farm, by George Orwell</span></a><br />
5. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451529774/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0451529774" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne</span></a><br />
6. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060850523/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0060850523" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley</span></a><br />
<span>7. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159308028X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=159308028X" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Candide, by Voltaire</span></a><br />
<span>8. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014200068X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=014200068X" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck</span></a><br />
<span>9. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316769177/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0316769177" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger</span></a><br />
<span>10. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143105930/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0143105930" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton</span></a><br />
<span>11. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345342968/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0345342968" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury</span></a><br />
<span>12. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936041111/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1936041111" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley</span></a><br />
<span>13. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743273567/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0743273567" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald</span></a><br />
<span>14. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936594145/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1936594145" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad</span></a><br />
<span>15. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374500010/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=0374500010" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Night, by Elie Wiesel</span></a><br />
<span>16. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936594390/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1936594390" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde</span></a><br />
<span>17. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936041421/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1936041421" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane</span></a><br />
<span>18. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/184749157X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=184749157X" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</span></a><br />
<span>19. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OIBY4Y/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B000OIBY4Y" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">The Stranger, by Albert Camus</span></a><br />
<span>20. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936594285/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=daiwritip-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=1936594285" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte</span></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I’ve read most of these and actually remember quite a few of them. Probably won’t read the others on the list. I have my own new revolving list, not classics.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-72953028367005969392011-05-06T13:15:00.002-04:002011-05-06T13:16:06.363-04:00Parvum Opus 388: English Comprisition<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #222222; font-family: 'IM Fell English'; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></i></b></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Herb’s Comprisition</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Herb Hickman wrote:</div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;" valign="top"></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Well, Little Opus, I find some things here to carp about.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">First, Taliban and other rad muslims don't bury a woman up to her neck to stone her. That would take out all the fun, because she'd be dead before they got in more than a few licks. Buried up to her neck, she could neither inhale nor exhale, and the pressure would likely rupture the abdominal organs too. Actually there's a considerable body of phoney correctness involved. The version I've heard is that correctly a woman is buried up to her waist and a man up to his chest, because he is likely stronger and more likely to be able to free himself and run. If you google <i>stoning</i>, there are a lot of videos. The video quality is very bad, for which you will be grateful.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Second, "comprises" is not ever synonymous with "includes." It means "is made up of," as in the example. "Comprises" needs to be followed by some sort of stab at describing what it's made up of. "Includes" can be followed by anything, even a single small component, anything that is present in the subject entity. A Buick includes a set of tires, but it doesn't comprise a set of tires.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">We don't need "comprision" because we have the perfectly good word "comprisition."</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Excellent point about “comprise”; the word “include” should often be avoided anyway since it so often replaces a better, more specific verb. I will start trying to use the word “comprisition” every day.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>An Indefinite Period</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Dubious translations in the New American Bible include this one in Psalm 23:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“I will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Compare to the familiar:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Possibly “for years to come” is a more accurate translation, though probably not, but it hardly gives one a sense of secure futurity, and in fact takes the reader away from the idea of eternity back into the present world, where your dwelling could be pulled out from under you suddenly even if it is the house of the Lord. Houses of the Lord are being destroyed all over, particularly in the Middle East.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Parting Shot</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I finally asked why the racquetball court was broken, out of order, and out of service. A cover fell off the overhead sprinkler, so the court was shut down so a ball wouldn’t hit the sprinkler and turn it on accidentally; however much fun that might be, the damage would cost thousands to fix.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Silver Cross</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Whenever I heard the line “cross my palm with silver” I always thought it meant simply to put money in the hand. However, I saw a movie (sorry, I didn’t write down the title) from the WWII era where a man at a country fair goes into the gypsy fortune teller’s tent. When she tells him to “cross my palm with silver” he actually makes the sign of a cross on her palm with a coin. It’s doubtful whether this symbolizes the Christian cross since Christianity warns against fortune telling.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Senses</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I didn’t record where I heard this, but someone said:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“He was never seen from again.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Undoubtedly just a verbal mix-up between “heard from” and “seen” but it does bring to mind the differences between seeing and hearing as expressed in the English language. We receive sound from a source into our ears. Although theoretically the same process occurs with sight – we receive an optical stimulus into the eyes – we sometimes speak as though vision is active, not passive, different from hearing. There are people, such as <a href="http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Rupert Sheldrake</a>, who believe that sight does entail an active extension of some kind of energy from the eyes to the object, and in fact he’s devised experiments to test this, like staring at the back of someone’s head to see if you can make them turn around. Try it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">We do speak of “active listening” but that does not refer to any adjustment of the ears, just nods and grunts to cue someone that we are paying attention, and of course we distinguish between seeing and looking, hearing and listening.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Atavistic</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlAfA1AF4TQ" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Hazel Dickens</a>, a singer from West Virginia, died. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/23/arts/music/hazel-dickens-bluegrass-singer-dies-at-75.html?_r=1" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">The New York Times obituary</a> called her accent and delivery “atavistic”. That is a poor word choice. At first I thought the writer meant simply “old style” but technically “atavistic” means a throwback, thus it would be a throwback to something <i>before</i> Hazel Dickens’ own time. In any case, the connotation of the word is always primitive and generally negative. The obit writer, Bill Fiskics-Warren, probably thought he was praising her, but there’s condescension in that word.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Loan Words</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">English has taken aboard a lot of words from other languages without sinking. The Anglo-Saxon vessel remains. As English continues to spread around the world, it will take on even more. <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/loanwords-from-12-unexpected-languages/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Languages</a> from which we’ve imported vocabulary range from Afrikaans to Welsh. Zulu is not on the list linked here, but we need a Z to complete it. As it turns out, South African English has imported Zulu words, some of which are now standard English, such as names of animals like impala and mamba.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But I object to the term “loan words”. It’s not like we’re giving them back. Some anti-Western ideologues have actually said we’ve “stolen” words from other languages. That’s not accurate either.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Oh the Awkwardness</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Heard somewhere:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“It would have been a good thing had it been able to happen.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It would have been a better thing had it been:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“It would have been a good thing could it have happened.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The speaker’s problem was trying to form a fairly complex sentence using “to be able”, that awkward and irregular verb. “Could it have happened” suggests possibility of occurrence while “to be able” suggests a more active participation in existence. Most things happen without active will, at least verbally.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Cremains</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fred Bauer designed the Pringles can and was so enamored of his design that he had some of his ashes – his “cremains” – buried in one, in Springfield Township, Ohio. “Cremains” is obviously a neologism, but one that ought to be eschewed, except for people who want to be buried in Pringles cans. The word looks sort of like it could be the name of an artificial cream substitute.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>YouTube Grammar</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Did you know some teachers post videos about grammar on YouTube? I’m not recommending any one of them in particular, just passing on the info.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Witless Lit Crit</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A 2003 version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322622/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">The Hound of the Baskervilles</a> changed the plot, for no apparent reason. In the original story, the old tale of the hound was about a lord who sent the hound after a girl who ran away to escape the evil intentions of him and his cronies. In this movie, the story was about the lord sending the hound out to find his runaway wife. It didn’t make sense. Why do screenwriters do things like this? Even if the twit – one Allan Cubitt – had never read the Sherlock Holmes story, he’d probably seen the previous movies, whose screenwriters didn’t think they were better plotters than Arthur Conan Doyle. There were other changes in the plot too, but this one actually weakens the aura of evil. Cubitt probably doesn’t believe in evil. Rewriting literature for no dramatic purpose (as is sometimes required for screen or stage) is something like rewriting history.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Statistics</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I chanced to look at the statistics feature of my Parvum Opus blog (<a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">cafelit.blogspot.com</a>), and was surprised to find numbers for hits broken down by countries. By April of this year, there had been page views from:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Australia</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Canada</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">China</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">France</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Germany</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Iran</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Netherlands</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Poland</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Russia</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Slovenia</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Taiwan</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">United Kingdom</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Vietnam</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">More from the UK than anywhere, of course, but I’m surprised to have hits from … Iran?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-47852662669583992952011-03-31T19:45:00.001-04:002011-03-31T19:45:38.500-04:00Parvum Opus 387: Kinetic Word Action<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>MAKING THE BUZZ WORD CUT</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span>We’re at <i>kinetic military action</i> in Libya. You can read <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51893.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">what some law professors say</a> about it, if that will make you feel any better. Someday veterans will tell kinetic military action stories, just like they’ve been telling police action stories and conflict stories for the last few decades. Since “kinetic” and “action” are redundant, what does the word “kinetic” add, other than the assurance that we’re not waging military inertia in Libya?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span>A <i>fictomercial</i> (or <i>literatisement</i>) is a novel that contains plugs for a product or even a region, not just a product. You’ve seen product placement on TV and in movies; look for it in popular fiction. If I could get Coca-Cola to pay me for a plug, I’d do it. But I have integrity; I actually like Coke.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><i>Taliban</i> is the new Nazi, when applied to Catholics. Next time you see a pack of Catholics stoning a woman buried up to her neck, you’ll know what to call them. Actually, it’s not clear to me what this is supposed to mean. I suspect various people use it against traditional Catholics and some Catholics use it against other Catholics. I guess Taliban is the new Nazi, so people will start calling those with whom they disagree Talibani. It would be a change. Usually, of course, comparatively conservative (formerly “liberal”) people are called Nazis by people who forget that Nazi stands for National Socialist. The Russians started identifying the Nazis as “right” when they split politically, the Russian Communists being <i>International</i> and Germany being <i>National</i> Socialists. Since Germany wanted to spread itself all over, I don’t see that as a real difference.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>COMPRISION</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">One more time: <i>comprise</i>, <i>compose</i>, <i>consist</i>. <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/i-just-got-wise-to-%E2%80%9Ccomprise%E2%80%9D/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Mark Nichol in Daily Writing Tips</a> wrote about his entanglement with the word “compromise”. His explanation is slightly fuzzy around the edges, but he seems to have come to the correct conclusion. Examples:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span>A dictionary <b>comprises</b> word definitions, etymology, and a pronunciation guide. (synonymous with “includes”)</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span>A dictionary <b>is composed of</b> many etc. (synonymous with “is made up of”)</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span>A dictionary <b>consists of</b> many etc. (synonymous with “is made up of”)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span> </span>NEVER: A dictionary <i>is comprised of</i> many etc.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I would like to further confuse the issue by suggesting a new word, “comprision”. I think the verb needs a noun. Compose has composition, consist has consistency, comprise has zilch. How about, “The comprision of the dictionary was expanded to include imaginary words.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>BAROQUE MUSINGS</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Regarding the racquetball court that was out of order, then out of service, Mike Sykes said:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Nothing really [wrong with saying something is broken]. Except that, for me, 'broken' has always connoted a physical fracture, or at least some sort of fragmentation, rather than any malfunction. It always seemed a little odd to hear a colleague say, for example, that a specification was broken, meaning perhaps logically inconsistent. Yet I'm quite accustomed to think of a vehicle as broken down at the side of the road. Or break of day.<br />
<span> </span>Oh, give us a break!<br />
<span> </span>Time for a break.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
And, I’m broke this week.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span> </span>Mike also asked who goes around disabling all those disabled toilets, not a phrase we usually find in public bathrooms in the U.S. We usually, though not always, reserve “disabled” for people.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span> </span>In Spanish, if you break something, you say, <i>“Se rompio”</i>, meaning “It broke itself”, neatly sidestepping culpability in the neat way that the passive voice does.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>HOW HEADLINES WORK</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Once again we see how word choice can editorialize, as in an article referenced on the cover of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><i>The Nation</i></a> magazine:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The struggle for single payer in Vermont</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Obviously, if there’s a struggle <i>for</i> something, there’s likely to be a struggle <i>against</i> it too, but would the author write about “the struggle against single payer in Vermont”? Does the actual cover line make you think the writer is for or against single payer health insurance? Why or why not?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span> </span>It’s the word “struggle”. In politics that word always makes you think of a righteous campaign, complete with noble ideals and sacrifice, more so than “fight” or “battle” for some reason. <i>The Nation</i> is an opinion magazine, not a newspaper, so it’s justified in editorializing, but you often see these kinds of word choices in newspapers too, whether the choices are thoughtfully made or knee-jerk.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>SELF-GENERATING ART</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Again on writing from the art world, from something or other I read or heard:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He studied reproductive prints of English <span>and</span> American landscapes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">He studied reproductions <i>or</i> he studied prints. He’s not just redundant, the writer forgot that “reproductive” refers to procreation, not copies, though it would be nice if prints would reproduce themselves.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>LOST LEAF BOOK</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Classic children’s writer Munro Leaf published <i>Grammar Can Be Fun</i> in 1934 but it seems to be out of print. Someone published a page from it on <a href="http://improbable.com/2011/03/22/grammar-can-be-fun/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ImprobableResearch+%28Improbable+Research%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Improbable Research</a> and a few pages are viewable at <a href="http://curiouspages.blogspot.com/2009/12/grammar-can-be-fun.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Curious Pages</a>, but a search on Amazon doesn’t even turn up used copies. Manners, Reading, and Geography can be fun too, by Leaf, and are readily available, but not Grammar. Our library doesn’t even have it. Alibris.com, however, lists a number of used copies for sale by various dealers, ranging from $30 to $225. I didn’t even know I wanted it until now.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>FLACCID PRONUNCIATION</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I heard the word “flaccid” pronounced “flassid” rather than “flaksid”, which I thought was the correct pronunciation, like “success” where the two Cs sound different, but both versions of “flaccid” are acceptable. “Flassid” sounds limper than “flaksid” anyway. You can’t beat that K sound for impact.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>JASPANGLISH</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Someone I know who’s living in Japan (and luckily untouched by the earthquake) says there’s a hybrid language composed of 1<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> </span>part English, 1 part Spanish, 1 part Japanese. For example:<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 1pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span>Top of Form</span></div></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #edeff4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 234, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 3pt; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #edeff4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1.5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'MS Mincho';">わたしの </span><span style="color: #333333;">amiga </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'MS Mincho';">は </span><span style="color: #333333;">on her phone cuando alguien </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'MS Mincho';">でんわしました </span><span style="color: #333333;">then she went a su trabajo</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">An online translation goes something like, “My friend was on her phone when somebody called then she went to work.” That’s probably not exactly right. I would avoid trying to use Jaspanglish, you could get hurt.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span> </span>And doesn’t it always seem odd to think about the intersection of a foreign language with another foreign language, other than English? I mean, why would Spanish-speaking people go to Japan, and why wouldn’t they all speak English together? Maybe it’s just me, but the thought gives me the same disconnect as hearing a small child speak another language.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>UN-DESENSITIZED</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The TV comedy <i><a href="http://www.nbc.com/community/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Community</a></i> is back with a new season on Thursday nights (you can see episodes online; the one on politics is particularly funny), and continues to whack the culture as it so richly deserves. One character said, “Girls today are so un-desensitized.” Note the difference between this and “sensitive”. I’m still brooding over it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>WATCH THE BOOK</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Another bookstore conversation reported on <a href="http://notalwaysright.com/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">notalwaysright.com</a> (that is, the customer is not):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “This book looks interesting. How do I watch it?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Watch it?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Yes, where can I find the movie?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “I don’t think this book has been adapted into a movie.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “What do you mean? Where can I go to watch it? I want to know what happens in the book!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Forgive me for asking, but if you want to know what happens, why not just read it?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Read? How stupid! Where’s the movie! All books are made into movies so that we don’t have to read them!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “I am sorry, I can’t help you. This is a bookstore. Only popular books—usually adventure stories—are adapted into movies. I am quite sure that this book hasn’t been made into a movie.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Why not?!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Because it’s a fishing manual.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">Of course a fishing manual could be made into a documentary or training film. However, I wonder if the people who think all books are movies weren’t read to by their parents when they were little.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>NEW </b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><b>CAFEPRESS</b></a><b> ITEMS</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><b><i>Late Boomer</i></b></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><b><i>So how many children don’t you have?</i></b> / superimposed over <b><i>CHOICE</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-52763711801875813552011-03-21T23:24:00.002-04:002011-03-21T23:24:27.170-04:00Parvum Opus 386: The PO Delivery System<div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Somewhere in the News Cloud</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>As newspaper pro Mark Twain said, choosing the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span>Is it news or is it commentary?