Do You Whinge Or Do You Whine?

Tucson Weather Today

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On this morning's TV news regarding the contraception dispute between the government and religion, I heard some Bishop, or it might have been some other high Catholic official, say that the Church and President Obama were "at loggerheads." At loggerheads? Loggerheads? What in Darwin's Green Earth does that mean?

The phrase: at loggerheads simply means: in dispute with. Originally, a loggerhead was used with the meaning of a stupid person - a blockhead.

The idiom has now come to mean: If people are at loggerheads, they are arguing and can't agree on anything.

The Bishop (or whatever he is) might have better said, "The Church and President Obama disagree with each other on some points."

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Happy Birthday

Alice Walker

born February 9, 1944

Author of The Color Purple

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Earlier today I ran across a blog entry written by some Brit who spoke of "... all those whinging cretins..." -- and this reminded me of a Limerick I had several years ago written making fun of the Brits who say whinge -- pronounced Whin-j. So I searched through my 'Old Writings' folder until I found it.

Here it is:

Whenever a Brit says, "whinge"
I shudder, I quake and I cringe.
In the States, we say, "whine"
Which is perfectly fine --
A Yank would never say, "whinge"


The above indicates that I might not be an Anglophile.

And despite my paternal lineage . . . I'm not.
(more about this subject at some other time)

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To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
--Edmund Burke

Is English Grammar Doomed?

Tucson Weather Today

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Every time I hear someone say "...comprised of..." it brings me closer to becoming hysterical. A few minutes ago Garret Lewis, on Tucson Radio Station KNST, spoke of brownies being "comprised of" something or other. Using correct grammar, he should have said either "composed of" or "...comprises..." because the word "of" is never correctly used with the word "comprised."

Dr. Grammar writes:

Comprise?

"Nothing is ever 'comprised of' something. To comprise means 'to contain or to embrace': The jury comprises seven women and five men.

All of the following mean the same thing:
The jury is composed of seven women and five men.
The jury is made up of seven women and five men.
Seven women and five men constitute the jury.
Seven women and five men make up the jury.

Even when used correctly, in my humble opinion, comprise and constitute tend to sound stilted. Some form of is made up of sounds better in most cases."

Why is this important? Because using a word incorrectly (as so many public speakers do these days) changes its meaning in the minds of the hearers who themselves repeat the mistake, which helps destroy the effectiveness of the English language, word by word by word.

There are, of course, times when incorrect grammar is excusable and even preferable, such as when words are purposely used incorrectly in a fiction story's character dialogue, or when consciously used incorrectly in a poem to make a point in an artistic manner.


Robert Brault once wrote: "Do not be surprised when those who ignore the rules of grammar also ignore the law. After all, the law is just so much grammar."

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Happy Birthday

John Grisham

Born February 8, 1955

(When I was 16)

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Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.
--Mark Twain

Gonna Vote Early And Who Cares?

Tucson Weather Today

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The U.S. mail brought me my Early Vote By Mail ballot in which I can mark my choice for the Republican candidate and send back by February 24, 2012. I didn't realize that there would be so many names on the ballot who are still listed as running for president. They are all there, even the ones who have withdrawn from the race. Since I really do not want to vote for either of the top two contenders, I can just mark any old choice and send it in.

My choice? Who cares?

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The Fact Checker reported on Mitt Romney’s misfire on the national anthem in his speech of February 2, 2012 when he said: "We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places."

Evidently there are other countries who use the hand-over-the-heart salute during the playing of their national anthems, and FDR had nothing to do with establishing the custom.

The Fact Checker will tell you all about it.

It seems to me that Mitt Romney often plays fast and loose with his facts. And with the truth. I wonder if that is a Mormon tradition, or merely an ingrained trait of politicians.


"Gingrich, however, embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive. And there is his anti-conservative confidence that he has a comprehensive explanation of, and plan to perfect, everything."
--George Will

Just One Of Those Days

Tucson Weather Today

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Yesterday I did not post to the blog because it turned into one of my bad days, one of those days when my aging brain seemingly misfires upon awakening and slips into a fog, a mental black hole from which nothing can emerge... and my body follows suit, one of those days which then transforms me into, not a couch potato but something even less than a vegetable. I hope that is a clear enough analogy.

Anyway, I have much to catch up with, several critiques of submitted stories from members of my writers group and more work on my own (belated) submission -- and so I choose not to write herein today.

Darn!

I will post this, though --

Happy Birthday

Tom Brokaw
72 years old
(me too)

Born February 6, 1940

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He not busy being born is busy dying.
--Bob Dylan

Dog-sitting Today

Was gone all day till just a few minutes ago... taking care of Eva while her owners were out of town. That's why I have no entry.

Maybe tomorrow . . .

Just In Passing . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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On yesterday's TV news I was treated to a story about a man named Lustig who wrote in Nature magazine that sugar is toxic and should be regulated like tobacco. So I Googled Lustig + sugar + toxic + regulated and was given a long list of recent newspaper reports concerning the subject. I read a few of them and found they were all the same, all irritating, all incomplete, even the info from WebMD. I wanted to read the entire article. But...

When I went to the Nature website I found that internet access to the full article would cost me 32 U.S. dollars. And I wondered, is this the future of web-based information?

After a while I stumbled onto another website that provided a .pdf document containing the desired article. All of it.

Seek and ye shall find.Where there's a will there's a way. And so forth...

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Born On This Day In History

Gertrude Stein

February 3, 1874 - July 27, 1946

In the past I have attempted to read (and understand) some of the supposedly intellectual and conceptual writings of Gertrude Stein.

I failed, finding them nearly incomprehensible.

Couldn't make heads or tails of most of it.

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Here is a seemingly simple point to ponder:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
--Steve Jobs

Writing My Fiction Story

Not posting much on the ol' blog today as I am working on my second week's story for my writers group.

I did run across an interesting little tidbit though that I'd like to share:

The marines’ chosen name for their female aides is bams, short for big-assed marines.

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Born On This Day In 1882

James Joyce

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All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from,
and to, and why.
--James Thurber