There is a serious strip (not a 'comic' strip) regarding Climate Change that should be a 'must read' for any thinking person.
I read it, and even left a comment concerning one panel's use of the term 'comprised of' instead of 'composed of'. Adding of to comprised is incorrect usage, no matter how 'popular' it has become to do so. And yes, that is a personal opinion, for what it's worth.
A few hours later the strip's creator had evidently read my comment (along with other grammar errors reported in the comments) and had made corrections. Good for him.
Now I feel better.
I posted the above on my Writers List certain that surely I'd get some responses. And I did. (Sorry about calling you 'Shirley')
#
Regarding the octothorpe The National Post featured an opinion piece that noted:
. . . it was in decline for years. After generations of vigorous life everywhere in the retailing world where numbers were written, it lost out to computerized invoices and receipts that simply ignored its value. In literature, after centuries showing printers where to put spaces, it was abolished by computers that do the same job with the touch of a keyboard.
Okay. But I, for one, still use the octothorpe to mark an extra space between scenes in my novel. Consider this: when the writer ignores the octothorpe and depends only on an extra tap of the return key, when the scene ends at the visual end of a manuscript page and the next scene begins on the monitor's next page, this extra space is unseen by the reader. Below is an example of what I mean:
The story is moving along and we reach the end of the page, and the scene ends here.
Now comes the next scene and it begins at the top of this, the next page.
See what I mean? No way to instantly know one scene ended and another scene began. But consider this:
The story is moving along and we reach the end of the page, and the scene ends here.
#
Now the next scene begins here, at the top of this next page.
See what I mean? The trusty old octothorpe has saved the day. The reader seamlessly skipped to the next scene.
#
3 QUARKS DAILY has a piece titled Some notes on the grammar of the curry. I was amazed after reading the method used in preparing authentic curry.
Do people actually go to all that trouble just to cook some meat and potatoes? Heck Fire! I was born and raised in Indiana where meat and potatoes (seasoned with only salt and pepper) was the staple of our daily meals. I'm 71 years old now and have never tasted Indian Curry. And given the now precarious state of my aged gastrointestinal tract, I probably never will.
I'm not complaining, though.
#
Can anyone make sense of the following sentence taken from from Walter Scott's novel, Rob Roy?
"He's no a'thegither sae void o' sense neither; he has a gloaming sight o' what's reasonable--that is anes and awa'--a glisk and nae mair; but he's crack-brained and cockle-headed about his nipperty-tipperty poetry nonsense--He'll glowr at an auld-warld barkit aik-snag as if it were a queez-maddam in full bearing; and a naked craig, wi' a bum jawing ower't, is unto him as a garden garnisht with flowering knots and choice pot-herbs."
Not me.
#
While reading in some obscure source, I happened upon a new word (new to me, that is) -- neologism. Of course, me being me, I delved into the meaning of the word, finally arriving at:
In psychiatry, the term neologism is used to describe the use of words that only have meaning to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning. This is considered normal in children, but a symptom of thought disorder (indicative of a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia) in adults.
People with autism also may create neologisms. In addition, use of neologisms may also be related to aphasia acquired after brain damage resulting from a stroke or head injury.
Well! I decided immediately that here (suitably adapted) is something I can use in my novel. And I will.
More about neologisms here at Wikipedia.
#
Oh! And did you know that a monoglot is a person capable of speaking only a single language?
__________
No comments:
Post a Comment