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Gov. rejects streetcar benefits</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>The <i>Cincinnati Enquirer</i> newspaper article actually said that the governor of Ohio does not think the purported benefits of a streetcar in Cincinnati are real; it won’t create many jobs and it will cost a bundle. The headline presumes there are real benefits. Whether or not the benefits are there, the headline is inaccurate. The governor may <i>deny</i> that there are benefits; any number of synonymous verbs could be substituted. The governor may also reject the proposed streetcar <i>plan</i>. It’s hard to tell whether the headline writer was careless or convinced that the projected benefits are real, in which the story becomes an editorial, not a report.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span>A species of festivity (to quote Kingley Amis in </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140186301/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0140186301" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><i><span>Lucky Jim</span></i></a><span>) featuring Bootsy Collins was announced in the paper:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Funk is not an option.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>The writer meant, “Funk is not optional.” Big difference.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>An option is a choice; <i>not an option</i> means it’s not on the menu. “Funk is not an option” means you could not choose to be funky.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i><span>Optional</span></i><span> means you can choose it; <i>not optional</i> means you have no choice. “Funk is not optional” means you have to be funky.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span><span> </span>“Funk is not an option” could possibly carry the second meaning, but because “Funk is optional” would be the more common expression, it’s best to use it and avoid any momentary blip of confusion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/03/05/fox-tea-party-blogs-pick-up-on-phony-%E2%80%9Cgood-wife%E2%80%9D-slur-newsbusters-unresponsive-after-context-proves-their-charge-false-1/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span>David Forsmark</span></a><span> in a blog-on-blog wrote:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>“the estimable Megyn Kelly”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Usually we’d read “the inestimable Megyn Kelly”, meaning that her worth is so high it cannot be estimated (like <i>invaluable</i>). To say someone can be estimated, that her worth is measurable, may or may not be more accurate, but if this isn’t just a typo, I wonder what Forsmark might have meant. Was he being sarcastic or sloppy? When you turn accepted word formulas upside down, you ought to be sure your intention is clear.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>TV Tropes</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>The web site </span><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span>TV Tropes</span></a><span> covers themes or perhaps memes or just stuff that you’re likely to encounter in the media. A casual perusal suggests that the site isn’t so much about accepted views of stuff, but is tantamount to a mini-encyclopedia. Is this trip necessary, as they used to say in the days of WWII gas rationing?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Mystifying Spam</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>No, I didn’t click on any links, but this spam item was tempting:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span><span style="color: #222222;">Portugal regrets not bringing herbal supplements</span></span><span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>That’s what happens when you pack light.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>The President’s English</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>So we don’t have the, or a, president’s English. But there is the King’s English or Queen’s English in England. Of course, correct pronunciation of words exists, but that’s not the same as having a particular accent. “Harvard” and “Hahvahd” are both correct, and we could even accept “’Arvard” and “Hoivud”. But “Haravada”, for instance, could not fit on the continuum of comprehensible pronunciations. It looks like a Japanese version of the name.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span>If we had a “president’s English” which president would it be? Clinton, from Arkansas? Bush, from Texas? Truman, from Missouri? Kennedy, from Boston? Obama, by nowhere in particular, out of Harvard?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span>An early-nineteenth-century writer found American accents to be somewhat standardized:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>"[Americans] at large speak English with a nearer accordance to your standard of pronunciation, than the inhabitants of England. . . . Of this the proof is complete. I have seen a <span><span style="color: #222222;">dramatic</span></span> performance, written in the West Country dialect: the words being spelt according to the local pronunciation; of which I was scarcely able to understand a sentence. . . . [But] from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, every American, descended from English ancestors, understands every other, as readily as if he had been bred in the same neighbourhood." Timothy Dwight, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1150819685/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1150819685" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><i><span>Travels in New-England and New-York</span></i></a><span>, Vol. 4, pp. 276-77 (1822).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Of course, he does specify only descendants of the English, but presumably the English ancestors hadn’t all emigrated from the same spot in England, so what’s to account for greater standardization in 1822 in this large country compared to England?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Out of Service</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>No thanks to Parvum Opus, probably, but someone changed the sign on the racquetball court from “Out of Order” to “Out of Service”. Still a little awkward but better. “Out of Order” suggests to me moving parts. “Out of Service” just suggests not available for use. But I still don’t know what’s wrong with the racquetball court.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Grape Delivery System</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Dave DaBee sent a link to <a href="http://improbable.com/2011/03/07/guardian-column-243/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">“I, Grape” by Brock Clarke</a> from the <i>Boston Globe</i>, on teaching his small child grammar. The boy has no verbs. If he wants a grape, he says, “I grape.” The mother is more tolerant than Mr. Clarke, but she has her own problems. Mr. Clarke wrote:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>When I talk about teaching I tend to use words like “teaching.” Whereas my wife, in talking about her day, referred to her “delivery system.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>You see the problem. The boy will eventually learn to use verbs, but will his mother ever learn to avoid buzz words?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Occasional Verse</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">William Topaz McGonagall</a> has been considered the worst of British poets (Scottish, from Irish parents), combining a tin ear with a burning desire to write. His most famous poem was about the collapse of the Tay Bridge near Dundee. When it was rebuilt, he wrote another poem to the new bridge. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmjPjyWCilk" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Billy Connolly</a>, Scottish comedian, recited the original poem in a blizzard. Recitation improves it, and probably the blizzard does too.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The custom of writing public verse on the occasion of public disasters has declined, with exceptions, perhaps, for political verse on slavery and the depredations of white people, such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtw62Ah2zY" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Maya Angelou’s poem</a>on the occasion of the inauguration of President Clinton. (Her poem begs the questions, should African slaves have been glad to arrive in America, all things considered? Her poem didn’t sound too despondent. And, if the white Europeans hadn’t come, would there have been a United States at all?)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>Aaarrrrtttttt</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Mike Sykes said, regarding my comments on Impressionist gardens and Stieg Larsson’s books, <i>“</i></span><i><span style="color: black;">I share your sentiment. But isn't that a sort of deconstruction, suggesting a meaning that the artist never intended?” </span></i><span style="color: black;">Mike also sent a link to a comment on rape statistics in Sweden by <a href="http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?s=22235319d7aa8e1d7d8dd625c5d435c1&t=1019532&page=13" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">sealgoesarf</a>. </span><span>Let me elaborate.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>First, I neglected to include a link to the painting with a woman in a green dress. It was not the Dorchester yard, it was <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/Americans-in-Paris/amerinpar_17.htm" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">“In the Luxembourg Garden”</a> by Charles Courtney Curran. If you look closely at the actual painting (which I did) you can see that the dress is dark green, in contrast to the cuffs, which are black. But the online reproduction isn't very good.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Second, Impressionist paintings of gardens ask you to contemplate beauty, not social and economic problems. Larsson’s three books, which amount to about 1,800 pages, or six or more average book lengths, cover Swedish politics, government, law, police, secret service, spies, motorcycle gangs, corporate shenanigans, psychiatry, journalism, erratic sexual relations, computer hacking, abuse of women and children, problematic immigration from the former Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe, and corruption in general, over quite a few years. In this case, it’s fair to ask why he would omit a major cultural change in Sweden, the large-scale immigration of people from a very different culture. Sealgoesarf suggests that immigrants who feel “isolated” are more prone to commit rape, though the natives do it more, but wouldn’t that suggest that people who are on the receiving end of immigration feel isolated too, and thus their rapes are equally justified?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span>You’ve Got to See the Movie</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span>Bookstore conversation reported on <a href="http://notalwaysright.com/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">notalwaysright.com</a> (that is, the customer is not):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span> </span>(A young woman, about 20 years old, comes up to the counter holding a copy of The Bible.)</span></i><span style="color: black;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Hi, did you find everything you needed today?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Yeah, hey, can you tell me what this is about?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “The Bible?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Yeah, what’s it about?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “The Bible has two parts, the Old Testament which is scriptures and the New Testament, which contains the story of Jesus’ life and works as told through the gospels, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Huh. Is it any good?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Clerk:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “It’s pretty popular.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span style="color: black;">Customer:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> “Nah, I’ll just get this one instead.” <i>*puts a copy of </i>Twilight<i> on the counter*</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-67257877209725522432011-03-10T20:48:00.001-05:002011-03-10T20:48:49.929-05:00Parvum Opus 385: The Untainted Word<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif; color: black; ">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Engravers MT', serif; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>Playing With Accordion Words</span></b><span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><a href="http://www.verbivore.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Rich Lederer</a> sent along his piece about “accordion words”, close cousin to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">portmanteau words</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeugma" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">syllepsis</a>. I’ve excerpted parts of “Playing with Accordion Words” here. And do see <i>The King’s Speech</i> if you haven’t already.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>Garnering twelve </span><span>Academy</span><span> Award nominations and four Oscars, including Best Picture, <i>The King's Speech</i> had its coronation, on February 28, as the most honored film of the year. Among its many excellencies is the double entendre in its title. The word Speech in <i>The King's Speech</i> means the speaking of George VI, the stammerer who did not want to become king. At the same time and in the same space, the word Speech means the particular address, in 1939, that King George VI delivered to his British subjects exhorting them to join in battle against the Germans….</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>Like people, words grow after they are born. Once created, words seldom sit still and remain the same forever. Some words expand to take over larger territories: Once <i>fabulous</i> meant "resembling or based on a fable." Later came the expanded meaning, "incredible and marvelous." A <i>holiday</i> first signified "a holy day," but modern holidays include secular days, such as Valentine's Day* and Independence Day. ….</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>…The word <i>gay</i>** … can designate all homosexuals, as in "gay rights," or only male homosexuals, as in "the gay and lesbian community."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span><i>Business</i> started out as a general term meaning literally "busy-ness." After several centuries of life, business picked up the narrower meaning of "commercial dealings." In 1925 Calvin Coolidge used the word in both its generalized an specialized senses when he stated, "The chief business of the American people is business." …</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>I have made up the term "accordion words" to describe these double-duty words. In the examples that follow, I list the broader meaning first and the narrower meaning second:…</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.75in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span>Gentleman***: (1) a male: "Ladies and gentlemen . . . ." (2) a refined man.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.75in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span>Instrument: (1) something used to achieve an end: "Lord, let me be Thy instrument on this earth." (2) something used to produce music: "Bill Clinton's and Lisa Simpson's instrument is the saxophone."**** ...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.75in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span>Segregate (similarly discriminate*****): (1) to set apart (2) to set apart on the basis of race.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.75in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><span>Temperature*****: (1) a degree of heat (2) too high a degree of heat: “You have a temperature.”…<span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.75in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>Samuel Goldwyn once observed, "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on."<span> </span>Obviously the movie mogul used <i>verbal</i> to mean "oral," as do most speakers of American English.<span> </span>But<i>verbal</i> (Latin verbum, "word") communication involves words spoken <i>or</i> written, as in "I'm trying to improve my verbal skills."****** In this sense, Goldwyn's Goldwynism isn't so funny after all.<span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>Think of oral hygiene if you can’t remember that <i>ora</i> means mouth. This loss of distinction in meanings is not only a loss to the language, it ruins a great Goldwyn story, as well as confusing the difference between oral and verbal sex.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>I don’t know if this qualifies as an accordion word, but note that in the new translation of The New American Bible, the word <i>booty</i> has been replaced by <i>spoils of war</i> because people today only associate the word with <i>rear end</i> or sex (as in the movie “Booty Call”), because they hear a lot about rear ends and never read anything that might contain the word with the earlier meaning. Of course, the average reader also wouldn’t understand <i>spoils</i> as anything other than <i>ruins</i> or <i>rots</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>*Well, there was a Saint Valentine.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>** I recently met a woman named Gay, a name that is probably never given to babies anymore, unfortunately. In the past even men were sometimes called Gay, usually short for Gaylord. <a href="http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/index.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">According the government</a>, the name seems to have disappeared, at least from the top 1,000 most popular names, after 1969. We don’t even have a replacement for the adjective gay (“Our hearts were young and gay”). Sure, you’ll find synonyms, but it’s a sad loss to the vocabulary.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>***A professor from someplace in Mittel Europa once asked our class to define “gentleman” and I raised my hand and tentatively offered, “A gentleman is someone who is always kind to people?” He said “No! A gentleman is someone whose clothes and shoes are always clean and neat, even if they are old.” He meant a person of a certain class. I meant the American definition.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>****Oh, never mind.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>*****Often today people do not understand that the ability to discriminate is a necessary function of the mind.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>******One of the cases where we used to be reprimanded for using the word in its narrower meaning:<span> </span>“<i>Everybody</i> has a temperature. You mean he has a <i>fever</i>.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>The Tainted Word</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>In the current exhibit of garden paintings by American Impressionists at a Cincinnati museum, the person who wrote the notes for each painting fell victim to the modern compulsion to impose a certain political slant on art. A lovely painting by Edmund Tarbell, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edmund_Charles_Tarbell_-_Au_verger.jpg" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">“In the Orchard”</a>, 1891, depicts his wife and relatives on a sunny summer day in Dorchester, Massachusetts; the orchard is unmowed; it is a peaceful, informal scene. The notes posted on the wall next to this and the other paintings generally say something about technique and training, compare these paintings to the French Impressionists’ work of the period, and discuss the rising popularity of formal and informal gardening. But the annotater couldn’t resist saying that these people hanging out in the back yard are <i>“untainted by grimmer realities of contemporary American urbanization, labor conflict and social strife”.</i> Well, when you barbecue out in the backyard with your friends and family, don’t you feel untainted by grimmer realities? That’s what the beer is for.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>You could say the same thing about every painting in the world:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span>Mona Lisa smiles as if unaware of the Borgias.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span>“Starry Night” by Van Gogh cavalierly ignores the rotting corpses on earth.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span>Remington’s <a href="http://www.frederic-remington.org/Cracker-Cowboys-of-Florida.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">“Cracker Cowboys”</a> ride their horses on the job callous to the plight of the unemployed.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>I think the person who wrote those placards was still queasy from the influence of the <a href="http://www.a-r-t.com/goya/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">bitter Goya etchings</a> that preceded the garden collection. Or possibly the writer was aware that Dorchester is no longer a pleasant semi-rural suburb of Boston but an urbanized neighborhood replete with social strife and more gang members than fruit trees.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>At the exhibit, I heard a woman viewing “In the Orchard” reiterate the sentiment of the placard (and it <i>is</i> sentiment) as if it were received truth, and the man with her said, “Yeah, someone had to carry the chairs out.” Judging by my experience, the man in the painting probably carried the chairs out, or if that’s too sexist for a modern sensibilities, let’s assume the ladies helped carry the chairs outside.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>The people viewing the paintings and writing the explanatory notes proclaim their social “awareness” and thus their virtue. They must be conflicted about the fact that they even like art, which requires leisure to produce and to see and appreciate, and often requires wealth to procure and preserve. But artists themselves are not all obsessed with economics and class warfare.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>Further evidence of the blindness of the writer appears in the note for another garden painting, which says the woman in that garden is wearing a black dress. The dress is not black, it is dark green. If you think it’s just the painterly indication of shadow, using colors to depicit blacks and whites, not so, because there are very definitely black cuffs at the end of the green sleeves.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>Everything isn’t a matter of black and white.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>To depict the deep reality of one moment in time, you don’t have to simultaneously invoke something different or distant.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>Those immersed in grimmer realities of social strife are oblivious to the possibilities of peace in a quiet grove.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>Nonetheless, I will introduce a brief political comment on another work of art, the popular crime trilogy by late Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, who wrote <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307454541/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307454541" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030745455X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=030745455X" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">The Girl Who Played with Fire</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030726999X/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=030726999X" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest</a></i>. I read all three long books, and hope that his common-law widow is able to produce more manuscripts. (She’s in a legal wrangle with Larsson’s family.) The books are engrossing and, like the late Tony Hillerman’s books, show the eye of the reporter: <span> </span>clear, detailed writing with not much sense of humor. Sometimes there’s too much detail; I suppose if you’re Swedish and understand Swedish politics of the last few decades, you’d get more out of the story. But I enjoyed the bits about computer hacking even though I don’t have that much technical knowledge.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>The center of the books is Lisbet Salander, a young woman who endures, and avenges, extreme and repeated abuse. She is a super-hero of improbable survival. I will bypass the question of writers (and movie producers) who supposedly object to torture but who depict torture in much detail.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>What I wonder is, why Larsson, the very modern, secular Swede with a Western ethic, never refers to the large influx of Muslims into Scandinavia who feel justified in raping and otherwise abusing what they think of as whorish Western women. Larsson’s plots are mired in the fallout of Cold War entanglement with aged Russians spies, and with Eastern European sex traffickers, real enough but perhaps not the major social problem there at this moment in time.</span></p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-48250626971290780862011-03-02T18:06:00.001-05:002011-03-02T18:06:49.639-05:00Parvum Opus 384: Pahvum Opurse<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Of the Language, With the Language, For the Language</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/magazine/27fob-onlanguage-t.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Ben Zimmer has bowed out</a> of the New York Times “On Language” column, once written by the late William Safire. The column may or may not be revived. But Zimmer’s farewell is really about technology, the digital era, and word processing, not about meaning. Safire was better.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>Zimmer also quoted British language scholar <a href="http://www.davidcrystal.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">David Crystal</a> as <span>saying, <span style="color: black; ">“Never predict the future with language.” You pretty much have to predict the future with language, but it’s hard to predict the future<b>of</b> language.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; ">Hoib and Dee-en and Moik</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>I think "Hoib" (or Hoyb) would definitely be Brooklynese, though I don't know where else it would apply. And the Brooklynites also would reverse the sounds, rendering "boyd" as "bird." A writer once made note of a perfect example at a baseball game where the Brooklyn Dodgers hosted the New York Yankees. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>An ace pitcher for the legendary "best team of all time" 1927 Yankees was Brooklyn-born Dodger fan Waite Hoyt, and Hoyt was on the mound in this particular game. The way I hoid it, a hard line drive back to the pitcher's mound broke Hoyt's hand. After the play he circled around the mound holding his hand and grimacing in pain. One of the Brooklyn fans quickly recognized the situation and yelled out the announcement, "Hey, Hert is hoit!"</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>Waite Hoyt and teammate George Herman (Babe) Ruth were buds -- hard drinking carousing buds as it were. They remained friends for life after ending their baseball careers around the same time. Hoyt was an admitted alcoholic who joined AA and was sober the last 40 some years of his life. After his pitching career, he broke into broadcasting, reportedly overcoming a lot of prejudice against players in that line because of his own good vocabulary. In the early forties he landed the broadcaster job for the Cincinnati Reds network. Hoyt was not sober at that time, and made the national news when he was found passed out in downtown Cinci, reported as suffering from amnesia. Babe Ruth sent him a telegram, "Heard about your case of amnesia . . That must be a new brand!" </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">Another Brooklynese gem: <span> </span>“soilern steak.