but, funny thing, the human body has absolutely NO compunction about piling on 5 of them in one 3 day period of bad eating. So off with 8 is not a bad thing, at least in this particular first week.
We’re holding up very well in the not-getting hungry department. Our diet consists of boiled (steamed) egg with no butter; dab of mayo on half an English muffin. And half a serving of fruit. Lunch is a slice of bread or half a muffin with peanut butter, and fruit; or a helping of tuna instead of the pb. Supper is half of anything we’d normally eat.
Our great sin is not what so much as how much. And eating too fast.
We’re going out with friends for the first time since starting this, and we will split a burger and fries. Have our usual drinks. And not sin greatly.
I would SO love to fit into some of the clothes I’ve refused to get rid of. Jane is the same.
Weather has moderated—we hit 105 early in the week and are now into the low 80’s. Much nicer.
Jane’s still fighting the copyedits.I’m working on her notes on the Foreigner book. We’re keeping each other sane. Playing Guild Wars 2 in the evening. Doing it all again tomorrow. At least I’m not having to cook creatively.
Ever used an egg steamer? Mine from Krups is having thermostat woes, and it’s such a good little unit used ones are going for 150 dollars on Amazon, absolutely nuts. I can make mine work, simply by pulling the plug when it stops steaming (meaning the eggs are done)but I don’t like shot thermostats, and I watch it carefully. I’ve got one coming from Hamilton Beach for 18 dollars that claims to poach eggs as well as boil them. We’ll see.
But you can say it cuts down on the dishwashing as well.
The beneficiaries of the copyedit are Jane’s sisters 2 cats, who get to get out in the basement and prowl while she’s working. I’ve gotten one of them to accept being picked up and petted for a bit, but the other is even more suspicious since his brother has started accepting that. So we’re working on it.
While a good start, that’s not sustainable. You might want to watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk
To achieve proper keto (which works, creates a stable state you can live with long-term, and can somewhat improve on the effects of age-declined thyroid) you need fairly high fat. And butter doesn’t seem to ‘count’ calorie-wise, if there’s enough of it.
Fruit is basically sugar plus fibre, and fibre selects for sugar-producing gut flora (to the point that it can affect diabetes); precisely the opposite of the desired effect.
We don’t dodge fat, for sure, but it’s usually olive oil. Fruit is a very measured amount, about 1/3 cup. And yes, I well know the problems with fruit—I once had a serious weight gain due to a sale on oranges at the market. We have no other sugar in the diet, really, no soda, no sweets, no desserts, nada.
I’m sure the loss is going to slow way down now that we’re past the ‘soft’ weight we put on while on the road. That’s the 5 pounds.
Glad the weight is cooperating for you and it sounds as if you and Jane have the books in hand. I wish we had been able to visit with you this summer, but maybe a ShejiCon next year will work better with your remodeling and dental expenses mostly behind you. Your remodeling has inspired Michael and I to do some remodeling of our house.
After 28 years in this house, we realized that the damage done to the house before we bought it had caused the bathroom sinks to deteriorate to the point of rusting through and flaking porcelain everytime the sinks were cleaned. I decided I wanted to get rid of the 80s era brown Formica countertops and the old bathroom sinks and replace them with a composite solid material with integrated sinks, in material similar to Silestone. We found a good remodeler and although the work was scheduled for four days, we managed to get it done in a day and a half including touch ups, because we made it easy for the crew to get into all three bathrooms (double-sink master bath, main hall bath, and in-law suite bath). This was so successful, we’ve decided to redo the kitchen as well. We’ve decided that this is our retirement home for good and all, so making it into our dream home (or nearly so) makes sense. A possible move into our family home in North Carolina has been nixed and Michael’s family home in Florida is out of the question due to heat/humidity so rural AZ is home…
Weight can drop (or rise) very rapidly due to dehydration (or re-hydration). I easily drink eight pounds of water in a day. Unless one somehow weighs at the same level of hydration every time, weigh can vary greatly. But stay hydrated: you need the water to burn fat, cooling aside.
The most recent protein recommendations I’ve heard are 1.2 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of body weight. The higher number is for seniors who can lose muscle mass.
While exercise burns calories, one’s body can track exercise very accurately, so it leads to more hunger. Maybe a consistent little exercise very often is best.
I agree, usually rapid changes in weight are just water retention or dehydration. Not that it is as easy to jigger as one might think, usually does it on its own.
