At a family gathering Sunday night, I received, as a belated birthday gift, a book titled: Bill Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right.
It opened the floodgates of irritation as most members of the family recounted the MISusage of many a word.
Word Snobbery -- it runs in the family...
Main sources of irritation? NUKE-YA-LUR instead of NEW-CLEE-UR...Oh that's a bad one!
Running a close second: SHER-BERT instead of SHER-BET...BET, people it's sherBET!
And then there's FLUSTRATED...FLUSTRATED? FRUSTRATED, not FLUStrated.
LIT-UH-CHURE...uh, no LIT-ER-A-TURE
REEL-A-TUR...It's REAL-TOR!
PER-SER-VERE...uh,uh -- PER-SEH-VERE
ACROST...no, ACROSS -- no T
A couple of the kids were wondering how people get WORSH out of WASH...It's not WORSHINGTON, it's WASHINGTON!
We finally stopped after declaiming the folly of interchanging THEN and THAN...
But we could have gone on much longer...It was great fun!!
I felt much better afterwards, until I started reading my new book and discovered that while we are Word Snobs, we are hypocritical ones. Apparently there are a few words that we are not using correctly ourselves. At least they are none of the above...
We will continue to enjoy the Sport of Word Snobbery as a family, and I look forward to the venting of additions to our misusage collection at our next gathering.
I think we should consider prizes for the best addition...and maybe t-shirts that we can use to inform the world of needed corrections...
I love my family!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sometimes I feel like a genderless child??
Have you heard the story about the genderless baby? No -- this poor child does not have a physical anomaly. Rather, uh...it is more likely to end up with a psychological anomaly since, uh...its parents have decided to keep, uh...its gender a secret -- from everyone. Only the parents, siblings and the midwives who delivered, uh...it are in on the truth. Even the grandparents are not allowed to know...
It seems the parents think that it is unfair to saddle a child with a gender expectation that impacts people's interaction with them, and the activities the child is encouraged to participate in. They think the child should decide for, uh...itself how, uh...it defines its gender.
Yeah, right...
First of all, it seems pretty obvious that people come in 2 kinds. There is not: C) none of the above, on the choices available.
Secondly, what do these parents think of their own gender? Is it bad to be "gendered"? Are they dissatisfied with their gender, and wish it were not so? If they are happy with what they 'got', why do they think their children won't be? And what exactly IS an genderless person?
Thirdly, I hope little Storm confounds them all by gravitating toward dollies and ruffles, if she's a girl, or 'vrooming' cars around the floor and crashing them, if he's a boy...I know I didn't teach my kids some of the very stereotypical behaviors they exhibited...It was just in them.
Let's hope that Storm's parents accept the innate "choices" he/she makes...
Poor kid.
It seems the parents think that it is unfair to saddle a child with a gender expectation that impacts people's interaction with them, and the activities the child is encouraged to participate in. They think the child should decide for, uh...itself how, uh...it defines its gender.
Yeah, right...
First of all, it seems pretty obvious that people come in 2 kinds. There is not: C) none of the above, on the choices available.
Secondly, what do these parents think of their own gender? Is it bad to be "gendered"? Are they dissatisfied with their gender, and wish it were not so? If they are happy with what they 'got', why do they think their children won't be? And what exactly IS an genderless person?
Thirdly, I hope little Storm confounds them all by gravitating toward dollies and ruffles, if she's a girl, or 'vrooming' cars around the floor and crashing them, if he's a boy...I know I didn't teach my kids some of the very stereotypical behaviors they exhibited...It was just in them.
Let's hope that Storm's parents accept the innate "choices" he/she makes...
Poor kid.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
So we're all still here...
...just like I thought we would be.
Matt. 24:36 says: "But of that exact day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
That's sounds pretty definite to me, and I believe it. I did ponder, a bit, what it might be like to be convinced that the world was ending on Saturday...What would I do differently than the other days of my life?
I couldn't think of much...Since everyone I love the most would most likely be coming with me, I didn't have to say goodbyes or leave with regret.
Frankly, the whole scenario didn't seem to merit a lot of changes. Our time on earth could be done at any moment -- one way or the other. I want to be doing what I believe is most important regardless of the timing of The End.