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">Dan Erslan wrote on Bostonese:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>I was intrigued by the Boston pronunciation of words, so while I lived there, I made a little personal study of it. An <b>r</b> that precedes a vowel sound is always </span><span>pronounced</span><span> as an <b>r</b>. So in everyday speech a Bostonian would pronounce "...car in...". Likewise, when a vowel sound precedes a vowel sound an <b>r</b> sound is always inserted between the two as in "an idear of something." .… By adding the <b>r</b>between the vowels it isn't necessary to close one's throat at the end of idea and start a new exhale for the <i>of</i>. They can slur right through it. It's a little like the Boston habit of not stopping at stop signs. You often would hear JFK use that <i>idear</i> pronunciation. When the other JFK, John Kerry, ran for president he would often put the <b>r</b> in <i>idea</i> …, as would Howard Dean. I believe they did this intentionally evoke thoughts of Kennedy.<span style="color: black; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "><span> </span>Mike Sykes asked who’s to say who’s correct about pronunciation. I wouldn’t say that Brooklynese or Bostonese isn’t correct. I like them. Pronunciation customs or preferences are usually not the same as differences in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, which may introduce errors in meaning. When I teach pronunciation to my foreign students, I have to teach them when to drop or elide sounds instead of pronouncing every letter in every word clearly and distinctly. That’s not the way we talk no matter what part of the country we live in.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; ">Will</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">A grammar book I recently used in class covered the auxiliary verb “will” for the future tense, and added that there is no verb “to will”. Not so, as I had to explain to my student. There is the legal sense (<i>He willed me his fortune</i>), and the meaning to effect something through the exercise of the [noun] will, often reflexive (<i>He willed himself to eat the overcooked vegetables</i>). Don’t trust everything you read in textbooks.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; ">Unspeakable Charlie Sheen</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">The apparently rabid Charlie Sheen has said a number of interesting things lately, including that he’s been a “veteran of the unspeakable”. Oh, why stop now, Charlie? But this reminded me of <i>unspeakable</i>,<i>ineffable</i>, and <i>unmentionable</i>. Why should they have different connotations? Because they can. Too bad we don’t have the word <i>effable</i> (except as a sniggering faux obscenity).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "><span> </span>Anyway, as much as I love cute kitty pix I never impose them on Parvum Opus readers,<span> </span>but I’m making an exception now because of Charlie Sheen’s manic way with words. As he says, “I got magic and I got poetry at my fingertips.” Read ‘em and weep, tweet, or shriek.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/cats-quote-charlie-sheen/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">You can’t process me with a normal brain….</a><span style="color: black; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/cats-quote-charlie-sheen/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">We are high priest Vatican assassin warlocks….</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">Sounds like way too much coke to me.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; ">Sweet and Useful References</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: black; ">Sweet</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">A fresh look at <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/beware-of-buzzword-bingo/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">corporate buzzword bingo</a> plus a brilliant tour de force anent same by <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/01/DDO51HFO17.DTL" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Suzanne Rogers</a> (seven paragraphs into the article on tollbooths in San Francisco).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: black; ">Useful</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-latin-abbreviations-you-might-be-using-incorrectly/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>10 Latin abbreviations you might be using incorrectly</span></a><span style="color: black; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-yiddish-handbook-40-words-you-should-know/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>40 Yiddish words you should know</span></a><span style="color: black; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_1_snd-american-english.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>“What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness”</span></a><span style="color: black; ">: A good article on the decline of coherence among college graduates.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; ">New Look</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">Parvum Opus online at <a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">cafelit.blogspot.com</a> has a new look. For some reason the program does its own formatting in regard to paragraph breaks, fonts, etc. Unlike some layout designers I could name, I don’t think it’s a good idea to start a new paragraph without either and indent or a space before. It’s only a matter of chance that the preceding paragraph may not reach the right margin, thus identifying the paragraph break. Other than that, I like the new template, which looks like where we live: crowded.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "><span> </span>While fiddling with the general design, I ran across (and used) the Fell English type font, designed by </span><a href="http://iginomarini.com/fell/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>Igino Marini</span></a><span style="color: black; ">, who wrote:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>The Fell Types took their name from John Fell*, a Bishop of Oxford in the seventeenth-century. Not only he created an unique collection of printing types but he started one of the most important adventures in the history of typography. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Note the faulty parallelism (forgivable as he is Italian):</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span><i>Not only he created … but he started …</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Logically the parallelism looks perfect but actual usage is to invert the word order in the first instance and use the alternate past tense form:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span><i>Not only did he create … but he started …</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">I wonder why we lost the simple past tense inverted form: <i>Not only created he …</i><span> </span>It’s only used in very formal or poetic language.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; ">In fact quite a lot of historical developments are unexplainable (by me). Dennis Miller joked, <i>“Most people say beheaded, I say deheaded.”</i> Why do we say <i>beheaded</i> when the <i>be</i>- prefix usually suggests an addition or intensification rather than a loss, as in befriend and besmirch?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; ">* It turns out that this is the John Fell who inspired this </span><a href="http://www.rhymes.org.uk/a32-i-do-not-like-thee-doctor-fell.htm" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>bit of doggerel</span></a><span style="color: black; "> by one of his students, Tom Brown, who based it on a Latin line:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, </span><span><br /></span><span>The reason why I cannot tell; </span><span><br /></span><span>But this I know, and know full well, </span><span><br /></span><span>I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>More Questions</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>Sign posted n LA Fitness:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 212, 180); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Racquetball court is out of order.<span> </span>We are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I don’t play racquetball but as far as I can tell the court consists of walls, a floor, and a door, with no moving parts. What could be “out of order”?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>Why are some computer books in the Dummies series shelved under “<i>professional</i> computing”?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Step On It</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The voice on a radio program about the formula for Coca-Cola said the “Step On” company processes coca leaves without the active cocaine for Coca-Cola; the active part goes to a pharmaceutical company. The speaker pronounced it “step on” but the name is actually Stepan. I noted it because “stepping on” a drug is slang for diluting or cutting it, for instance, mixing cocaine with powdered milk.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Tip</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">What I learned from our recent annual computer crash, this time because of a virus: always update your programs, including browsers, but especially plug-ins. Newer versions will be somewhat safer. Our Trojan horse came in through Java. In the latest version of Firefox, go to Tools – Add-ons – Find Updates to get a list of the status of your add-ons.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-5214009318648346642011-02-11T21:45:00.002-05:002011-02-28T12:17:11.421-05:00Parvum Opus 383: So Let It Be Noted<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________</span></i></b><span style="color: #474b4e;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>The Few, The Proud</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There aren’t many grammar jokes. In fact there aren’t enough. Here’s one that may be old but is new to me, from <u><span style="color: blue;">Overheard in the Newsroom.</span></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Copy Editor: “<span style="color: black;">Knock</span> knock.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Photo Editor: “Who’s there?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Copy Editor: “To.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Photo Editor: “To who?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Copy Editor: “To WHOM!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr style="min-height: 13.5pt;"><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 13.5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Hoib Speaks</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Herb Hickman wrote:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This matter of "Park Your Car in the Harvard Yard," is heaping cognitive dissonance <span style="color: black;">like</span> coals of fire upon my brow. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">I'm suspecting that there are two uses for that phrase, with close to opposite intents. I know not much <span style="color: black;">about</span> representing various pronunciations with variant spellings. <span style="color: black;">But</span> I note that you say "<i>pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd," </i>and I can only hear that rendition with broad "A" <span style="color: black;">pronunciation</span>, possibly giving slight to the adjacent "R"s. Possibly what one might call affecting proper British or Londoner speech. Since the phrase is undeniably linked with Boston speech, thinking of it that way it only makes sense if it is a phrase used in a (futile?) attempt to teach Bostonians how to talk. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"> On the far far other hand, I learned the phrase from Vinnie Marston <span style="color: black;">— </span>Boston born and bred <span style="color: black;">— </span>pronounced the way Bostonians and New Englanders of that neighborhood speak. I would write Vinnie's version, "Pack ye caa in the haavad yaad." And the "a"s are all flat as pancakes. As opposite as possible from Obama's pronunciation of POCK-ee-stahn. Vinnie's coaching failed me, however, when I went to Duxbury (next to Plymouth where the Mayflower landed) and visited the laboratories of the renowned marine biologist William F Clapp. Standing in the Main Lab building, one of the longest-term employees of the lab told me, "This building was originally a ban." I was truly dumfounded as she repeated, "A BAN, a BAN, a BAN! Then she said, "Where cattle were kept!" That brought some light. But everyone there agreed with her, it was a ban.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"> Did these Saxons you're talking about form unions and go out on feck?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">Herb is right, "Pack ye caa in the haavad yaad" sounds more like the Boston sound. It's hard to spell a vowel sound without a following consonant, but imagine the A in “cat” rather than the A in “what”. However, there are individual variants on the Boston/New England accent (“Hoib” is probably a more New Jersey). Someone once wrote that the Kennedy accent was specific to their family.</span></div></td></tr>
<tr style="min-height: 13.5pt;"><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 13.5pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Of Note</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Someone on radio quoted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQnxlHZsjY" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Yul Brynner in <i>The Ten Commandments</i></a>, <i>“So let it be written, so let it be done.”</i> Then I think it was my own brain that suggested <i>“So let it be noted, so let it be done.”</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> What a world of difference. Ramses wouldn’t write a note or a memo. He’d have his scribes chisel something into a rock, or possibly paint something on a piece of papyrus if he was in a hurry. And for Post-Its he would stick pieces of papyrus together with pitch like that used to seal Moses’ basket made of bulrushes.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>The End of an Era</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Newspapers have been shrinking year after year. First the regular dailies got narrower, then the number of pages decreased. Even the Sunday paper is so small you can’t use it as a weapon anymore. This week a new indignity appeared in the <i>Cincinnati Enquirer</i>: a random half page in the back. You may have seen pages sliced in half vertically as part of a sort of sleeve of advertising wrapping a section. But this is a half page sliced off vertically in the midst of classified pages following the comics. And it’s not one of those mistakes that sometimes happen in the machinery, a wrinkled or chopped page, because the page number appears neatly in the corner of the half page. Tragic.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Another casualty of the new technology may be clocks. So many people look at their phones for the time, or use digital watches and clocks, that a whole generation may be the first not to learn how to tell time on an analog clock. Ask a kid you know, or even someone in his twenties, if he can read a round-faced clock or understand what “half-past” or “quarter till” means. Those phrases only make sense if you can visualize a real clock with a face. Does a digital clock even have a face? And maybe someday instead of pointing to their wrists to ask for the time, people will point to their pockets, where their phones live. Though that could be ambiguous: Do you have the time, or are you just happy to see me?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Incredible</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You may have read about the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Zj9yx2j0Y" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">New Jersey Planned Parenthood counselor</a> who was so helpful to the people posing as pimps for underage, illegal immigrant prostitutes. <span style="color: black;">Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council said, “<i>Incredulously</i> Planned Parenthood’s own defense is that the one worker, who told the undercover ‘pimp’ how his underage prostitute could still earn money after an abortion, was doing the <i>write</i>thing.” He meant “right”, of course, and he also meant “incredibly”. <i>Incredulous</i> applies to a person who can’t believe something; <i>incredible</i>applies to the unbelievable thing. In fact you can remember it that way: <i>incrediBLE</i>, <i>unbelievaBLE</i>. (Unfortunately it won’t work with<i>incredulous</i>, <i>unbelivabilous</i>.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>You Think English Is Hard</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What I’ve learned from my students:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The Polish language only has three tenses, past, present, and future, and a formal rule that my Polish student learned in school is to arrange the various clauses in a complicated sentence chronologically, but I’m not sure if that means going forward or backward. If going forward, that last sentence I wrote would start with the middle clause (“My student learned…”), if I understood the rule correctly. Polish verbs are varied by verb endings that indicate person (who did it), not time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Chinese has no tenses at all, so meaning is indicated through words such as “yesterday” and so on. Chinese also has no articles (the, a, an) and no gender in pronouns.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> My Polish student asked how he could make himself clear if he made a mistake in tense (using simple past instead of past perfect, for instance), and I assured him that using qualifiers such as “yesterday” or “tomorrow” would generally make his meaning clear.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Rathole Update</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Tim Bazzett sent an update on his publishing empire, </span><a href="http://ratholebooks.com/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Rathole Books</a><span style="color: black;">. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">For customers past and potential, the big news is that all five of my books have been drastically reduced in price to just $12 each (plus s&h, still only $3). And all books ordered direct from the site will be signed and inscribed, of course — something you won't get if you order them from Amazon, where they are still available at full price. And speaking of Amazon, we are currently working at making the books available in Kindle version. Soon, I hope. I'm not a big fan of e-books, but I am trying to accommodate those who are.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">I always like to promote writers, including myself: search for my stuff for Amazon’s Kindle Reader.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> By the way, I ran across an article about Lehman’s store in Kidron, Ohio, in Amish country, <a href="http://ourohio.org/magazine/past-issues---2010/may-june-2010/a-starring-role-in-the-past/" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">“A Starring Role in the Past”</a>, in the Farm Bureau insurance company magazine for Ohio. I’ve been to Lehman’s, it’s a great store that carries all sorts of products that our grandparents used and that the Amish still use, like wood-burning stoves and kerosene lamps, all new. I did not know that it supplies props for movies. My novel <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001YQF0AE?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001YQF0AE" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">The Wish Book</a></i>, available in Kindle format, is a fantasy about a store filled with new items from all the old Sears catalogues and also supplies props for movies.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Copyright 2011 Rhonda Keith Stephens</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b><span style="color: #474b4e;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-89956267377791901232011-01-21T10:11:00.002-05:002011-02-28T12:31:11.458-05:00Parvum Opus 382: Binge Writing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________</span></i></b><span style="color: #474b4e;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Crash</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our desktop computer crashed so I’m using my laptop, which means any notes I made for Parvum Opus in the first part of January are unavailable to me right now. We’ve been too busy to take the computer to the shop.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Free Stuff</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Learn Out Loud</a> is just one site with free podcasts of literature in the public domain, such as <i>The Man Who Was Thursday</i> by G. K. Chesterton. Since I’d never read this classic of detective fiction, I listened to some of it online, but haven’t finished yet. First published in 1908 the book feels modern in certain ways because of the clash between “anarchists” and everyone else. In those days anarchists were throwing bombs from time to time. For that reason alone, the book is worth reading—to get historical perspective on contemporary conflicts.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But listening interrupted, if not wholly spoiled, first by Chesterton’s style. I like his writing, as dated as it seems, but noticed that he uses too many vague qualifiers like “seemed to” and “somewhat” and “like”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Second, this web site, or at least this book, apparently uses volunteer readers, which makes sense because it probably wouldn’t be cost-efficient to hire professional actors or readers. <i>The Man Who Was Thursday</i> might be read by an American trying to affect British pronunciation, who ends up over-pronouncing words, and mispronounces some, as when he says “asketic” for “ascetic” and “convival” for “convivial”. When a French character appears in the story, the reader starts to sound a little like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9YViHbaAWM&feature" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Inspector Clouseau</a>, using an “outrageous French accent” a la <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i></a>. Once again, the amateurs, bless their hearts, make me appreciate the professionals more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Bingeing</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Personal disclosure: I smoke cigarettes once every year or two. I buy a pack of cigarettes—American Spirit (no additives) or else something exotic—and smoke maybe one cigarette, or maybe the whole pack, usually around the holidays, so it’s a bit of a festive occasion. I told a doctor about this once when she asked if I smoke, and she said she’d never heard of this kind of “binge smoking”. Is doing anything for fun at rare intervals a “binge”? “Binge” applies a medical or psychological label to a bit of fairly harmless enjoyment, making it into a pathology. Sounds like a lost weekend, if not a long dark night of the soul. Should I get treatment? Go to confession?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Gribbenizing</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">By now you may have heard that a <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0107sk.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Professor Gribben has called for a censored version of Mark Twain’s <i>Huckleberry Finn</i></a> and is going to get it, because modern students are too tender (or stupid) to read about and understand how people really spoke, i.e. using the N word. I’ll say it: Huckleberry Finn referred to his friend Jim, a slave, as a nigger. This is the word the average Southerner would have used in the 19th century, a pronunciation variant on Negro, which means black (lest we forget). As you know, today rappers use the word all the time, but white people are practically prohibited by law from doing so.* You could lose your job over it. So a publisher is going to make it easier for everyone by erasing history and rewriting literature.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Shakespeare was censored for children, and family reading, in the 19th century by Bowdler, from whom we get the term “Bowdlerized” to mean censored. When I was a senior in high school, Miss Mostenic assigned <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> to the class, using a textbook with every line numbered. Our homework might be to read lines 400 to 600, for example. But she would tell us to skip over anything she thought was bawdy, such as the Nurse’s lines. I wonder if any of the students actually did not read those lines, to save time perhaps.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If books like these are not suitable for children, they should not be used in classrooms at all until at least college. This is bad education.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">(Along the same lines, I just discovered that the Miami University Redskins became the Redhawks, which means that instead of a brave Indian warrior as a mascot, or an Indian brave, they now have a guy in a bird outfit.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>*I am going to assume I have a few drops of Negro blood somewhere in my many millennia-long ancestry that qualify me to use this word in this essay.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>This and That</b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>“Proud flesh” is an old expression I first heard from my mom, which means flesh or skin that is inflamed or scarred and rises above the surrounding flesh.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>One of those little things that has hung on in my memory for many years is:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black;">In the telling phrase of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baedeker" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Baedeker</span></a>, it offered “little that need detain the tourist”.</span></i><span style="color: black;"> </span>Through the miracle of the Internet search, I was able to track it down: Thomas Wolfe wrote it in his novel <i>Of Time and the River</i>. Does anyone read Thomas Wolfe anymore (not to be confused with Tom Wolfe, the journalist)? Anyway, Baedeker is or was a popular series of travel books, and I found Wolfe’s quote irresistible. I apply it mentally to various situations and people.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Mark Cantora wrote an <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/america_the_great_satan.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">interesting essay on The Great Satan (you and me, of course)</a> and the origin of the word “satan”, which like “devil” means “the adversary”.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Useful tourist info: Fred informed me that tommy-k is British slang for tomato ketchup (is there any other kind?).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Heard on the radio: “in storge” (one syllable) for “in storage”, rhymes with “forge” and “gorge”. The “a” disappeared. It makes me wonder why the “a” in that word hasn’t disappeared by now, not that I’m pushing for the one-syllable version, but people pretty much always give it both syllables.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Mike in the New Year</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Mike Sykes wrote:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">While I completely understand why what you call the Revolutionary War must of necessity have preceded the Civil War, I think "any" might be a bit overstating it. True, civil wars tend to follow revolutions, but the converse could perhaps have happened after a lapse of time. Come to think of it, not many revolutions are explicitly associated with revolutionary wars—the war that followed the French Revolution** was not known as a revolutionary war, though it's ostensible purpose was to restore the French monarchy. And the Spanish Civil War was arguably revolutionary, though it wasn't attempting to throw off a colonial yoke. I suppose strictly speaking a revolution is an end, rather than a means. Though that makes 'revolutionary war' somewhat anomalous. We might recall that it's pretty much the same as a rebellion, though rebels prefer not to be called that (think 'the rebs'***).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="color: black;">**The French Revolution was a civil war. Perhaps our Revolutionary War was too. Perhaps all wars are, if we are all brothers, but we’re not.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="color: black;">***I don’t think Southerners today object to “rebs”.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Your reflection on appointment method raise all sorts of interesting thoughts. I'm reminded of a lovely phrase used in the British civil service: 'lateral arabesque', meaning the moving an incompetent to another job of ostensibly equal status but where they can do less harm.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">What a great phrase!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Regarding the painting of an Indian and a telephone pole:<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Don't we love reading more into stuff than was ever intended? Isn't that deconstructionism?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Deconstructionists seem to purposely <i>ignore</i> what the artist might have intended so they can substitute their own (much less interesting) ideas.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Regarding pronouncing your “Rs” (<i>pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd</i>): </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">Pardon<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fbd4b4; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"> </span>my ignorance, but this went straight past me. But what do mean by 'correct'? Who's to say?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;">I’m all about saying what’s correct, but my point was that we have a common language partly because of standardized spelling around the world, even though the spelling does not always indicate local pronunciation (one reason foreign students have trouble with English). I think it’s good to keep our more or less standardized but peculiar spelling, and recognize that the spelling may symbolize a variety of “correct” pronunciations (at least the comprehensible ones).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
