1 Woot.
2 So you ever wonder how Facebookspeak evolved?
3 That wasn't a thesis statement.
4 By it's nature it was rhetorical.
5 Lol.
6 For years people spoke reasonably normal, although each generation has its own way of speaking I suppose.
7 Lmfao.
8 Smh.
9 I guess it's okay so long as it doesn't evolve to brainwashing, which many suspect it already has.
10 Not a bad theory.
11 People who run corporations know how to throw products at people so they will spend money.
12 I don't know where this is headed.
13 I'm going to drive this off the road and into some weeds.
14 Nice. I have little black birdies flying around my head.
15 I'm ready to get out my selfie-stick and post this on Pinterest.
16 Moving On, Part One: <heading for higher ground> Time distorts. Absolute no time distorts absolutely.
17 Don't try. Sometimes you just need suffer the cringe benefits of totalitarian writers, especially if they haven't shaved yet.
18 I keep thinking of rocking the stubble look.
19 Okay, so that was a struggle, but I believe I have awakened enough to settle on higher ground, albeit a tad moist.
20 I sat down last night and began all this magic when my laptop kept spinning and buffering once more.
21 I really need to call it something other than a laptop. It's more like an upper-chest top, bordering on becoming a bibtop.
22 Don't get old.
23 Nothing better than a spinning and buffering computer, I tell you.
24 Okay. I got crotchety the past few days, especially with everyone making all over Columbus Day. I still don't see it, but it has passed, so it is on to new adventures.
25 I thought a few more grammar lessons from Warriner might work.
26 Allow me to preface with some disclaimers.
27 The English language changes; the rules go into some sort of distorted flux as time moves on, and grammarians can never get together and agree on how to use commas.
28 I mentioned that I hug the Oxford comma, for example.
29 But I don't care that people misuse the word "data," which is considered plural by old-schoolers. Data are?
30 Well, yeah. But that one is in state of flux.
31 I'm going with Warriner's heavier hitter this morning, entitled English Grammar and Composition Complete Course.
32 It is a red edition, published in 1988. You know that one has some fierce rules.
33 I'm looking to see what can stay and what can serve to confuse. I left off on discover and invent, which coincided with Columbus Day.
34 I loves me some coincidences in October.
35 So.
36 Got your bib on?
37 Here go:
I'm not sure if this remains, but I always loved the subtle difference between famous and notorious. Here's Warriner, from the '88 edition:
famous, notorious Famous means "well and widely known."Notorious means "widely known" but in an unfavorable sense.
38 It surprises me that Warriner didn't include infamous, which means having an extremely bad reputation, or deserving of or causing an evil reputation; detestable.
39 Let us continue with Warriner:
fewer, less In standard formal English fewer (not less)
is used before a plural noun. Less is used before a
singular noun.
We printed fewer [not less] prom tickets this year.
I spent less time in the library this morning.
40 This next one is one I often would teach on the first day of school. I don't know why; teachers sometimes become ritualistic, like ball players. Here's Warriner, who detoured this one backwards, to the Parts of Speech section.
41 I'll shorten Warriner's rather lengthy study of this one; sometimes that good book goes into minute details, just to cover all bases. Here is how I would lay it out:
good, well
You do things well, not good. Technically, well is an adverb.
NON-STANDARD You did that good. You sang good. WRONG!
STANDARD You did that well. You sang well.
The word good is an adjective, meaning it affects nouns and pronouns only:
STANDARD He is a good boy. He does good things.
42 I haven't been into a Walgreens in Sacramento yet, but two different Walgreens in my San Jose neighborhood would have its clerks always say, "Be well."
43 As an English nerd, I would always be grateful that they didn't say, "Be good."
44 I might turn on them and shout, "Nobody tells ME what to do!" and walk out.
45 Whoa! I just Googled Walgreens "be well" and it turns out that they JUST stopped doing that this morning! Here it is, from no lesser a paper than the Chicago Tribune:
17 Don't try. Sometimes you just need suffer the cringe benefits of totalitarian writers, especially if they haven't shaved yet.
