When Does Childhood End?

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
--Robert Frost

Below is a short excerpt from Nerd Nite Ann Arbor, an advertised event that was presented last night at the Ann Arbor District Library. The reason this is included in my blog should become self-evident as soon as you read the excerpt, which is the next paragraph.

Dr. Tim Chambers -- who works on science education, both locally as a teacher, and with organizations like NASA -- fills us in on exoplanet research. Astronomers have found thousands of planets beyond our solar system -- what might we learn about and from their discoveries? And what’s still unknown?

Dr. Tim Chambers, is, of course, my eldest grandson.

You can read more about Tim and Nerd Nite Ann Arbor at:

http://annarbor.nerdnite.com/

_____

The Death of Adulthood in American Culture is recent article in the magazine section of The New York Times that presents the concept: Adulthood as we have known it has become conceptually untenable.

All MEN who are observant enough and who can think for themselves will immediately see the trueness in the article's message.

All WOMEN who are observant enough and who can think for themselves will see it as ridiculous and hate the article's message.

. . . in my opinion.

_____

Tonight I will be heading out to the scrub land to watch over Eva and her domain. This will be a long stay away from home; I will remain in residence at the large house for three full weeks while the owners are enjoying a well-earned vacation, touring as much of Europe as possible.

I will try to keep the blog filled with interesting news during this interlude.

_____

Did You Know . . .?

A recent study shows that people who sit for prolonged periods can help prevent serious health problems by taking a five-minute walk once an hour.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1995 The Washington Post published a 35,000-word manifesto written by the Unabomber, who since the late 1970s had eluded authorities while carrying out a series of bombings across the United States that killed 3 people and injured another 23. After reading the manifesto, David Kaczynski realized the writing style was similar to that of his brother, Theodore Kaczynski, and notified the F.B.I. On April 3, 1996, Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his isolated cabin near Lincoln, Montana, where investigators found evidence linking him to the Unabomber crimes. Kaczynski pled guilty and received four life sentences without the possibility of parole. He is serving his sentence at the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

trepanning
verb
1. Using a  saw-like instrument to remove circular sections of bone.
2. (Surgery)  removing a circular section of bone from the skull.

Trepanning, or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Adam West

(born September 19, 1928)

Adam West is an American actor. After six decades in television, he is perhaps best known for the title role in the 1960s ABC series Batman and its theatrical feature film.

Joan Lunden

(born September 19, 1950)

Joan Lunden is an American journalist, author and television host. She was the co-host of ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) from 1980-97, and has authored eight books.

David Keith McCallum, Jr.

(born 19 September 1933)

David McCallum is a Scottish actor. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68), as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and for his current role as NCIS Medical Examiner, Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the series NCIS.

Lesley Lawson

(born September 19, 1949)

Twiggy, is an English model. In the mid-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London. Twiggy was initially known for her thin build (thus her nickname) and her androgynous look.

__________

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads."
--François Mauriac

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

     

Hey! Is It Winter Yet?

Tucson Weather Today
_____

Do you know what this is?

It's an orchidometer

An orchidometer is a medical instrument used to measure the volume of the testicles.

No matter how old one gets, it seems that there is always something of great value to be learned.

#

A thought just came to me . . .

positions of the planets change
from all geometric perspectives
...even a millennium or two after
the human race has faded away

Weird thought, huh?

#

Whenever I am reading a published short story or novel and I encounter words such as 'learnt' or 'dreamt' I pause to contemplate my reaction to them. If I were writing I would shun such words and use the form 'learned' or 'dreamed' even though I realize that the form the author used was grammatically correct. 'Learnt' is the past participle, past tense of learn. And 'dreamt' is the past participle, past tense of dream.

A few other words on the same order are:

burned, burnt
kneeled, knelt
leaned, learnt
leaped, leapt
spelled, spelt
spilled, spilt
spoiled, spoilt

It seems that the 'ed' ending is most often used in American English and the 't' ending in British English.

Source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/askoxfordredirect

The site http://oxforddictionaries.com/ is a valuable tool for the serious writer.

#

How many words for snow exist in the language of the Eskimo? Not as many as you might have been led to believe. If you'd like to read an article regarding language myths and other interesting language related things, here is the link.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/eskimo_us

The article is by Dave Wilton who is a graduate student in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, the editor of the website http://wordorigins.org/ and the author of Word Myths: Debunking Urban Legends by Oxford University Press.

#

At The Writer's Almanac I read a poem written by Charles Wright that grabbed me. A poem will do that, occasionally. Here is the first verse:

15

You still love the ones you loved
back when you loved them--books.
Records, and people.
Nothing much changes in the glittering rooms of the heart,
Only the dark spaces half-reclaimed.
And then not much,
An image, a line. sometimes a song.

And in another section, below that poem, was written:

J.D. Salinger was born in New York City in 1919. He wanted to be a writer, and his dream was to publish his fiction in The New Yorker, which rejected his work over and over. In November of 1941, he finally got an acceptance letter from The New Yorker for a short story called "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," about a teenager named Holden Caulfield. It was set to come out in the Christmas issue, but then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the story was put on hold. Salinger was drafted into the Army, deployed in the ground force invasion of Normandy, and he was part of the Battle of the Bulge and some of the worst fighting of WWII. When the war ended, Salinger checked into an Army general hospital in Nuremberg, suffering from shell shock. In 1946, The New Yorker finally published "Slight Rebellion Off Madison." Salinger took the character of Holden Caulfield, and he wrote an entire novel about him. And even though it got mixed reviews and Salinger refused to help with publicity at all, it was a best seller: The Catcher in the Rye (1951). And Salinger became a celebrity, which he hated, so he became a recluse. He died just this past January (2010), at the age of 91.

And yet there are hopeful beginning writers who submit one manuscript, one time, to one or two of the major markets, and when rejected, they then become hurt and all discouraged and they quit trying.

Oh well . . .

#

What's the difference between an 'estate tax' and a 'death tax?' According to several online dictionaries, there is no difference. Both terms are defined as "a tax levied on the net value of the estate of a deceased person before distribution to the heirs." But the citizens making up the general public are more amenable to voting for the establishment of an 'estate tax' than for a 'death tax.'

I wonder why that is?


Of course, I know why that is. There is this little thing called 'nuance.'

nuance: subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

But is there not a 'deeper' meaning of the word, 'nuance?' I think so. And I think that I understand it.

Here is an example:

He was the son of a prosperous Jewish importer of Kosher cheese.
He was the spawn of a rich Jew who profited from buying and selling foreign Kosher cheese.

Both sentences say the same thing, on the surface, but each has its own 'nuance.'

See what I mean?

Of course you do.

#

The term 'snowclone' was coined in 2004 by blogger Glen Whitman at the prompting of linguist Geoffrey Pullum.

The Snowclone Database will tickle your funny bone.

#

For those who might might have accidentally missed it, the public link to my Mountains photo album on Facebook is:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079125&id=1024458708&l=052cd53c53

#

Here is a blog I really like . . .

link to Blue Collar Atheist blog --
http://blue-collar-atheist.com/
Hank Fox is one helluva writer
Link to 'Buy The Book' --
http://hankfoxbooks.com/

__________