<br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Feckless!</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Bill Roberts passed on a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-barreca/books-were-not-buying_b_796492.html" style="color: #0065cc;" target="_blank">Gina Barreca column</a>, “<span style="color: black;">Gina's List of Books We're Not Buying This Christmas”, and these are my favorites. But you will have to write these books yourself:</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">The Crying Woman's Guide to Handgun Safety</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Feckless!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Self Deception and You</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Puppies and Espresso: What To Give Your Stepchildren Before They Return Home<i> [variation on a popular sign in coffee shops]</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Only God Can Make Topiary: Inspiration by (or in) the Yard <i>[maybe all trees and shrubs ARE topiary]</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Virginia Werewolf: The Blood Curse of Bloomsburg</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">Lulu, the Anxious Last Lobster in the Big Sad Tank (Not appropriate for readers with seafood allergies unless they have insurance)<i>[could be part of a gift set along with PETA’s “Your Mommy Kills Animals” comic book for kids]</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="color: black;">Feckless!</span></i><span style="color: black;"> is my favorite title. Maybe my favorite word; it’s from the Scottish, “effectless”. Which makes me wonder if the f**k word might not come from this source rather than the unpleasant Saxon word for “strike”.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Targets</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We’ll have to avoid all war terminology from now on, especially in politics. The recent murders in Tucson by a man who looks like he’s demonically possessed have been attributed by her enemies to the influence of political metaphor on a map used by Sarah Palin’s people in the last election (who happens also to be a hunter). Of course the other side did the same, but they get other people to kill their meat, therefore they are innocent. Some words to eliminate from your vocabulary:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Target (verb or noun)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In my sights</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Blow them out of the water</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We’ll beat them</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Aim at</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In the crosshairs</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Etc. etc. etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Copyright 2011 Rhonda Keith Stephens</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b><span style="color: #474b4e;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span></div></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-40790736149787695722010-12-28T22:49:00.002-05:002011-02-28T12:31:59.284-05:00Parvum Opus 381: This Parvum Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>__________</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Long Ago and Far Away</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anne DaBee wrote:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"> One more "Anne story", as a result of your Andrew Buck report.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"> I knew an elementary school principal who REALLY didn't know which came first, the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, and firmly believed it didn't matter because they were both over a long time ago. He didn't even have the sense to figure out that their NAMES could keep the chronology straight for him...</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">I believe his must have been a social promotion, as in "For God's sake, get him out of the classroom, even if we have to make him principal to do it." He'd been a teacher for about 17 years, tenured for 15, and I can vouch for the fact that he had plenty of self esteem. At another time I might get tangled up in a dissertation on the potential dangers of tenure, a practice which has recently come under fire in several local jurisdictions, perhaps because there are already too many tenured twits in the classroom as well as in leadership positions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"> It makes verbal sense to you and to me, of course, that any revolutionary war should precede any civil war, but dollars to doughnuts the guy didn’t have a firm grasp on the concepts of “revolution” and “civil war”. Anyone might forget exact dates, but it takes true self-esteem to be clueless about the general trend of history in our country.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> I used to think tenure was essential for the protection of free speech, but why should teachers require any more protections along that line than any other working citizen? It’s easy to see that social promotions actually do increase self-esteem totally unconnected with actual knowledge or skill or accomplishment.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>True Grit or True Crit</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Last week I saw the new movie, <i>True Grit</i> (haven’t seen the old one with John Wayne yet), a pretty good Western. The characters, especially the two main characters, spoke without using contractions, which was intended to give an air of antiquity, and it worked well, although Americans were certainly using contractions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in ordinary conversation. Besides adding a spurious air of antiquity, the effect is to make the speakers sound somewhat formal and serious, as well as more genteel than the characters who do use contractions. Try speaking for a while without using any contractions and see if it does not add weightiness and gravitas to your mind and tongue. I found the technique to be effective in this movie, and somehow it fit well with the vast landscapes of the western plains.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Speaking of which, at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati there’s a painting by Henry Farny called <a href="http://www.encore-editions.com/henry-farny-american-1847-1916/images/henry-farny-western-native-americana-painting-song-of-the-talking-wire-1904" target="_blank">“Song of the Talking Wire”</a> in which a Plains Indian is leaning his ear against a new telephone pole. In the Taft’s and in other descriptions of the painting, the critiques always emphasize something like the “devastating encroachment” of European civilization on the lives of the Indians as symbolized by snow, twilight, a dead deer, and a buffalo skull. But in this 1904 painting, the Sioux has a rifle, not an Indian weapon; he has two horses, not native to this continent; and the carcass of a deer slung over one horse means food, not devastation, and he’s lucky to find food in the winter. The buffalo skull could allude to the vanished buffalo herds, but skulls are not uncommon in the wilderness. Anyway it’s not a human skull. One caption to this painting (I forget where) said this Indian listened at the phone pole so he could tell his people he heard spirits and thus become a shaman. Who knows? I’ve noticed that the explanatory notes in art and other museums are different than they were when I was a kid. They often throw in political commentary of some kind, based on the views of the sign writer rather than the plausible views of the artist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>It’s a Black Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Alan Kennedy, whoever he is, is collecting <a href="http://www.starchamber.com/colors/color-idioms.html" target="_blank">color idioms in various languages</a> and you can add to the list if you know some that aren’t there yet. It’s interesting to compare and contrast the feelings about color in different languages. For instance, a “black bee” is a woman’s female friend in Hindi.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> TV person Joy Behar recently tried to get worked up over “Black Friday”, asking if it isn’t a racist expression. Whoopi Goldberg had to explain that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the busiest shopping day of the year and businesses hope to get “in the black” on that day. Before computers or even typewriters, clerks made entries in business ledgers with black ink for money coming in (credits) and red ink for money going out (or debits). I hope Miss Joy Thing never complains of being misunderstood herself.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>A Minor Event</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The BBC is <a href="http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/events/map" target="_blank">commemorating the 400th anniversary</a> of the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 with <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/berkshire/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_9244000/9244012.stm" target="_blank">readings and events</a> throughout the kingdom in the coming year. Already you can find some readings on YouTube if you search “King James 400”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Of course there are tiresome objections to the BBC devoting so much time to a “minority”. Does this mean no minority tastes should be represented? Only the majority? Which would be…? Even if Europeans are casting off their Christian fetters, they oughtn’t to cast off their knowledge of two thousand years of European history, philosophy, art, literature, and culture.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Pahk It</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">One Kate Evans has written a short piece on <a href="http://www.dailywritingtips.com/writing-dialogue-in-accents-and-dialect/" target="_blank">conveying dialect or accents in writing</a>, a tricky thing to accomplish well. But this subject perfectly clarifies the value of our eccentric spelling system, which some people would like to change to one more phonetically consistent. Which phonetic pronunciation should we use? If an Ohian wants to “park the car in Harvard Yard” while a Bostonian wants to “pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd”, who is correct? We all know what “Harvard” is when we read it. Spelling helps make English the common language for so many people around the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>This Parvum Year</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">For six and a half years I hit my internal deadline faithfully and sent out Parvum Opus every week, with few exceptions, until I ran out of steam earlier this year. I admit that a paycheck would have kept me on deadline, but obviously that’s not why I write it, and time wasn’t the problem either. Two projects siphoned off my writing energy. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> This spring I produced an audio autobiography on CD of my friend, blues musician Sonny Robertson, called <i><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477" target="_blank">When Sonny Gets Blue</a></i>. It's the first installment and I’m looking forward to collecting more material from him.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> This summer I started working on a long-postponed epistolary biography of my high school Spanish teacher, Ellen Rowe. About ten years ago she asked if I wanted a bag of letters she'd written to her parents over a period of more than a decade, starting with her college years in 1953. She broke her neck in a car wreck in Spain when her Spanish fiancé was driving her car in the mountains, and was largely paralyzed ever after. She never married. I was surprised at her offer. Maybe it was because I was a writer and editor, though we didn't discuss what I might do with those letters. Of course my way of reading them — hundreds of letters — was to start typing them, but I didn't get far, then moved to Ohio & got married, and Ellen died in 2005. I let it slide until this summer, when I buckled down and typed every one. Then I started trying to find some of the people she named, and even visited some of her friends in Indiana. In spite of all her losses, Ellen went on to teach and travel, and never complained. A very admirable character. Thus the book, which I’m just beginning to edit; I’m thinking about the chapters I’ll write too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> And I have other projects in mind.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> But writing Parvum Opus continues to be a pleasure, particularly when I hear from my readers. So here’s to a happy new year for all, as I end this PO and this year with a cryptic note I made to myself for some reason or other: <i>“</i><i>Opposite of schadenfreude?”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"> <i>Schadenfreude</i> (adversity + joy) is a German word meaning the pleasure one takes in someone else’s failure or pain, and what else can we say about studying mistakes in language? When Thomas de Mahy, the Marquis de Favras, was condemned to death by French revolutionaries, he said, “I see that you have made three spelling mistakes.” This perhaps gave him some satisfaction.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> But when I wrote that note, I don’t know whether I was thinking we need a word for suffering at someone else’s success or happiness; or even for suffering over their adversity; or for taking pleasure in someone else’s success or happiness. It should be pleasure in others’ success, shouldn’t it?</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></div></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-79624352785548889122010-12-13T19:48:00.002-05:002011-02-28T12:32:26.314-05:00Parvum Opus 380: Postjudice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps;">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>_________________________<wbr></wbr></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Book Trailers</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Something new (to me, anyway) in publishing: book trailers. Look it up on YouTube, on <a href="http://www.book-trailers.net/" target="_blank">Book Trailers</a>, on your favorite (still living) writer’s web site, on publishers’ web sites; or just do a general search. Good way to promote your book. A couple I’ve seen are very slick, like movie trailers, and expensive to produce. But you could produce your own. The simplest way would be to get a web cam, make a video of yourself talking about your work or reading from your book, and post it on YouTube. I might try it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Literature and the Professions</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b> </b>Certain professions lend themselves to fiction, or rather, certain professionals are inclined to write fiction, particularly mysteries. Of course most writers start out with a day job, and most end up with the day job too; not many can make a living writing. But some day jobs are more likely to provide either material or an entire world-view on which to build a novel.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> There’s practically a sub-genre of academic novels written by professors, instructors, lecturers (my favorite academic novel is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140186301?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0140186301" target="_blank"><i>Lucky Jim</i></a> by Kingsley Amis). Academics tend to be bitter, but they usually write well unless they get caught up in literary fashions like postmodernism. Amanda Cross was the pen name of Columbia professor Carolyn Heilbrun, whose academic mysteries were a bit too arch, sort of affectedly Nick and Nora, with politics. I was surprised to find that she killed herself for no good reason in 2003.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> An article in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/06/psychologist-as-novelist" target="_blank"><i>UK Guardian</i></a> discusses the psychologist as novelist, though not in much detail. This is a likely pairing if you think of the novel form as being about character and character development, though you’re likely to get a somewhat narrow idea of what constitutes the human person.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Lawyers and policemen and doctors like to write novels, too. They have the plots and the drama, in addition to lots of observation of human behavior, and law people have ideas about good and evil as well as legal and illegal. Lawyer John Grisham, of course, is hugely popular, and his plots make good movies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Priests, you would think, wouldn’t have enough free time to dabble in fiction, but <a href="http://agreeley.com/" target="_blank">Fr. Andrew Greeley</a> is a popular novelist, and his web site calls him a sociologist too. I tried reading one of his books years ago, but couldn’t finish it; as much as I like crime novels, I thought his book was shallow and boring. He’s 82 now, and cracked his skull in a fall two years ago, so the prolific author isn’t writing anymore.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Journalists often are naturals. The late Tony Hillerman was a newspaperman whose clean style worked well with his Navajo police stories and Southwest landscapes.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Anne Stories</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">From Anne DaBee:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Forgive me for spouting another gem from my "school days", so to speak, this time re "can" and "may".</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Student: Can I go to the bathroom, Mrs. D.?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Mrs. D.: I hope so.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Student, puzzled: Huh?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Mrs. D. explains, not for the first time, the difference between "can" and "may", and asks if the student would care to rephrase the question.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Student: NOW MAY I go to the bathroom?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">Mission accomplished, at least for the moment.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"> And then there were the times when students asked to "borrow" a tissue from the box on my desk and received a "no" answer, followed by a brief definition of "borrow" and an explanation of the ick factor inherent in "borrowing" a tissue. Oh, well - I really tried to contribute to the literacy of all those decidedly average middle schoolers...</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s a story that will get Anne’s tinsel in a tangle, as someone seasonally said to me last week. <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/10/23/2010-10-23_hey_im_write_says_principal.html" target="_blank">Andrew Buck, a Brooklyn school principal</a>, wrote a semi-literate letter to parents, full of errors and incoherencies, but most shockingly arguing (if his statements could be elevated to argument) that textbooks aren’t necessary. Obviously they weren’t vital to him, and yet he has a good job, in education, no less. I wasn’t able to find a transcript of his letter but if you click on his photo at the link above you’ll find pictures of segments of this atrocity, which begs the questions:</div><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>How did he graduate? (Answer: Social promotion to promote self-esteem, of which he has way too much.)<br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Why doesn’t he hire a good secretary to edit his letters? (Answer: He doesn’t know he needs one.)<br />
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>How did he get this job without at least understanding the value of books? How did he get to be principal of a school, let alone a charter school for <i>art and philosophy</i>? (Answer: He was hired by people who got social promotions and have lots of self-esteem, and perhaps he had a professional write his resume. And possibly it was the art department that had the hiring power. Surely philosophy teachers still have to read books.)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Buck’s philosophical proposition: You can’t learn about textbooks from textbooks. Following that logic, no one could ever learn to read in the first place.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Selections from Mike Sykes</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Mike Sykes wrote:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>On punctuating abbreviations:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">One convention (hardly a rule) is that you don't need a stop if the abbreviation ends with the last letter of the full word. Another, rather more radical school of thought says you don't need a stop if understanding doesn't require it. Us Brits are just not as hide-bound with rules.<b>*</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"> By the same token, you don't get stops at the end of newspaper headlines, even when they're grammatical sentences. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"> By the way, how do you abbreviate "forecastle"? My dictionary on disk has "fo'c's'le" - I don't think one sees that very often; the OED online has "Also written fo'c'sle" as the only alternative; and <a href="http://www.hms-victory.com/" target="_blank">HMS Victory</a> has "foc'sle". Can any one of these three be regarded as the correct version?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dict.org gives <i><a href="http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=fo%27c%27sle" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">fo'c'sle</span></a></i> as a spelling, and <a href="http://yourdictionary.com/" target="_blank">yourdictionary.com</a> gives <i>fok-sel</i> as a pronunciation; <i>fo’c’sle</i> would be a reasonable approximation of that pronunciation though it does tend to make you expect three syllables; <i>foc’sle</i> would be better. Why a third apostrophe for the absent letter T would be omitted I couldn’t say; it’s hardly worse than having two apostrophes in one word. Do sailors ever pronounce the original word as spelled: <i>forecastle</i>? If you type <i>fo’c’sle </i>into Google, you get Wikipedia’s entry for<i> forecastle.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"> How about <i>bosun</i> for <i>boatswain</i> (originally, boy or servant on a boat, not a lover on a boat)? It does very well without apostrophes. I think my dad was a bosun on the USS Intrepid in WWII.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>*</i></b><i>Who would have thought us Americans were hide-bound!</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>On may and might:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;">“Might I have the last doughnut?” However, that sounds to me more like a British usage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">It's an attempt to be (over?) polite. But you would be more likely to say "May I go now?"</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>On apostrophes and prepostrophes:</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat repeat;">How about calling all of us who write and speak on apostrophes, “apostrophers”?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;">The verb "apostrophize" is already in the dictionary, "apostrophizer" would be a natural derivation.</div><div class="MsoNormal">One meaning of “to apostrophize” is to digress, i.e. to speak in apostrophes <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(L from Gr apostrophē, a turning away from the audience to address one person / apostrephein / apo-, from + strephein, to turn: see strophe).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"> Preposterous literally means “before after” (i.e. contrary). Someone who prepostrophizes would be turning two ways at once (i.e. absurd).</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Pre- and Post-</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The word “prejudice” produces a knee-jerk reaction: Prejudice is bad. We need another word to fill in a meaning gap here. I offer “postjudice”. This means opinion based on experience and knowledge. Prejudice can of course come from generalization about experience and/or information, and thus isn’t necessarily unreasonable. Forming an opinion after experience is the mark of a brain in action. “Don’t be judgmental” is the mark of laziness, usually uttered with witless dishonesty.