Moderation

While sitting in the hall waiting for a class to vacate the room before my class began, I overheard Mrs. Vogel giving advice to her students. Whenever possible, she told them, use the smallest word available.

I have always remembered this, and adhere to this advice whenever possible. I think it is important because none of us knows all of the words in the world, and the smaller the word the more likely more people know what it means. Using vocabulary that includes more people makes communication work better and gives more people the opportunity to understand, learn, and be involved in whatever is going on.

I have also appreciated people who do this in areas which allow me to be a part of conversations about nuclear physics and music appreciation. I admit, though, that I am still stumped by, "How about those fifths?"

Grammar Tip of November 20

Sometimes there is no grammatically correct way to speak or write a thought. Here is a possible example: "How is everybody's knee?" This was spoken to two gentlemen coming off of the tennis courts; one recently had a knee replaced, the other will have a knee replaced sometime soon. Is this correct?

Football Season

Now that it is once again football season, I will get this blog back up and running. Without some of the commentators I would have less to say about the atrocious grammatical errors so flippantly committed each week on national television.

Watch this site. There will be more.

More Easter Art

Christ and St. Mary Magdalene at the Tomb

Rembrandt

I love this painting for many reasons.  I appreciate the detail, I like the way the cave seems to be in a hillside as in life, but my favorite thing about this painting is that Rembrandt dressed Jesus AS a gardener, as if Jesus was dressing up.  The hat and the spade are amusing additions. 

Commercial TV

There is a commercial for Celebrex which includes this phrase: "Patients taking aspirin or the elderly ... "  Anybody taking the elderly as one would aspirin probably needs more than Celebrex.

Michael watches a lot of football.  Here he is hiding from embarrassment for the commentators and their grammatical errors.