Today I learned...
- Thread starter Louanne Learning
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It's a beautiful film. Pakula's first cut was five hours, and I would watch it if it were available. If I could choose a favorite scene, it might be the one where they're sitting on the roof and the background music is a Mendelssohn Song Without Words in E-flat, the perfect choice of piece and tonality. It's one of those relatively rare scenes where film succeeds in elevating us above a narrative moment to imply a halcyon period, as with Butch Cassidy and Etta Place in that film's bicycle scene.
But even as the fan of the book that I am, I do find myself skipping pages at a stretch when I re-read it.
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I rode a horse about 30 years ago, but there is nothing anyone can do to persuade me that "free reign" is correct usage. Probably because I've read so much history that I know what 'reign' means, and that it is never free. There are always sacrifices that come with reigning.
As for the misuse of 'enormity', I give up, but no-one can ever convince me that it's all right to say 'the whole kitten caboodle' in print. Or "For all intensive purposes", or "Take it for granite", or "Whatever floats your goat". Or -- all the gods save us -- "Nip it in the butt".
When malapropisms like this show up in print, it tells me that both the author and the proofreader couldn't be bothered spending 5 seconds on google to look these things up. So if they couldn't be bothered writing the damn thing, why should I be bothered reading it?
Disclaimer: I'm sorry. I'm not going to pretend I've never used the wrong word, or the wrong phrase. But at least I tried to find the right ones.
Now let's grab our torches and pitchforks!
Literacy forever! Laziness never! 
True. I'm not depressed about the misuse of words; nobody's perfect. More than anything else, it amuses me. For instance, I once read an otherwise-perfectly-serviceable history of London when I came across a clanger about someone in Henry VIII's time coming to 'a grizzly end'. (Pursued by a bear, I suppose?)
I patiently read through the rest of the book, catching a few more of these (although, to be fair, none of them were that blatant). These weren't enough for me to DNF then and there, but if I were to rate that book, I'd have to give it 3 stars instead of 4. *shrug* I mean, wouldn't you?
Me. "Free reign" never occurred to me. Can't ride much anymore because an old lady medical condition makes getting bucked off an even a worse idea than it used to be. However, my son has a giant mule who is about as close to bombproof as an eqine can be, so I indulge myself once in a while.
Anyone who has ever been around horses might appreciate the aptness of this phrase.
Louanne Learning
Skipping along
Active Member
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Today I learned about the comma controversy surrounding Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Frost’s original last stanza -
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
His editor added an oxford comma after dark –
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And this changed the meaning from – the woods are lovely in that they are dark and deep – to a list of three characteristics of the woods: lovely, dark, deep. After some uproar, the comma was removed to return “dark and deep” to their place as modifiers of lovely
Frost’s original last stanza -
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
His editor added an oxford comma after dark –
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And this changed the meaning from – the woods are lovely in that they are dark and deep – to a list of three characteristics of the woods: lovely, dark, deep. After some uproar, the comma was removed to return “dark and deep” to their place as modifiers of lovely
Years and years and years ago, some idiot college student editor for the literary journal changed the punctuation on my short story, totally altering the intended rhythm and meaning. AND he did it after contacting me about the edits and having me explain the reasoning behind the punctuation.
I still have not recovered because I never got the closure of sandblasting his ears with recriminations.
Excuse me. I need to go put a cold cloth on my head and sit in a dark room just recalling the moment I saw what he'd done.
I still have not recovered because I never got the closure of sandblasting his ears with recriminations.
Excuse me. I need to go put a cold cloth on my head and sit in a dark room just recalling the moment I saw what he'd done.
Catrin Lewis
Active Member
Have a beer. After all these years, you could still use one.
Earlier today, in the wee hours, I learned the term "burstiness." It's what the puppet masters behind the AI detectors call it when a piece being analyzed has a variety of sentence lengths and complexities. It's a mark of human writing, they say.
Fine. That's what I strive for in my prose. But the term implies that this variety just "bursts" out of the text, without reference to sense or meaning. But what's the sense of variation for the sake of variation?
Besides, the word is childish. And icky.
I shall not be using it.
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Catrin Lewis
Active Member
I'm a staunch partisan of the Oxford comma, and in this very instance it, in its rightful absence, shows how important it is. It's like Frost is saying, "If I wanted to list these as three attributes of the woods, I would have put that Oxford comma in where it belongs. But see how I left it out, and take my meaning from that."
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Today I learned, once again, that our political overlords are nasty hypocrites. Let me explain.