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Me Being</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Jeffrey Folks quoted Obama in <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/me_being_president.html" target="_blank">“Me Being President”</a>:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(253, 233, 217); margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black;">"The notion that somehow me saying maybe you should be taxed more like your secretary when you're </span>pulling<span style="color: black;"> home a billion dollars... I don't think is me being extremist or me being antibusiness," Obama</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/39211696/CNBC_EXCLUSIVE_CNBC_TRANSCRIPT_CNBC_BROADCASTS_INVESTING_IN_AMERICA_A_CNBC_TOWN_HALL_EVENT_WITH_PRESIDENT_OBAMA_TODAY_MONDAY_SEPTEMBER_20TH_AT_12PM_ET" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0033cc;">explained</span></a><span style="color: black;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Many of us say things like “me being” instead of “my being”, but remember that “being” is a gerund here, a noun, and so should be preceded by the possessive pronoun. Perhaps Harvard doesn’t give remedial English classes as do so many universities.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> (I would like to note here that 25%, say, of a billion dollars is way more than 25% of a secretary’s pay. But I apostrophize.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">ODIOGO</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Note the Odiogo link in Parvum Opus online at <a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">cafelit.blogspot.com</a>. This allows you to listen to a podcast of each issue, or download it as an .mp3 file. Odiogo provides a digital voice reading. It’s a little weird and imperfect, but generally comprehensible.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;"> </span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">NEW STUFF FOR CHRISTMAS!</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Cute new baby clothes and blanket: “Fresh Pict”. New: stadium blanket. “STET Happens” mugs and coasters and flasks are popular with editors and writers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color: red;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>_____</span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div></div>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-53781294151701982962010-11-18T12:37:00.000-05:002010-11-18T12:38:46.218-05:00Parvum Opus 379: Prepostrophes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps; color: black; ">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span style="color: black; "> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>PIQUE PEAK</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><b><span style="color: black; "> </span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span style="color: black; ">Shai Hasse sent this:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span style="color: black; "> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><i><span style="color: black; ">“Often times you have a short window to peak the interest of a perspective employer, so you must seize </span></i></span><i>that</i><span><i><span style="color: black; "> moment. Come learn the art of the 30-second elevator speech at this session from Professor Zagaiski.” </span></i></span><span><i><span style="color: black; "> </span></i></span><span><i><span style="color: black; "></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span style="color: black; ">…the above paragraph is excerpted from an email touting the agenda for a weekly professional networking group…think I'll pass............</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>To be fair, Professor Zagaiski is teaching fast talk, not spelling, which takes slow study.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>SYKES THE APOSTROPHER</b><b><span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Mike Sykes wrote:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On the origins of Mrs. and Ms:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>…at least in UK, "Hey Mrs", usually spelt as "Hey missus" would not be considered very respectful. Problem is, there's no satisfactory way of hailing a respectable woman/lady of </span><span><span style="color: black; ">unknown</span></span><span> name. Madam sounds like an rather olde-worlde shopkeeper, Ma'am sounds like addressing royalty. We lack the French convenience of Madame (and, of course, Monsieur, or M'sieu).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Traditionally one wouldn’t hail a respectable unknown woman, but realistically it must be done from time to time, as when shopping, eating at a restaurant, or climbing out of a car wreck. (The last time I was in a wreck I restrained myself from speaking at all to the woman in the other car because I knew no good could come of it, and no polite titles would have come to mind. I let the police speak to her.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span>By the way, it must be true that in England you don’t put a period after an abbreviation such as “Mrs”, but we do in the U.S., the idea being that over there the period represents absent letters, which in this instance only occur in the middle of the word.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On pedagogical despair:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>It'll be a significant step forward when there is a consensus on what is "proper" English! For now, just look at the last few lines of this, noting the date.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Here Mike added this </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/30/tim-dowling-blush-shame-students" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>link</span></a><span>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On unobtanium:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><i><span>And another clever coinage heard on the Dennis Miller radio program from a movie producer: “They moved to the left coast looking for unobtanium.”</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>Don't remember when I first heard (or saw) it, but it goes back a while, see </span><a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-uno1.htm" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>here</span></a><span>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>I had never heard it before.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On “timely” as an adverb:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>I tend to share your feeling, yet OED has a separate entry for <i>timely</i> as adverb, quoting examples from Shakespeare and before.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>OK, but it doesn’t sound natural or correct now.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On thanks:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>Not to mention "Thank you for observing all safety precautions."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span>All</span></i><span>?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On may and might:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>By the way, I need to say a few more words about <i>may</i> and <i>might</i>, which also irritated Mike mightily, as in: <span> </span>"...he died last January, and this newly approved drug may have prevented his death." Simply, <i>might</i>is the past tense of <i>may</i> and should have been used in this case, but that can easily be forgotten because <i>might</i> can also be used for the present or future: “I might go to the game.” Some people have the idea that <i>might</i> is less definite in indicating a possibility than <i>may</i>, but that’s pretty vague and is not a rule (“I may” go vs. “I might go”—can you spot the difference?). <i>May</i> of course also indicates permission (and here we get into the difference between <i>may</i> and <i>can</i>, but that’s not our topic), but it’s also possible to use <i>might</i> for permission: “Might I have the last doughnut?” However, that sounds to me more like a British usage.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span>On apostrophes and prepostrophes:</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>But reams have been written on apostrophes, and many more or less normal usages are unexplained. "Brutus' dagger", "James's computer", the "Sykeses' get together".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>How about calling all of us who write and speak on apostrophes, “apostrophers”? Here’s more from two other great apostrophers:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> <span>Here's my take on house signs, from Richard Lederer and John Shore, Comma Sense:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> This brings us to those names we see in front of houses and on mailboxes everywhere—“The Smith’s, “The Gump’s,” and even (sigh) “The Jone’s.” These are distressing signs of our times. Which Smith, we ask, and who, pray tell, is Jone? Here we have an atrocity of both case and number in one felonious swoop.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span><span> </span>Who lives in the house? The Smiths. The Gumps. The Joneses. That’s what the signs should say. It’s really nobody else’s business whether the Smiths, the Gumps, and the Joneses own their domiciles. All we need know is that the Smiths, the Gumps, and the Joneses live there. If you must announce possession, place the apostrophe after the plural names—“The Smiths’,” “The Gumps’,” “The Joneses’.” Your attention to this matter will strike a blow against a nationwide conspiracy of signmakers and junior high school</span> shop teachers dedicating to spread of prepostrophes throughout our land.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>PERMISSIONTO BEAT</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Bill Roberts said, “We should be permitted to beat the living dogdirt out of anyone who confuses <i>accept</i> and <i>except</i>.” Permission granted.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>EBONICS REVISITED</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Joe Clarke sent a link to the </span><a href="http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res1.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span>original resolution about Ebonics</span></a><span> as a substitute for the teaching of standard English in Oakland, California schools. Perhaps the most outrageous statement in that document is:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">…these studies have <span>also</span> demonstrated that African Language Systems are genetically-based and not a dialect of English.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">What other language in the world would be described as “genetically based”? If black people do not learn standard grammar, does this mean they not only speak a particular patois but also are <i>genetically</i>incapable of learning another language or dialect—after living in this country for three or four centuries? The whole point of this bogus scholarship and educational directive was to oil around the fact that black students in Oakland were getting bad grades. Were they also considered genetically predisposed to figure numbers differently, or not at all? I used to tell my students that learning standard English is a survival skill, and to say that ordinary students (i.e. not mentally retarded) cannot learn what most people learn is at best blindly stupid and at worst intentionally destructive.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>EXPERTS SAY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Medical language is often unintelligible to the lay person, of course, but there’s a trend in advertising to make lay people (i.e. customers) feel like they’re in on scientific language. It used to be that advertisers and drug makers made up sciency-sounding names for products, often ending in –ex or sounding like one of the –stan countries. Now I’ve noticed a trend toward rewording ordinary language into other ordinary language. For instance:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">A heavy period is a medical condition called “heavy monthly bleeding”.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Low testosterone, called Low T.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Instead of translating a highly scientific, usually Latinate, term into plain English, a phrase in plain English is translated into an almost identical phrase in plain English, although I’ve never heard anyone, medical professional or otherwise, use the term “low T” for hypogonadism. Heavy bleeding is called menorrhagia.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>The next phase in advertising will be to have the narrator say something like “heavy bleeding” or “low T” and have the actor who plays the drug consumer just grunt and point to the groinal area.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>MISCELLANEY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>On the radio on Veterans Day/Armistice Day: <span> </span>“I’m trying to play as much military music as I can garner.” He should have said “as I can <i>muster</i>.” Garner is about gathering and storing (as grain). Muster can mean gathering and showing the troops. It would have been a better choice just for that reason, but in any case, the DJ is presenting something, not collecting.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>The giant Wal-Mart has sections for Hispanic food and Latino food. What’s the difference? Is there any reason Tex-Mex, for instance, would be more or less Latin-based or Spanish than Cuban?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>From somewhere: <span> </span>“Everything you need to create quick, colorful, creative projects.” I’ve complained before about “creative” used to describe the creation rather than the creator, but in this case, the redundancy is idiotic.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span>From somewhere: <span> </span>something “plays a major factor”. This error comes from not attending to the meaning of words, and mixing up cliches. Someone or something plays a <i>role</i>, or <i>is</i> a factor.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>_____</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BIOGRAPHY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i><span style="color: blue; ">When Sonny Gets Blue</span></i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs. Music CDs available at <a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/buy" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">sonnyrobertson.com/buy</a>, where you can buy with PayPal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader if you don’t have the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span> <b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i><span> </span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> 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? <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> 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. <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; "> <b><i><span style="color: red; "> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Food thermos and beverage thermos</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><u><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: windowtext; ">Scot Tartans</span></a></span></u><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> and <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Fresh Pict</a>:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Stuff:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">BEVERAGE THERMOS, FOOD THERMOS, SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><b>Parvum Opus CafePress shop</b></a><b><span>: (NOTE: If you have problems viewing this site, try a different</span></b></span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> browser.)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Click To Embiggen </span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">boxer shorts<i></i></span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Eschew Obfuscation</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> bumper sticker</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I; & bumper sticker</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">No Pain, No Pain</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Star o’ the Bar</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Veritas Vincit </span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">(Truth Conquers) with Celtic Catti & Snake insignia</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Flash in the Pants</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PWE</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (Protestant Work Ethic)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I am here maternity</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> tops</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I eat dead things</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 176, 80); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">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.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>________________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b>KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services<b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. 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 <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b><b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-58105878902754500512010-10-30T14:50:00.000-04:002010-10-30T14:51:21.003-04:00Parvum Opus 378: Mistress of Unobtanium<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>MISTRESS OF MANNERS</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/features/advice/104126654.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Miss Manners (Judith Martin)</a> explains the origins of Mrs. and Ms.:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">… the title of Mistress was used for both the married and unmarried, just as its equivalent, Mister, was and still is. Seventeenth- and 18th-century* tombstones can also be found in which Mistress is also abbreviated as - get this - Ms.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">That's right - using Ms. for both the married and the unmarried is not a modern feminist invention. No disrespect is intended in the old or the modern usage.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Later, two other abbreviations of Mistress, Miss and Mrs., took on distinct meanings: Miss meaning unmarried, and Mrs. meaning "wife of</span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">.</span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">.</span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">.</span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">" Therefore, Mrs. would not be used with the lady's first and last names <i>[i.e. Mrs. Jane Smith rather than Mrs. John Smith]</i>, because it would make no sense to call her the wife of herself.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I think she errs here. True, today Mrs. always means a married woman, or a formerly married woman. It’s also a title to sort of distance the speaker from a woman, so you don’t have to holler “Hey you” or “Hey Sue”.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">But to go further in her line of thought, is Mister John Smith the husband of himself? No, we suppose he is the <i>master</i> of himself; a free man, whether married or not. In the old days, Mistress Mary Meade was a female in her parents’ house or in her husband’s (and her) house, perhaps her own house, and the mistress of herself to a degree.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">While women today sometimes object to being called housewives (“I’m not married to a house”), no one objected to being considered the mistress of a house. It was a great responsibility, a mark of the progression from female childhood to maturity.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i>*By the way, we all learned not to start a sentence with a numerical digit, but to spell out numbers. In a sentence like this one, where the spelled-out century is paired with the numbered century, should this rule be ignored? It looks clumsy, yet spelling out both dates would be awkward. You could reword the sentence to save the rule, but sometimes this involves twisting the natural flow of the English sentence, but try: “Tombstones in the 17th and 18th centuries…” This has the further advantage of eliminating the hyphenated adjectival phrase.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>FROM THE PEN OF ANNE DABEE</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><i><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Rhonda</span></i> - You rang several of my bells this time!</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><b><i>On Teaching English</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i>"The mother-tongue differs in one respect from all other subjects of study. It is not only an end, but the vehicle, of instruction. For this reason all teaching is English teaching, and every school exercise may be made, and should be made, an English lesson." Nicholas Murray Butler, Introduction to Percival Chubb's The Teaching of English xx (1902).</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>The Maryland State Board of Ed. must not have read this in 1973, when I was a volunteer in my <span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">youngest's</span> third grade class. Correcting papers, for all subjects, was one of my duties. I was disturbed to learn that, while spelling and punctuation could be marked (i.e. red penciled) on all papers, such errors could only be counted against the grade on ENGLISH papers. The teacher almost apologized when he told me that, and encouraged me to make BIG red marks for bad spelling wherever it occurred. Even on a science paper, misspelling of words in the science lesson (the planet Merkry, for instance) didn't lower the grade as long as the INFORMATION was correct. No wonder we can't spell today! (Btw, this was NOT the way it was done in Minnesota - everything counted on every paper - so it was doubly shocking to me when I learned the Maryland rules. Remember, too, that Dave and his sibs had to learn all verses of the Star Spangled Banner before getting a passing grade in Senior English - things were much different there!)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><b><i>On apostrophes</i></b><i><br />The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small-business signs to alert the reader that an "S" is coming up at the end of a word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ITEM'S. Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when creating hand-lettered small-business signs is that you should put quotation marks around random words for decoration... [Dave Barry]</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>And then there's the issue of incorrectly using the apostrophe when a plural is intended - i.e. on addresses or mailbox signs, "The Smith's", or "We went to the movies with the Smith's" - the Smith's WHAT? For the address/mailbox, it could be considered a verbal shortcut to "The Smith's house"; your guess is as good as mine regarding the companion(s) at the movies... and we won't even address the problems with correct usage of its and it's. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><b><i>Cereal Comma</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">(LOVE this! Grape Nut's?)<i></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i>Back to the serial comma, I still don’t know of a rule saying a modifier at the end of a sentence modifies only the final element in the series (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430" title="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; ">Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig</span></a>—laugh like a pig? sing like a pig?)...</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>Perhaps no rule, just 20-some years of training (continuing education, of sorts) proofing and editing legal text, where everything had to be expressed in a way to promote <span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">maximum</span> clarity and minimum opportunity for misinterpretation (by clever lawyers trying to bend the law to suit their purposes?) Enough, already - just everybody buy the book and make up your own mind what the author does like a pig... or not.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span><b><i>Illusive allusion may elude</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>This was the teaser on one of the "current news" bits on AOL's Welcome page. Things like this annoy me almost as much as reporters who incorrectly use "might" and "may". As in, "...he died last January, and this newly approved drug may have prevented his death." </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> <i></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><i>“Tara Lipinski says she remembers a lot of things about winning gold medal during the 1998 Winter Olympics. <a href="http://www.fanhouse.com/2010/10/28/tara-lipinski-defining-moment/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; ">But one tiny thing still alludes her</span></a>…”</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Wonder what I'll do for entertainment when everyone (at least in America) writes and speaks proper English?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Respectfully <span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">submitted</span> - Anne</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">When everyone speaks proper English, I will have nothing to write about. As for Lipinski, I respectfully submit that the tiny thing is the journalist who alluded [to] her. Apropos of which is an item <span>from </span><span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/OHnewsroom" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Overheard in the Newsroom</a></span><span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> </span></span><span><span>#5998: <i>Student in basic reporting class: “I think my major in English and my minor in journalism is a conflict of interest.”</i></span></span><i><span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">And while we’re there, here’s another: </span></span><span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/OHnewsroom" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Overheard in the Newsroom</a></span><span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> </span></span><span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">#6017: <i>Reporter 1: “God, I’m feeling <b>flungover</b> today.” Reporter 2: “What’s ‘flungover’?” Reporter 1: “It’s like hungover, only further over.”</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">And another clever coinage heard on the <a href="http://www.dennismillerradio.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Dennis Miller radio</a> program from a <a href="http://www.noteviljustwrong.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">movie producer</a>: <i>“They moved to the left coast looking for <b>unobtanium</b>.”</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>TIMELINESS</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This selection shows the problem I’ve always had with the word “timely”:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>…<i>verify, correct, and update primary law data timely, efficiently, and accurately…</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i>Efficient</i> and <i>accurate</i> are adjectives and can be made into adverbs by adding <i>ly</i>. <i>Time</i> is not an adjective, but <i>timely</i> is. <i>Timely</i> is not really the same formation as the two other words in the series. We can say “do it in a timely manner” or “do it on time” (which is slightly different in meaning, implying a specific deadline), but we never say “do it timely”, at least I don’t. There isn’t really a parallel construction to make<i>time/timely</i> into an adverb.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">You’ve probably seen signs like these:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Thank you for bringing only service animals into the store.