It is a conundrum to me how God has tied up our eternal purpose in the finiteness of time. We are seeking eternal truths and eternal treasures while bound in time and space, and the physical limitations of our bodies and the laws of creation. It's weird when you ponder it...and awesome too. Because we can do it. We can do things that affect eternity, and one day we will know how it all works.
But in the meantime, we're all still here. And since God decided that, it's fine with me.
Matt. 24:36 says: "But of that exact day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
That's sounds pretty definite to me, and I believe it. I did ponder, a bit, what it might be like to be convinced that the world was ending on Saturday...What would I do differently than the other days of my life?
I couldn't think of much...Since everyone I love the most would most likely be coming with me, I didn't have to say goodbyes or leave with regret.
Frankly, the whole scenario didn't seem to merit a lot of changes. Our time on earth could be done at any moment -- one way or the other. I want to be doing what I believe is most important regardless of the timing of The End.
It is a conundrum to me how God has tied up our eternal purpose in the finiteness of time. We are seeking eternal truths and eternal treasures while bound in time and space, and the physical limitations of our bodies and the laws of creation. It's weird when you ponder it...and awesome too. Because we can do it. We can do things that affect eternity, and one day we will know how it all works.
But in the meantime, we're all still here. And since God decided that, it's fine with me.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Ding Dong, Bin Laden is dead...
I was surprised to hear the breaking news last Sunday...not because I thought it was such a momentous event, but because I hadn't even thought about Bin Laden for a long time. Well, good -- I thought -- justice was served.
I was even more surprised to see the celebrating in the streets...It's not like the war on terror was won with this blow to Al Qaida...Why the big party? Then my wise sister opined that we on the west coast probably don't appreciate the loss and fear that was experienced at Bin Laden's hands in the cities of New York and D.C.
I think she's right.
I'm not into celebrating the need to assassinate any human being...but I would go with Mark Twain's quote: " I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."
For me the biggest positive in this situation was pointed out by President Bush; that our military will mete out justice, no matter how long it takes. I am very proud of the phenomenal men and women in our military, who, Bin Laden or no, fight the war on terror every day...And I admit that I am enthralled with Special Ops -- the discipline, the courage, the successful missions accomplished under great duress.
If we could only say that one-tenth of that were true of our media...Oh for goodness! I was anxious to hear the details of the mission, how these heroic soldiers accomplished justice -- but the ever-changing details of who was there, with what, doing what...The corrections, and corrections of corrections...I guess this is what happens to media when you are more concerned about being first than being right.
I'll wait for the book...
I will say now, with the utmost hypocrisy, as I am writing about this very thing, that I am tired of hearing about the subject. It is what it is, and you can't change what was done anyway. I am proud that our country decided to treat Bin Laden's body with respect, despite his lack of worthiness. It is what we would wish others to do for our men lost in battle.
He was a formidable foe...and now his body is lost to this world, just like his soul was lost to good.
I was even more surprised to see the celebrating in the streets...It's not like the war on terror was won with this blow to Al Qaida...Why the big party? Then my wise sister opined that we on the west coast probably don't appreciate the loss and fear that was experienced at Bin Laden's hands in the cities of New York and D.C.
I think she's right.
I'm not into celebrating the need to assassinate any human being...but I would go with Mark Twain's quote: " I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."
For me the biggest positive in this situation was pointed out by President Bush; that our military will mete out justice, no matter how long it takes. I am very proud of the phenomenal men and women in our military, who, Bin Laden or no, fight the war on terror every day...And I admit that I am enthralled with Special Ops -- the discipline, the courage, the successful missions accomplished under great duress.
If we could only say that one-tenth of that were true of our media...Oh for goodness! I was anxious to hear the details of the mission, how these heroic soldiers accomplished justice -- but the ever-changing details of who was there, with what, doing what...The corrections, and corrections of corrections...I guess this is what happens to media when you are more concerned about being first than being right.
I'll wait for the book...
I will say now, with the utmost hypocrisy, as I am writing about this very thing, that I am tired of hearing about the subject. It is what it is, and you can't change what was done anyway. I am proud that our country decided to treat Bin Laden's body with respect, despite his lack of worthiness. It is what we would wish others to do for our men lost in battle.
He was a formidable foe...and now his body is lost to this world, just like his soul was lost to good.
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