My country (Australia) is lucky enough to have something called the NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency), which runs the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). It's complicated, but what it means is that disabled people -- either severely or marginally, either physically or mentally -- can apply for financial help to the NDIA. If/when accepted, they can get the services they need at a reasonable price.
Sounds good, right? Well ... like any other government service, it also suffered from people trying to take advantage of it. Of course. Because some people are nasty, cheap, fakers, arseholes, or all four.
Yesterday, our Health Minister announced that the system will be studied with a view to reform it, and said (among other things) that the system was "an ATM for shonks, grifters, fraudsters and crooks."
Far be it from me to comment on politics (and I don't want to start a political discussion here anyway), but ... this was not a helpful thing to say.
Too many disabled people have it hard enough already without being called names. Yes, of course some people are arseholes who want something for nothing, but most disabled people are not like that.
Besides, that entitled, "GIMME THAT I WANNIT!" attitude happens everywhere. Our politicians and press routinely call unemployed people "dole bludgers", i.e. lazy good-for-nothings who sponge off the unemployment benefits. Yes, some of them are like that, but many of them are working hard to try and find paid work.
As for entitlement, we could easily say that politicians are the worst of the lot - "snouts in the trough" jokes and so on.
Caveat: I'm being very careful here not to name any parties or specific ministers, since I don't want any arguments to start. But please feel free to delete this post if it breaks any rules.
My country (Australia) is lucky enough to have something called the NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency), which runs the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). It's complicated, but what it means is that disabled people -- either severely or marginally, either physically or mentally -- can apply for financial help to the NDIA. If/when accepted, they can get the services they need at a reasonable price.
Sounds good, right? Well ... like any other government service, it also suffered from people trying to take advantage of it. Of course. Because some people are nasty, cheap, fakers, arseholes, or all four.
Yesterday, our Health Minister announced that the system will be studied with a view to reform it, and said (among other things) that the system was "an ATM for shonks, grifters, fraudsters and crooks."
Far be it from me to comment on politics (and I don't want to start a political discussion here anyway), but ... this was not a helpful thing to say.
Too many disabled people have it hard enough already without being called names. Yes, of course some people are arseholes who want something for nothing, but most disabled people are not like that.Besides, that entitled, "GIMME THAT I WANNIT!" attitude happens everywhere. Our politicians and press routinely call unemployed people "dole bludgers", i.e. lazy good-for-nothings who sponge off the unemployment benefits. Yes, some of them are like that, but many of them are working hard to try and find paid work.
As for entitlement, we could easily say that politicians are the worst of the lot - "snouts in the trough" jokes and so on.
Caveat: I'm being very careful here not to name any parties or specific ministers, since I don't want any arguments to start. But please feel free to delete this post if it breaks any rules.
Rad Scribbler
Active Member
You should have read him the 'riot act' there and then!
Back in those days, I was constrained by early nice-girl training that dictated quiet acceptance of being walked over.
Those days are passing fast, thank Goddess.
There are people who are trying to drag those days back, and never mind people for whom such things never changed. Freedom is precarious; we don't dare take it for granted.
One of the reviewers for Days of Sun and Shadow said it was "fueled by feminine rage."
Wait'll that reviewer reads Book III.
Louanne Learning
Skipping along
Active Member
Winner: 4th Contest March
Winner : February Poetry
Winner: 4th Contest Feb
Winner: 4th Contest August
Winner: June Flash Fiction
Today I learned that the Aboriginals of the Australian Northern Territories have a special word for “love song” and “love yourself”
love - ngal-murni
love song - wurduju
love yourself - morna-ji-na
love - ngal-murni
love song - wurduju
love yourself - morna-ji-na
Stuart Dren
Active Member
Well I draw the line at calling people shonks. That's just too far.Yesterday, our Health Minister announced that the system will be studied with a view to reform it, and said (among other things) that the system was "an ATM for shonks, grifters, fraudsters and crooks."
Renewable energy source?
Alas, yes.
Interesting. Melanesian Pidjin has two different words to replace the English "we" or "us." Mifela or mipela ("me-fellow") means "we/us but not you," while yumi ("you-me") means "we/us including you." A very useful distinction.
Then there is gaslit versus gaslighted.
I was severely one-or-the-other yesterday in a hospital room by a physician who had seen a zebra but reflexively (and incorrectly) treated for horses, and — as is typical — refused to acknowledge any misjudgement, leaving me to deal with consequences for years to come.