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The idea is to avoid being negative, e.g. “Do not bring animals into the store, except service animals. And by the way, thanks.” The word “only” is crucial here. I’m waiting to see “Thank you for wearing shirts and shoes”. Or how about “Thank you for parking somewhere else” or “Thank you for driving straight and maybe going around the block instead of making a U-turn”. Even “Thank you for not smoking” requires the use of “not” which is so, uh, negative.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>PEN KNIFE</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I was watching a documentary video on The Book of Kells—I was lucky enough to find a used CD containing the entire ms.—and in the demonstration of cutting a quill pen, I realized where the term <i>pen knife</i>came from: obviously a smallish blade suitable for trimming quill pens.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>THE WEEKLY GIZZARD: MOI ON <a href="http://examiner.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">EXAMINER.COM</a></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/share-your-votes" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Vote early and often and anywhere you want</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span>A federal court has found that Arizona cannot require proof of citizenship for voter registration, though polling places can require photo ID. This ruling is from the same administration that has chosen not to pursue the appearance of Black...</span></p><h2 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; "> </span></h2><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/columbus-day-is-for-all-native-americans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Columbus Day is for all native Americans</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span>Today is the "official" (Monday) Columbus Day holiday. Someone has posted an anti-Columbus video featuring good-looking young non-white people talking about the heinous crimes of Christopher Columbus (meaning, of course, all white...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>NEW!</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">New Parvum Opus items in the <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">CafePress store</a>, including beverage and food thermoses.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>_____</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BIOGRAPHY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>When Sonny Gets Blue</i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs. Music CDs available at <a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/buy" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">sonnyrobertson.com/buy</a>, where you can buy with PayPal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader if you don’t have the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span> <b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i><span> </span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> 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? <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> 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. <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; "> <b><i><span style="color: red; "> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Food thermos and beverage thermos</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><u><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: windowtext; ">Scot Tartans</span></a></span></u><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> and <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Fresh Pict</a>:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Stuff:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">BEVERAGE THERMOS, FOOD THERMOS, SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Parvum Opus CafePress shop</a><b><span>: (NOTE: If you have problems viewing this site, try a different</span></b></span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> browser.)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Click To Embiggen </span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">boxer shorts<i></i></span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Eschew Obfuscation</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> bumper sticker</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I; & bumper sticker</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">No Pain, No Pain</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Star o’ the Bar</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Veritas Vincit </span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">(Truth Conquers) with Celtic Catti & Snake insignia</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Flash in the Pants</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></i></b><i></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PWE</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (Protestant Work Ethic)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I am here maternity</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> tops</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span></span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I eat dead things</span></i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 176, 80); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">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.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>________________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b><a href="http://www.geocities.com/keithops/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services</a><b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. 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 <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b><b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-29108636834286485522010-10-05T07:52:00.001-04:002010-10-05T07:52:55.247-04:00Parvum Opus 377: English Display<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps; color: black; ">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>FOOTNOTE TO AN ERA</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I wrote about Germaine Greer’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061537160?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061537160" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>Shakespeare’s Wife</i></a> in <a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">PO 319</a> (how long ago it seems now, April 2009), and last week browsed around on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WPOCGcFgRU" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">YouTube</a> for Greer and found her giving a talk on the book, which made me feel as if I should give the book another shot. She wrote that Anne Hathaway probably supported William Shakespeare in his career, perhaps even paid for publication of the first collection of plays, on top of tolerating his long absences in London. But at about minute 55.45 through the lecture, she said something rather startling to one raised on <i>The Female Eunuch</i>:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>“I’m hoping we can continue to be interested in the way great talent is nourished and supported. I’m prepared to admit most of it is male. It’s mostly male display.<span> </span>But that little brown bird scratching around next to that great extraordinary gamecock is the reason why he’s there.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>Hardly an explanation for the source of genius.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>So much of “women’s studies” has been devoted to trying to find evidence that women’s writing, for instance, is actually different from men’s, that perhaps there is even a “female” sentence structure. Greer founded a program at The University of Tulsa called Studies in Women’s Literature, and a journal called <i>Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature</i>. Virginia Wolf’s <i>A Room of One’s Own</i> said there could have been no female Shakespeare because women could never have been as free as a man in those days and so on. Feminist scholars often seemed resentful and embarrassed that there has been no female Shakespeare, but they couldn’t in good conscience change their standards as much as public school teachers have, and say that reading the dead white males isn’t as important in Western culture today as studying otherly sexed or tinted minor living poets.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>So by March 2009 Greer has come around to saying genius in men is “male display”—which is a way of trivializing it.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>VANITY VANITY, NOT ALL IS VANITY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Two recently spotted vanity license plates:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>WOO PIG</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; ">DRAWN IN</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The obvious question is, what kind of vanity is involved here, if any?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>PDF</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I will not try sending PO as a PDF file again. It’s useless in posting to the web, and as for e-mail, lawyer Dea Robertson explained:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">From my browser, (I'm using Google Chrome), one click gets me to the links that are spread throughout your articles. It's easy to do with just one click from any browser. In Acrobat's PDF, I have to wait for the program to come online and I use the professional version instead of the Reader. Sometimes, I'm still waiting when I've finished reading the article. Also in PDF, I have to strike the Ctl and click the mouse if I want to jump into another link, like to one of your news articles, or over to Dave the Bee's site. But before I can even do that, I have to save the PDF download on my hard drive. Not that I am superstitious, just that I'd rather save it on somebody else's hard drive like Yahoo's than I would mine. Besides, they can afford to upgrade the virus checkers better and faster than I can and it's cheaper that way. Besides, PDF works better when one is transporting important legal forms that have to be printed such as a contract or something for the IRS or the courts. PDFs give a reasonably accurate reproduction and if it’s something like that, I'm using Parvum for evidence. Even then, the judge will use a monitor from the bench. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks for the detailed deconstruction, Dea. Of course sometimes PDF files are useful so it’s good to be able to produce them easily and at no cost. Dave DaBee says that <a href="http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Bullzip</a> is another good PDF program.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>ALL TEACHING IS ENGLISH TEACHING</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Some people think all learning—literature, history, etc.—is political. Not so.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"The mother-tongue differs in one respect from all other subjects of study. It is not only an end, but the vehicle, of instruction. For this reason all teaching is English teaching, and every school exercise may be made, and should be made, an English lesson." Nicholas Murray Butler, Introduction to Percival Chubb's The Teaching of English xx (1902).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>QUOTES, MARKS, UNNECESSARY USE OF</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dave daBee found <a href="http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">a great site</a> all about unnecessary quotation marks (quotes, for short).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>In case anyone asks you, remember that quotation marks are <i>not</i> one of the ways we emphasize words. In hand-writing, we can write in all caps or underline or even use a highlighter. With a typewriter, we can underline and write in all caps. With a computer, we can be our own typesetters and use italics and bold face type. But in no case are we to use quotations marks for emphasis.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>Quotation marks indicate (1) a quotation, someone else said or wrote this <i>(He said, “Go for it.”)</i>; (2) the word is foreign or odd in some way <i>(The Spanish word “simpatico” appeared in today’s crossword puzzle.)</i>; (3) you don’t really mean it <i>(Coffee is my “speed”.)</i>; (4) you’re actually ridiculing the word or idea, when quotes are also called scare quotes and mean “so called” <i>(The Tea Party “constitutional patriots” held a rally.)</i>. And we’re not even discussing whether these usages constitute good style.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span>As fate would have it, <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/03/1845203/tips-for-writers.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Dave Barry’s column</a> appeared in my e-mail today featuring my favorite expert, Mr. Language Person, who weighs in on quotation marks, among other things. Coincidence? Perhaps.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><b><span>Dear</span></b><strong><span style="color: black; "> Mister Language Person:</span></strong><span><span style="color: black; "> </span></span><span style="color: black; ">What is the purpose of the apostrophe?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><strong><span style="color: black; ">A.</span></strong><span><span style="color: black; "> </span></span><span style="color: black; ">The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small- business signs to alert the reader that an "S" is coming up at the end of a word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ITEM'S. Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when creating hand-lettered small- business signs is that you should put <span>quotation marks around random words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.</span></span><span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Or even TRY OUR “HOT” DOG’S, or TRY OUR HOT “DOG’S”.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>CEREAL COMMA</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Back to the serial comma, I still don’t know of a rule saying a modifier at the end of a sentence modifies only the final element in the series (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig</i></a>—laugh like a pig? sing like a pig?), but in discussing the problems of ambiguity, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Wikipedia uses an erroneous example</a>:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><i><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">My usual breakfast is coffee, toast, cornflakes and bacon and eggs.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">According to the two most plausible interpretations of this sentence, four foods are listed; but it is uncertain which are the third and fourth: adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity. With a comma after bacon, the foods are:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Coffee</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Toast</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Cornflakes and bacon</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Eggs</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">With a comma after cornflakes:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Coffee</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Toast</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Cornflakes</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Bacon and eggs</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">There are five foods, not four. Bacon and eggs are two, though they may be paired, or grouped in a series of two (i.e. one element of a series may be a compound or even another series). But unless it’s a bacon omelet, it’s two foods.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>THE BALLAD OF FRANKIE SILVER</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451197399?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451197399" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>The Ballad of Frankie Silver</i></a> is a good novel by Sharyn McCrumb, based in part on a real crime in 19th century North Carolina. Movies are being made about the story (not her novel), and you can watch a<a href="http://www.folkstreams.net/film,96" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">complete documentary online</a>, featuring Bobby McMillon, a descendant of one of the original families. McMillon lives in the Appalachians and has a strong and distinctive accent, with some bits of rare vocabulary thrown in.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span>The Weekly Gizzard: Moi on Examiner.com</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span> </span></b></p><h2 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/running-clean-elections-takes-a-lot-of-work" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="font-size: 12pt; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-color: windowtext; border-right-color: windowtext; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-left-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; border-right-width: 1pt; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-width: 1pt; padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; ">Running clean elections takes a lot of work</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; "></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John<span> Williams, who is running for Juvenile Court Judge in Hamilton County, spoke to a meeting of the Eastern Hills Tea Party in Madeira, Ohio, last night about his experience as Director of Hamilton County Board of Elections, when the 2008...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; "><span> </span></p><h2 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/critical-legal-studies-free-will-and-voting-1" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="font-size: 12pt; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-color: windowtext; border-right-color: windowtext; border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-left-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; border-right-width: 1pt; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-width: 1pt; padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; ">Critical legal studies, free will, and voting</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; "></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>Pat Fischer, who is running for judge on the Hamilton County Court of Appeals, spoke last </span>night<span> to a meeting of the Eastern Hills Tea Party in Madeira, Ohio, on "critical legal studies" versus "strict constructionism."...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>______</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span style="color: black; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BIOGRAPHY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>When Sonny Gets Blue</i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs. Music CDs available at <a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/buy" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">sonnyrobertson.com/buy</a>, where you can buy with PayPal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader if you don’t have the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span> <b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i><span> </span><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PRICE REDUCED.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> 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? <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> 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. <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; "> <b><i><span style="color: red; "> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Scot Tartans</a><span style="color: red; ">: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b><b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Parvum Opus CafePress shop</a><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">: (NOTE: If you have problems viewing this site, try a different browser.)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>NEW:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>CLICK TO EMBIGGEN boxer shorts</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>ESCHEW OBFUSCATION bumper sticker</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">FRESH PICT items</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">No Pain, No Pain</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Star o’ the Bar</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Flash in the Pants</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I am here maternity tops</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 176, 80); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">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.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>________________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b><a href="http://www.geocities.com/keithops/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services</a><b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. 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 <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b><b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); text-transform: uppercase; ">LINK HERE TO LOOK FOR BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM</span></a><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); ">!</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); ">Or click on underlined book links.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>ELSEWHERE</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: fuchsia; ">Parvum Opus</span></i><span style="color: fuchsia; "> now appears at </span></b><a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: fuchsia; ">http://cafelit.blogspot.com</span></a><b><span style="color: fuchsia; ">/. It is also carried by the </span></b><a href="http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view_cat&db=articles_hurherald&cat=42" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i><span style="color: fuchsia; ">Hur Herald</span></i></a><b><span style="color: fuchsia; ">, a web newspaper from Calhoun County, West Virginia. See Editor Bob Weaver's interview with me (February 10, 2007 entry), and the PO every week in <i>Columns</i>.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: blue; ">WHEN SONNY GETS BLUE!</span> At last, the first installment of Sonny’s biography is out on CD, </b><a href="http://cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">When Sonny Gets Blue at CafePress.com/sonnyrobertson</a><b>. <span style="color: purple; ">Check out the video and music clips of great blues man Sonny Robertson and the Howard Street Blues Band at </span></b><a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/</a><b><span style="color: purple; "> and </span></b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/rondaria" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">http://www.youtube.com/<wbr>rondaria</a><b><span style="color: purple; ">, with his new original song, "A Different Shade of Blue". Listen to Judy Joy Jones’s </span></b><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Judy-Joy-Jones-Show/2008/10/12/Blues-Legend-Sonny-Robertson-who-played-with-Jimi-Hendrix-BB-King-Ike-Tina-Turner-Back-Again-" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">interview</a><b><span style="color: purple; "> with Sonny.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://peacemissionindia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); ">PEACE MISSION INDIA</span></a><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0); "> blogs the progress of Pastor Roy Jacob’s mission to build churches in India. Now 79, Pastor Roy (who is an Indian) has built 10 churches, and has a girls’ school to rescue girls from the mountains and jungles who otherwise might be married off as children or perhaps sold.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>SEARCH IT OUT ON AMAZON</i></a><b><i> : </i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." </span><i>Proverbs 25:2;</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Get wisdom! Even if it costs you everything, get understanding!"</span><i> Proverbs 4:7:</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories. The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not made of matter, but music.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-21817308855899846812010-09-16T08:08:00.001-04:002010-09-16T08:08:51.574-04:00Parvum Opus 376: Brief Solo<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">PARVUM OPUS</span></i></b><span style="color:red"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">Number 376</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-variant:small-caps; color:black">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Minty Fresh<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I must have heard this on the radio somewhere since I made a note of it on my phone recorder:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">“A group of freshly minted widows” [in World War II].</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the worst tropes ever. Most people who are newly widowed don’t feel as bright and shiny as a new minted coin.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">CutePDF<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You probably have the free Acrobat Reader to open PDF files, but the Adobe software for creating PDF files is expensive. A friend just turned me on to a free program called <a href="http://www.cutepdf.com/">CutePDF</a> which she says works well (and downloads safely) to convert files to PDF. She uses it to send lengthy Word documents because there are so many versions of Word floating around that her friends may not always be able to read hers, or at least won’t get all the formatting. I might try it myself. I’m always afraid that even an em dash won’t transmit correctly in e-mail, so I avoid them. I will test drive it with this PO.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">When it downloads, you won’t find an icon for the program. You convert your file by going to Print and selecting CutePDF as another printer, and then saving the file as PDF.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Rathole Books<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">PO reader Tim Bazzett has a new book available at Rathole Books, called <a href="http://www.ratholebooks.com/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Booklover: A One-Year Journal of Reading, Reflecting and Remembering</i></a>. Sounds interesting. If you’re in the area, go to his talk/reading/book signing at Great Lakes Book & Supply at 840 Clark Street in Big Rapids, Michigan, this Sunday, September 19, between 3:00 and 4:30 PM.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Refudiating Wee-Wee<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sarah Palin made up a word, perhaps accidentally, what Lewis Carroll might have called a portmanteau word: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">refudiation</i>, a combination of refute and repudiate. It calls to mind various Bushisms, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">misunderestimate</i>. Compare to a coinage of Obama’s, to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">get wee-weed up</i>, that is, to get worked up over controversy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Eek<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/06/imam-feisal-ground-zero-mosque-opinions-columnists-claudia-rosett.html">Forbes.com article by Claudia Rosett</a>:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">Not that I learned this from Rauf, whose Malaysian office staff told me by phone on Tuesday that "All media requests have to go through his office in New York." Nor did his New York colleagues simply volunteer information about his imminent trip to the Middle East. It took a series of phone calls and questions to eke it out of them.