18 I keep thinking of rocking the stubble look.
19 Okay, so that was a struggle, but I believe I have awakened enough to settle on higher ground, albeit a tad moist.
20 I sat down last night and began all this magic when my laptop kept spinning and buffering once more.
21 I really need to call it something other than a laptop. It's more like an upper-chest top, bordering on becoming a bibtop.
22 Don't get old.
23 Nothing better than a spinning and buffering computer, I tell you.
24 Okay. I got crotchety the past few days, especially with everyone making all over Columbus Day. I still don't see it, but it has passed, so it is on to new adventures.
25 I thought a few more grammar lessons from Warriner might work.
26 Allow me to preface with some disclaimers.
27 The English language changes; the rules go into some sort of distorted flux as time moves on, and grammarians can never get together and agree on how to use commas.
28 I mentioned that I hug the Oxford comma, for example.
29 But I don't care that people misuse the word "data," which is considered plural by old-schoolers. Data are?
30 Well, yeah. But that one is in state of flux.
31 I'm going with Warriner's heavier hitter this morning, entitled English Grammar and Composition Complete Course.
32 It is a red edition, published in 1988. You know that one has some fierce rules.
33 I'm looking to see what can stay and what can serve to confuse. I left off on discover and invent, which coincided with Columbus Day.
34 I loves me some coincidences in October.
35 So.
36 Got your bib on?
37 Here go:
I'm not sure if this remains, but I always loved the subtle difference between famous and notorious. Here's Warriner, from the '88 edition:
famous, notorious Famous means "well and widely known."Notorious means "widely known" but in an unfavorable sense.
38 It surprises me that Warriner didn't include infamous, which means having an extremely bad reputation, or deserving of or causing an evil reputation; detestable.
39 Let us continue with Warriner:
fewer, less In standard formal English fewer (not less)
is used before a plural noun. Less is used before a
singular noun.
We printed fewer [not less] prom tickets this year.
I spent less time in the library this morning.
40 This next one is one I often would teach on the first day of school. I don't know why; teachers sometimes become ritualistic, like ball players. Here's Warriner, who detoured this one backwards, to the Parts of Speech section.
41 I'll shorten Warriner's rather lengthy study of this one; sometimes that good book goes into minute details, just to cover all bases. Here is how I would lay it out:
good, well
You do things well, not good. Technically, well is an adverb.
NON-STANDARD You did that good. You sang good. WRONG!
STANDARD You did that well. You sang well.
The word good is an adjective, meaning it affects nouns and pronouns only:
STANDARD He is a good boy. He does good things.
42 I haven't been into a Walgreens in Sacramento yet, but two different Walgreens in my San Jose neighborhood would have its clerks always say, "Be well."
43 As an English nerd, I would always be grateful that they didn't say, "Be good."
44 I might turn on them and shout, "Nobody tells ME what to do!" and walk out.
45 Whoa! I just Googled Walgreens "be well" and it turns out that they JUST stopped doing that this morning! Here it is, from no lesser a paper than the Chicago Tribune:
46 <Twilight Zone music up>
47 Dude. I can't make this stuff up. When I continually report coincidences I post them. Is this considered a Heidi trip?
48 Well, yes, even though I've not heard the name Heidi, nor seen it written anywhere this morning.
49 AND the second I put the period after the word morning my cell phone rang with a vengeance.
50 It was a guy from some Junk R Us place who was coming this morning to pick up my old chair, The Cloud.
51 It's relatively new, but I can take out a chair pretty quickly these days.
52 For the record, his name isn't Heidi, but my phone never rings this early, and certainly not frantically. I'd say off the hook, but in the age of cell phones, it would be lost on nearly everyone.
53 And for the record: it scared the holy shit out of me.
54 That's my cue to exit.
55 Gottago.
56 See you again.
57 Have a GREAT day.
58 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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