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You cannot use “eke” this way. We’ve heard about “eking out a living” which means to supplement a scanty income in some way. It means augmenting something, and has even at times meant “plow” or something to do with beekeeping. While its use has gotten sloppy over the centuries (“He ekes out a living as a five million dollar a year quarterback”), it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">cannot</i> mean to pry something out.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Date of Expiry<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I always regret not subscribing to Vocabula.com every time I get an e-mail with tantalizing opening paragraphs from their current articles. In this clip from <a href="http://www.vocabula.com/" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:#0066CC;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Perspiring over Expiry</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black"> by Sarabjeet Garcha we find a kindred soul who pays attention to quirks of language even at memorial services:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">In November 2007, I was in my hometown, Nasik, Maharashtra, to attend a gathering </span>commemorating<span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> my grandfather's first death anniversary. We assembled in a local gurdwara, which I noticed had been recently renovated. Now, I love everything about a place of worship even if at times I am convinced that the world is losing its share of selfless worshippers. ...<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What was thought to be my undying love for unsung godmen was in reality my irrepressible zeal to photograph a grammatical error: on the bottom left of the frame was written "Date of Birth," while on the bottom right was a phrase that's very familiar to not only pharmacists but also laypersons: "Date of Expiry." Perhaps they forgot to include a "best before" date, I wondered….<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">The King’s English<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m re-reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312206577?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312206577"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The King’s English</i></a> by Kingsley Amis, not the book of the same name by the great <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1142647951?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1142647951">Fowler</a> nor even by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1142647951?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1142647951">Betsy Burton</a>, who runs a bookstore by that name. Amis’s book repays careful reading. A few samples:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Amn’t I:</i></b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We’ve discussed “amn’t I” as a variant of the unacceptable “ain’t I” but I never believed in it. However, I ran across it in a novel by M. C. Beaton, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044661548X?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=044661548X"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Death of a Gentle Lady</i></a>. The story is set in Scotland but I think the usage was placed in the mouth of the nasty Englishwoman who got murdered. Anyway it exists, somewhere, and Amis discusses it under the heading “Aren’t I”. After a detailed analysis, he writes: </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">One attraction of my theory is the ill-natured glee it brings to believers in it when they hear some unreconstructed pedant struggling to say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">amn’t I</i>. I remember that the late A.J. Ayer* was one of these.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">*Writer, philosopher; not clear if he’s the pedant or the gleeful believer, but probably the former.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Happening:</i></b> Remember the hippy happenings, supposedly spontaneous free-form assemblies? (The only one I ever went to was as organized as a six-year-old’s birthday party with similar planned activities, in a reserved section of a city park.) Amis says the word has had at least two previous historical incarnations: “in the 1950s [it] referred to some event like the planned break-up of some impossibly vulgar art exhibition or somebody undressing at somebody’s else’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">boring</i> party”; and it was “a descriptive term of the Edwardian era.” The current spiritual heir of the happening is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob">flash mob</a>, though it’s not the same thing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Feed a cold and starve a fever.</i></b> Amis says people misunderstand this as two separate imperatives, but his interpretation is also incorrect. He says it’s a conditional, meaning <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">if</i> you feed somebody with a cold, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">then</i> he will develop a fever and then you will have to starve him (as if that’s a common remedy for a fever). But I read another explanation that makes more sense to me. It comes from an ancient German or Saxon saying, that if you feed a person who has a cold, you will kill (or prevent) a fever. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Starve</i> comes from an old Saxon word meaning to kill (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">sterb</i>).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Me and Them<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">You can have a chunk of your writing analyzed in a little online program that tells you what famous writer you most resemble. I pasted in something or other, probably from PO, and came up with James Joyce and Ian Fleming. It’s been a while since I’ve read either of these but I don’t think I write much like either one, especially in PO, and they seem different from each other, as I recall. But you might like to try it, at <a href="http://iwl.me/">iwl.me</a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">The Lessons of Literature<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199535728?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199535728"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Moby Dick</i></a>, 1851:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this: </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">Whaling Voyage by one Ishmael </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">The Comma Question Deferred<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I got more feedback about the question of the serial comma, but it will have to wait till next edition, which I hope will appear in a more timely manner. I don’t know why after more than seven years of almost automatic weekly production, this summer PO slipped out of gear.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For one thing, it could be that I’ve done so much typing this summer that my brain confuses it with writing. I have been transcribing hundreds of letters given to me by my late high school Spanish teacher; there will be a book. Over the years several people’s lives have fallen into my hands unexpectedly, starting with the trove of abandoned photographs I found in an empty house in Florida when I was 15. Decades later, I located a family member whose uncle had lived in that house, and mailed the photos off to England. Some years ago a friend who was dying sent me his poems, which I published in a little book. I have produced the beginnings of an audio autobiography (which I hope will morph into a full book), listed below, by Sonny Robertson.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The Weekly Gizzard: Moi on Examiner.com<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/use-symbolic-threats-to-koran-to-curb-real-violence">Use symbolic threats to Koran to curb real violence</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">September 14, 2010</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who threatened to burn a copy of the Koran, lit a conflagration fueled mostly by dry b.s. on all sides. …</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="page-break-after:avoid"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">BIOGRAPHY<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color:blue">When Sonny Gets Blue</span></i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader so you don’t have to spend hundreds on the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="background:fuchsia"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1025" /></span><span style="font-size:7.0pt; background:fuchsia"> </span><b><i><span style="background:fuchsia">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background:fuchsia"> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Akron</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place>, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1026" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region></st1:place>. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1027" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1027" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1028" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1028" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> is about a young gambler who finds himself upright in a cornfield in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Kansas</st1:state></st1:place> with his feet encased in a tub of concrete; how would you get out of a spot like that? <i>Short story.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1029" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1029" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> is about a young woman who moves from <st1:city st="on">Boston</st1:city> to <st1:place st="on">Appalachia</st1:place> and finds there are two kinds of moonshine, the good kind and the kind that can kill you. <i>Short story.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1030" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1030" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1031" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1031" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1032" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1032" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"> <b><i><span style="color:red"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red;background:yellow">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus"><span style="background:yellow">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color:red; background:yellow">:</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank">Scot Tartans</a><b><span style="color:red">: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red;background:yellow">SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background:yellow"> </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank">Parvum Opus CafePress shop</a><b><span style="background:yellow">: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">NEW: Click to Embiggen boxer shorts</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">Eschew Obfuscation bumper sticker</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:aqua">FRESH PICT items</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">No Pain, No Pain</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Star o’ the Bar</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Flash in the Pants</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">PWE (Protestant Work Ethic) </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">I am here maternity tops</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#00B050;background:yellow">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.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b><a href="http://www.geocities.com/keithops/" target="_blank">KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services</a><b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The <st1:place st="on">PO</st1:place> mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b> <b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FF6600;text-transform:uppercase">Link here to look for books on Amazon.com</span></a><b><span style="color:#FF6600">!</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#FF6600">Or click on underlined book links.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>ELSEWHERE</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:fuchsia">Parvum Opus</span></i><span style="color:fuchsia"> now appears at </span></b><a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:fuchsia">http://cafelit.blogspot.com</span></a><b><span style="color:fuchsia">/. It is also carried by the </span></b><a href="http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view_cat&db=articles_hurherald&cat=42" target="_blank"><i><span style="color:fuchsia">Hur Herald</span></i></a><b><span style="color:fuchsia">, a web newspaper from <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Calhoun County</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">West Virginia</st1:state></st1:place>. See Editor Bob Weaver's interview with me (February 10, 2007 entry), and the PO every week in <i>Columns</i>.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:blue">WHEN SONNY GETS BLUE!</span> At last, the first installment of Sonny’s biography is out on CD, </b><a href="http://cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson">When Sonny Gets Blue at CafePress.com/sonnyrobertson</a><b>. <span style="color:purple">Check out the video and music clips of great blues man Sonny Robertson and the <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Howard Street</st1:address></st1:street> Blues Band at </span></b><a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/" target="_blank">http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/</a><b><span style="color:purple"> and </span></b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/rondaria" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/rondaria</a><b><span style="color:purple">, with his new original song, "A Different Shade of Blue". Listen to Judy Joy Jones’s </span></b><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Judy-Joy-Jones-Show/2008/10/12/Blues-Legend-Sonny-Robertson-who-played-with-Jimi-Hendrix-BB-King-Ike-Tina-Turner-Back-Again-" target="_blank">interview</a><b><span style="color:purple"> with Sonny.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://peacemissionindia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FF6600">PEACE MISSION INDIA</span></a><b><span style="color:#FF9900"> blogs the progress of Pastor Roy Jacob’s mission to build churches in India. Now 79, Pastor Roy (who is an Indian) has built 10 churches, and has a girls’ school to rescue girls from the mountains and jungles who otherwise might be married off as children or perhaps sold.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank"><i>SEARCH IT OUT ON AMAZON</i></a><b><i> : </i><span style="background:aqua">"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." </span><i>Proverbs 25:2; <o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:aqua">"Get wisdom! Even if it costs you everything, get understanding!"</span><i> Proverbs 4:7:</i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories. The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not made of matter, but music.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-32147636063501206882010-08-26T18:25:00.001-04:002010-08-26T18:25:35.101-04:00Parvum Opus 375: Post-Literate World<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">PARVUM OPUS</span></i></b><span style="color:red"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">Number 375</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-variant:small-caps; color:black">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Use Your Library<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the ways to use your local public library is to get them to buy books you want to read. Most libraries accept suggestions for purchases, whether via online form or in-person paper form. I recently suggested that the Cincinnati library purchase the new book by our friend and reader Dave deBronkart, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig</i></a>, based on the blog he wrote during his year-long bout with cancer. If and when the library buys the book, they’ll notify me. You might do the same at your library, and ask anything else you want to read.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Post-Christian, Post-Literate World<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Heard on TV news:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>There was a bomb threat at Lourdes on the Feast of the Consumption.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m no expert on the church calendar and I did look this up: there is a Feast of the Assumption, but not the consumption. Maybe the news reader was thinking someone went to Lourdes to be healed of tuberculosis?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Witless Script<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Cheers</i> mailman Cliff Clavin said:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Every day I have to trade wits with the Flanagan’s dog.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We may match wits (compete) with a dog, but even Cliffie didn’t trade his wits with a dog.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Another One for the -Ages<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Kathy Robinson-Taylor (find her Beason News column at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><a href="http://www.hurherald.com/">Hur Herald</a></i>) added this to the –age list: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">tunage</i>, meaning music, not fish.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">By the way, Dave DaBee wrote:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;background:#FDE9D9"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black">I assert that suckupage </span></span>is<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black"> suck-u-paj, and he meant suckuppage.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hmm. OK. Maybe.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Onion Teleology<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">On a radio cooking program:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;background:#FDE9D9">Yellow or white onions are meant to be cooked with, they’re not made to be eaten raw.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Unless you’re talking about hybrids, you can’t really talk about what vegetables are meant for. We may prefer to cook with the stronger tasting white and yellow onions, and perhaps the milder red onions and Vidalias were hybridized. But once you start talking about what onions are meant or made for, you’re getting close to saying God created them for a particular purpose. Could be true, but you might as well say a pig’s ribs are meant to be barbecued. I think they are, but the pig doesn’t, and who knows about the Creator?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Computip<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ever wish you could unsend a hasty e-mail? It’s sort of possible. There are two ways. If you use Outlook Express, all sent mail goes to a holding file called Sent and you have to go through another operation to actually send it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Gmail now has a beta function that gives you a tiny window of opportunity to unsend mail, but you have to be quick, there are only a few seconds between hitting the send button and the actual transmission. In Gmail, go to Settings at the top right corner of the page. Go to Labs. Look through their list of new features in beta (experimental) stage and enable Undo Send. Then when you send a message, a yellow box appears briefly above the mail where you can click Unsend. Of course I usually think of unsending something about 24 hours too late.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">More in Sorrow<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This may be the first time I’ve ever disagreed with the righteous Anne deBronkart. In the last PO I wrote:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Remember Dave’s book, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430" target="_blank" title="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:blue;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig</span></i></a></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">: Fred wondered if the last comma in that series affects the meaning, that is, does the comma make it mean, or </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:red;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">not mean</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">, laugh like a pig, sing like a pig, and eat like a pig. In this case, I happen to know that Dave sings in barbershop quartets so he doesn’t sing like a pig, and doesn’t laugh like a pig. Eating like a pig remains. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Anne replied:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">This seems like an "argument" that cannot be won. Obviously, as what you might call a traditionally-trained punctuater (read "old fashioned" - a fine drink, by the way), I'm in the minority here with my adherence to the comma after the last item in a series. F'rinstance: </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9">Laugh, Sing and Eat Like a Pig = Laugh however you want, but Sing and Eat like a pig? Whereas Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig = Laugh (like a hyena, if you wish), Sing (like a nightingale, if you can), and Eat like a pig ...</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.05pt;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>All due respect to Fred, but I think the last comma makes a difference BECAUSE the Laugh and Sing then are freestanding, so to speak, not included even by implication in the "like a pig" phrase... I also enjoy Old Fashioneds, which bartenders don't know how to make these days, so I may well be out of luck in both the punctuation and drink categories. More's the pity…</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:blue;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">Maybe the argument cannot be won but it can be continued. </span>I</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> think it's possible to attach one modifier to a string -- you can do it in the front ("She wore a blue dress, hat, and shoes") so why not in the back (“like a pig”)? </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black">I never heard a rule about having to repeat a modifier for every element. However, if you don’t repeat it, the meaning may be ambiguous.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Let’s all hoist an old-fashioned* on this one anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto; background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">* Bourbon, bitters, splash of water, sugar, maraschino cherry, orange wedge. Sounds good to me.</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><br /> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">This and Thatage<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Mike Sykes sent a bit of this and thatage:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">On disgruntled:</i> I've certainly heard of someone being in need of regruntling, though not often.<br /> <br /> </p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>And I've certainly heard of someone being considered not very couth.<br /> <br /> </p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>We used to cross to France on a cross-flannel cherry.<br /> <br /> </p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>I'd never heard of “dilemna” either, until just last week, when I read:</p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;background:#FDE9D9"> <u><span style="color:#4F81BD;mso-themecolor: accent1"><a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dil1.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color:#4F81BD;mso-themecolor:accent1">http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dil1.htm</span></a><br /></span></u><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">(World Wide Words is always good.)<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;background:#FDE9D9"><u><span style="color:#4F81BD;mso-themecolor:accent1"><o:p><span style="text-decoration:none"> </span></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:37.05pt;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;background:#FDE9D9"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">On mixed singles and doubles:</i> I've seen it said by someone I respect that "they", "their" will soon follow "thou", "thine" in being acceptable as a neutral singular as well as plural.<span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">The Loser Letters<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Mary Eberstadt wrote a book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586174312?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1586174312">The Loser Letters</a></i> satirizing recent vehement anti-God ‘n’ religion books by Hitchens, Dawkins, and the rest. Someone on the side I learned that enthusiastic atheists have a <a href="http://www.the-brights.net/">web site for Brights</a>, as they call themselves, people who believe in what they call natural but not in what they call supernatural. Pretty much saying I’m smart and you’re dumb, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">nyah</i> nyah nyah <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">nyah</i> nyah. Wouldn’t you feel a bit embarrassed to form a club and call yourself the Brights or the Good Lookings or the Superiors? Anyway, if you register on the web site you can call yourself a Bright too. Meanwhile, you may be a Dim.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Live Mocha<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><a href="http://www.livemocha.com/">Live Mocha</a> is a web site where you can learn a language free by exchanging e-mail with people who speak another language; you correct each other’s mail. Find out more at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/technology/personaltech/29basics.html?_r=1&emc=eta1">NY Times</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The Weekly Gizzard: Moi on Examiner.com<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/feds-strong-arm-cuyahoga-county-elections-board"><span style="color:#336699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0in; padding:0in">Feds strong arm Cuyahoga County elections board</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></h2> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal">August 26, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><a href="https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/voting-rightsfor-some">Jennifer Rubin</a> reported in the August 23, 2010 Weekly Standard that the Justice Department has launched an attack on the elections board of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, because its Puerto Rican population supposedly requires ballots in Spanish. …<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-cincinnati/new-york-muslims-should-rebuild-saint-nicholas"><span style="color:#336699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0in; padding:0in">New York Muslims should rebuild Saint Nicholas</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></u></h2> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">August 21, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">The</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#4E4E4E; font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><a href="http://www.stnicholasnyc.com/" target="_blank" style="border-style:initial; border-color:initial;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial; background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial;background-position:initial initial; background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="color:#336699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0in;padding:0in">Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in New York City</span></a></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">was crushed when the World Trade Towers fell on 9/11. For various reasons</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#4E4E4E;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><a href="http://beforeitsnews.com/story/141/246/NYC:_St._Nicholas_Greek_Orthodox_Church_Seeks_to_Rebuild_After_9_11.html" target="_blank" style="border-style:initial;border-color:initial;background-image: initial;background-attachment:initial;background-origin: initial;background-clip: initial; background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="color:#336699;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0in; padding:0in">they still haven't been able to rebuild</span></a> the small church.</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> Meanwhile, a big mosque is planned …<o:p></o:p></span></h2> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black;font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><o:p> </o:p></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <h2 style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.4pt;vertical-align: baseline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></h2> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">BIOGRAPHY<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color:blue">When Sonny Gets Blue</span></i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader so you don’t have to spend hundreds on the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span style="background:fuchsia"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1025" /></span><span style="font-size:7.0pt; background:fuchsia"> </span><b><i><span style="background:fuchsia">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background:fuchsia"> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Akron</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">Ohio</st1:state></st1:place>, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1026" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region></st1:place>. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1027" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1027" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1028" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1028" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> is about a young gambler who finds himself upright in a cornfield in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Kansas</st1:state></st1:place> with his feet encased in a tub of concrete; how would you get out of a spot like that? <i>Short story.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1029" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1029" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> is about a young woman who moves from <st1:city st="on">Boston</st1:city> to <st1:place st="on">Appalachia</st1:place> and finds there are two kinds of moonshine, the good kind and the kind that can kill you. <i>Short story.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1030" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1030" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1031" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1031" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1032" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="*" style="'width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'/"><![endif]--><img border="0" width="13" height="13" src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/User1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" alt="*" shapes="_x0000_i1032" /><span style="font-size:7.0pt"> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"> <b><i><span style="color:red"> </span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red;background:yellow">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus"><span style="background:yellow">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color:red; background:yellow">:</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank">Scot Tartans</a><b><span style="color:red">: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red;background:yellow">SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background:yellow"> </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank">Parvum Opus CafePress shop</a><b><span style="background:yellow">: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">NEW: Click to Embiggen boxer shorts</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:fuchsia">Eschew Obfuscation bumper sticker</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:aqua">FRESH PICT items</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">No Pain, No Pain</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Star o’ the Bar</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">Flash in the Pants</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">PWE (Protestant Work Ethic) </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">I am here maternity tops</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#00B050;background:yellow">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.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:red"> </span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:red">______________________________________________</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b><a href="http://www.geocities.com/keithops/" target="_blank">KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services</a><b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries. The <st1:place st="on">PO</st1:place> mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want to receive <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b> <b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FF6600;text-transform:uppercase">Link here to look for books on Amazon.com</span></a><b><span style="color:#FF6600">!</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><span style="color:#FF6600">Or click on underlined book links.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>ELSEWHERE</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:fuchsia">Parvum Opus</span></i><span style="color:fuchsia"> now appears at </span></b><a href="http://cafelit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:fuchsia">http://cafelit.blogspot.com</span></a><b><span style="color:fuchsia">/. It is also carried by the </span></b><a href="http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view_cat&db=articles_hurherald&cat=42" target="_blank"><i><span style="color:fuchsia">Hur Herald</span></i></a><b><span style="color:fuchsia">, a web newspaper from <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Calhoun County</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">West Virginia</st1:state></st1:place>. See Editor Bob Weaver's interview with me (February 10, 2007 entry), and the PO every week in <i>Columns</i>.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:blue">WHEN SONNY GETS BLUE!</span> At last, the first installment of Sonny’s biography is out on CD, </b><a href="http://cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson">When Sonny Gets Blue at CafePress.com/sonnyrobertson</a><b>. <span style="color:purple">Check out the video and music clips of great blues man Sonny Robertson and the <st1:street st="on"><st1:address st="on">Howard Street</st1:address></st1:street> Blues Band at </span></b><a href="http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/" target="_blank">http://www.sonnyrobertson.com/</a><b><span style="color:purple"> and </span></b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/rondaria" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/rondaria</a><b><span style="color:purple">, with his new original song, "A Different Shade of Blue". Listen to Judy Joy Jones’s </span></b><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Judy-Joy-Jones-Show/2008/10/12/Blues-Legend-Sonny-Robertson-who-played-with-Jimi-Hendrix-BB-King-Ike-Tina-Turner-Back-Again-" target="_blank">interview</a><b><span style="color:purple"> with Sonny.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://peacemissionindia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FF6600">PEACE MISSION INDIA</span></a><b><span style="color:#FF9900"> blogs the progress of Pastor Roy Jacob’s mission to build churches in India. Now 79, Pastor Roy (who is an Indian) has built 10 churches, and has a girls’ school to rescue girls from the mountains and jungles who otherwise might be married off as children or perhaps sold.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=keithoopuspub-20&o=1&p=27&l=qs1&f=ifr" target="_blank"><i>SEARCH IT OUT ON AMAZON</i></a><b><i> : </i><span style="background:aqua">"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." </span><i>Proverbs 25:2; <o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:aqua">"Get wisdom! Even if it costs you everything, get understanding!"</span><i> Proverbs 4:7:</i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background:yellow">The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories. The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not made of matter, but music.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:black;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050014207899258504.post-61524336076783239682010-07-30T19:04:00.001-04:002010-07-30T19:04:29.147-04:00Parvum Opus 374: Death and Syntaxes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-size: 20pt; font-variant: small-caps; color: black; ">Dulce, utile, et decorum est pro patria scribere</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>McCrumbs</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From Sharyn McCrumb’s newsletter:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">One term in Gaelic for deer is: "the cattle of the elves," and I am charmed by that.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Me too. Also, McCrumb was happy to report that she made it into the OED:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><i>Oxford English Dictionary 3,</i> s.v.<br /> "Life": A full, interesting, and productive existence; a worthwhile, meaningful, or fulfilling lifestyle. Usu. in contexts implying a lack of this. … <span>1988 S. MCCRUMB Bimbos of Death Sun v. 59 What's the matter with you, pinhead? Don't you have a life?<b></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span>I recommend <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345483022?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345483022" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Bimbos of the Death Sun</a></i>, by the way. Don’t know why it hasn’t been made into a movie yet.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; "> </span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Quotage</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Said Herb Hickman:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I think possibly Shakespeare morality could be based on suckupage. He would not have savaged Richard III so, had that not been the politically correct thang in his day. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Not so much suckupage as trying to avoid being hung, drawn, and quartered for offending the queen or being obviously Catholic.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> Moreover, the original of that other quote was from Mad Magazine in the fifties,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Breathes there a man with metabolism so low, he has not envied Dimaggio?"</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dimaggio was not only a great ball player, he was married to Marilyn Monroe for a while.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bill Roberts added regarding the “Breathes there a man” series:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Similar items abound. Unfortunately, many depend upon a base of knowledge that is becoming far less common.<span> </span>My favorite is based on, “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,/ The saddest are, ‘It might have been.’ ”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The version I prefer is,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“Of all sad words of tongue or pen,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“The saddest are,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“For external use only. Cannot be made non-poisonous.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">This leaves the average American of the 21st century wondering what the h*** I’m talking about.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">What he’s talking about is the poem “Maud Muller” by John Greenleaf Whittier. And maybe rubbing alcohol.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Annage</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Anne deBronkart wrote about the new –age suffix:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">You have, once again, struck a nerve here. You remind me of my middle school-media-center days, when I was fortunate enough to know some delightful youngsters who loved playing with words. Three or four of them were so smitten by the game that they'd come to me before home room with things they'd thought up overnight, like negative words that have no positive form. Have you ever known anyone who was [in]ept, [dis]gruntled, [non]plussed, [un]couth... These same kids enjoyed switching initial consonants between adjacent words (Som Tawyer and Camuel Slemens are okay, but don't try it with Huckleberry Finn), or even initial paragraphs (Hail the Kinquering Congs).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span> </span>And I have a wonderful granddaughter who stocks her car with snackage before she starts her 2-hr. trip back to college (Shenandoah, in Winchester VA).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I’ve heard “snackage”, maybe from my nephew, and expect some marketer to come up with a new product by that name.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Dilemnas</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dave deBronkart referred me to a <a href="http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2010/07/dilemma-or-dilemna.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">blog</a> about the word “dilemma” being spelled, and presumably pronounced, “dilemna” (dilemNa). That spelling does not turn up in <a href="http://dict.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">dict.org</a>, usually a pretty good source with a decent etymology. If you do a Google search, you’ll find some uses of “dilemna” and discussion of the spelling , but I’ve never heard or read that form. The blogger thinks it may be a regional spelling, which is plausible. I would not use it. Any OED help out there?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Comnas</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Remember Dave’s book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981650430?ie=UTF8&tag=keithoopuspub-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0981650430" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i>Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig</i></a>:<span> </span>Fred wondered if the last comma in that series affects the meaning, that is, does the comma make it mean, or not mean, laugh like a pig, sing like a pig, and eat like a pig. In this case, I happen to know that Dave sings in barbershop quartets so he doesn’t sing like a pig, and doesn’t laugh like a pig. Eating like a pig remains. Sometimes the modifying phrase can be repeated for emphasis or for clarification. Check out these lyrics by Bob Dylan (“Just Like a Woman”:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">She takes just like a woman, yes she does</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">She makes love just like a woman, yes she does</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">And she aches just like a woman</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But she breaks just like a little girl.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i>“She takes, makes love, and aches just like a woman.” </i>In this case the modifier applies to all three elements of the series. But the comma or lack of it after the next-to-last series item has no grammatical effect either way.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Bad Bulwer-Lytton</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jan Gregg-Kelm referred me to the <a href="http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2010.htm" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">2010 Bulwer-Lytton contest</a>, the bad writing contest inspired by “It was a dark and stormy night”, which I don’t think is such a bad sentence (after all, some nights are darker than others), but I never read any further in Bulwer-Lytton; maybe he gets worse. Anyway, recent B-W winners seem to depend too much on strained and absurd metaphors and awkward, rambling sentence structure, rather than something the average, sincere, bad writer would produce. However, I do like this year’s detective fiction winner:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">She walked into my office wearing a body that would make a man write bad checks, but in this paperless age you would first have to obtain her ABA Routing Transit Number and Account Number and then disable your own Overdraft Protection in order to do so. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If it ended at the first comma, it would work.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Garrison Keillor</a> is deft and adept at detective pulpage in his Guy Noir character, as in this example which eerily echoes (or more likely is echoed by) the Bulwer-Lytton winner:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span lang="EN">She </span>was<span lang="EN"> tall and dark and so beautiful you wanted to just give her all your money right way and skip the preliminaries.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Bad Syntax = Bad Manners</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From Judith Martin’s Miss Manners etiquette column:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dear Miss Manners:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">My<i> </i><span>girlfriend of many years had her best friend of many years' husband's mother die.<i></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This sentence is bad in so many ways. You might say colloquially, “My friend had her car break down on her” and we would know she did not cause the breakdown, though most often to have something done means to cause it to be done for you. I can’t think of any occasion for saying anyone had anyone die, except for people who hire contract killers. Don’t say it and don’t do it.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This writer composed a complicated and idiotic sentence out of laziness. A slight improvement would be:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The <span>mother</span> of the husband of the best friend for many years of my long-time girlfriend died.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">And even that’s a bad sentence. Better to break it up into short sentences, and to omit the irrelevant bit about the length of friendships, or even about the relationships. Is it any surprise that the question of etiquette involved wearing flip-flops to the funeral?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>My Mistake</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bruce asked:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.05pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(253, 233, 217); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Mixing the singular with the plural is common now. Has the rule changed?<br />Note this recent line in PO.<br /><br />“When we were fighting the Indians, we got Indian giver, meaning SOMEONE<br />who takes back what THEY'VE given.”<br /><br />I think it was probably politically correct in the early years of the<br />feminist movement. "They" is less offensive than the grammatically correct<br />"he" and less cumbersome than "she or he."</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">No, the rule hasn’t changed. I was just careless. It’s pretty common to see the mixing of singular and plural that way because the PC phrasing is so often strained: “someone who takes back what he or she has given” is just clumsy; “people who take back what they’ve given” isn’t accurate in referring to the singular “Indian giver”.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>BIOGRAPHY</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Buy Sonny Robertson’s intro biography on CD, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/sonnyrobertson.445668477" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><i><span style="color: blue; ">When Sonny Gets Blue</span></i></a>, at CafePress. (Note that if the text on the spine is misaligned, it’s the fault of CafePress, not me.) Also, four of his early pre-blues R&B dance songs are now on YouTube. Search for Sonny Robertson + The Tabs.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>________________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; ">ONLINE PUBS </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I’m publishing for the Kindle digital reader with Amazon and on Lulu.com for download to computer and for printing. Amazon now has a downloadable Kindle reader so you don’t have to spend hundreds on the little handheld device. Most of these titles are available in both locations. Search for Rhonda Keith on Amazon.com Kindle store <i>and</i> Lulu.com.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span><b><i><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Man from Scratch</span></i></b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> is about cloning, escort services, murder, and restaurants in Akron, Ohio, featuring Roxy Barbarino, writer for <i>Adventuress Magazine</i>. <i>Novel</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>A Walk Around Stonehaven</i></b> is a travel article on my trip to Scotland. <i>Short article with photos.</i> <i>(Lulu.com only.)</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>The Wish Book</i></b> is fantasy-suspense-romance featuring the old Sears Roebuck catalogues. <i>Novella.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Carl Kriegbaum Sleeps with the Corn</i></b> 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? <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Still Ridge</i></b> 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. <i>Short story.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Whither Spooning?</i></b> asks whether synchronized spooning can be admitted to the 2010 Winter Olympics. <i>Humorous sports article.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Cats:</i></b> 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. <i>Autobiographical essay.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><img border="0" width="13" height="13" alt="*" /><span style="font-size: 7pt; "> </span><b><i>Parvum Opus Volume I</i></b><i>. </i>The first year (December 2002 through 2003). You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get PO’ed. <i>Collection of columns.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.25in; "> <b><i><span style="color: red; "> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">NEW PRODUCTS in </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); "><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">CafePress</span></a><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">:</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/scottartans" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Scot Tartans</a><b><span style="color: red; ">: T-shirts and more (custom orders available).</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">T-Shirts & mug: FRESH PICT, with two ancient Pictish designs</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">BUMPER STICKER: FRESH PICT, white on blue, with 10th Century Pict-Scot Merman Cross (blue on white also available)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">SIGG WATER BOTTLE, ORGANIC T-SHIRTS IN GREAT COLORS, MINI-CAMERAS, DENIM SHIRTS, MUGS, TOTE BAGS, MOUSE PAD, TEDDY BEAR, AND MUCH MORE AT</span><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> </span></b><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/parvumopus" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Parvum Opus CafePress shop</a><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">: (NOTE: There are problems viewing this site with Firefox but Earthlink seems OK.)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">NEW: Click to Embiggen boxer shorts</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: fuchsia; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Eschew Obfuscation bumper sticker</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: aqua; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">FRESH PICT items</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Graphic covers of my books</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dulce, Utile, et Decorum (Sweet, Useful, and Proper), title of new collection of Parvum Opus, Volume I</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">BUMPER STICKER: Dulce, Utile, et Decorum</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">No Pain, No Pain</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Star o’ the Bar</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Veritas Vincit (Truth Conquers) with Keith clan Catti insignia</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Flash in the Pants</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">If you're so smart why aren't you me?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">PWE (Protestant Work Ethic)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I am here maternity tops</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I eat dead things (doggy shirt, pet dishes, and BBQ apron)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 176, 80); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">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.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span style="color: red; "> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><i><span style="color: red; ">______________________________<wbr>________________</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i> </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Trivium pursuit ~ rhetoric, grammar, and logic, or reading, writing, and reckoning: <i>Parvum Opus</i> discusses language, education, journalism, culture, and more. <i>Parvum Opus</i> by Rhonda Keith is a publication of </b><a href="http://www.geocities.com/keithops/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services</a><b>. Editorial input provided by Fred Stephens. Rhonda Keith is a long-time writer, editor, and English teacher. 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 <i>Parvum Opus</i>, please e-mail, and I'll take you off the mailing list.</b> <b>Copyright Rhonda Keith 2010. <i>Parvum Opus</i> or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b> </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b>Translate into 12 languages, including two forms of Chinese, using </b><a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 101, 204); ">Babelfish</a><b>.</b></p></span>Rhonda Keith Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14429043796129900356noreply@blogger.com0