Cream Pie Filling
1 lb bag no sugar added frozen fruit
1 pkg unflavored gelatin
1 4-serving pkg flavored sugar free gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 8 oz tub whipped topping
Sprinkle the unflavored gelatin in the bottom of a quart measure. Put the fruit in a sieve on top of the measure so that the juice will drip onto the gelatin as it thaws. Chop fruit if necessary. I like to do this right in the sieve.
When fruit is done thawing, pour the flavored gelatin into the measure and stir in the boiling water until all gelatin is dissolved. Let stand until it reaches room temperature and becomes gloopy.
Place the topping into a mixing bowl and slowly add gelatin mixture while beating on low. Beat in the fruit, pour into bowls or pie crust and chill well.
You can top this with more whipped topping and/or grated bakers chocolate, more fruit, etc. I think that it would also mold well.
Nothing Pie
1 4-serving pkg flavored sugar free gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 8 oz tub whipped topping
Dissolve the gelatin powder in the boiling water. Let stand until it reaches room temperature and becomes gloopy. Place the topping into a mixing bowl and slowly add gelatin mixture while beating on low. Pour into bowls or pie crust and chill well.
That sounds very pleasant for these dog days of summer.
Oh, hey, a comment about food wouldn’t be off-topic after all. Hah!
I took a break from kitchen / housecleaning, but must get back to it tomorrow in self-defense. I will have to call the apt. mgmt. next week to remind them I was supposed to be scheduled for pest control. Friends also haven’t returned a call. So, dang, but it’s worked out in that odd way, I guess.
Getting packing materials and things needed to organize, a floor lamp and other things had me spend more than expected, but I’m claiming it was justified. I’m not happy with myself, though.
I’ve waited longer than I’d intended to order groceries again. I’m still OK, but do need to order for Friday or Saturday. (I may extend it to Monday, though.) But between what I need to replace (out) and what I want to get, because hey, I haven’t had that in a while and I’m craving it, well, that and just plain cost increases, that’s going to put me over what I’d wanted / expected to spend, and I think I’ll have to look at this and the previous bill to see if I have to up my budget estimate for a month’s groceries. Expecting so; expecting I can’t really avoid that.
So I’m frustrated with myself and with prices, wondering how much is “I want it and I want variety,” and how much is, “No, I really do need it or I’ll run out.”
It’s a good thing I’d stepped up my font work and decreased my (meh) writing attempts. So I’m committing myself to steadier work towards increased income, because it just has to happen, and I need that to feel secure about things, and to keep ahead.
So I guess this is progress of a sort, but I am still feeling stressed at the situation and miffed at myself. My upbringing is telling me to tighten things, but I want to enjoy a little too, and yet I’m stressed over it. I wish I’d just relax about this stuff, and I wish I’d find a more workable path.
But going OK, I guess.
There will be a couple of things: a cherry or peach pie, maybe a cheesecake (haven’t had any in ages), ice cream, and more sensible things like pasta, salad veggies, makings for pizza, fresh veggies, meat, milk, bread, canned fruit, and some alternative flavor of tea. Ordinary stuff I’m nearly out of. Still adjusting to what will fit in my fridge and pantry and not overdo it or undergo it to have enough variety and not waste any.
So…going OK, here. Day/night hours are a little better adjusted this week and maybe next than they were last week, but I’m going to be awake some tonight because, insomnia. I may read some after I do some more font work. Yup, life’s exciting here. Even my cats are bored with me, LOL.
Amusing! I’d ordered two boxes, ordinary size, of pasta; perfectly reasonable price, part of an order.
Today, I am rather puzzled to find a box some 12 to 14 inches on a side, with that brand name.
I am somehow in possession of more Tortellini tri-color pasta than I can shake a stick at. Or a serving spoon. I am, however, not as overstocked with sauce, either spaghetti sauce or Alfredo sauce or some other. I shall, however, not do so immediately.
But I foresee some nice Tortellini and sauce this weekend. Hahaha. And the surplus will be used. I’m merely bemused and amused.
I’d ordered a floor lamp (because there is no built-in ceiling lamp in the living room, and I’m tired of not having light there) and a desk lamp. Neither has yet arrived, but are supposed to. The desk lamp is likely to be delayed. — And I was very surprised not to find either the old three-bulb floor lamps, handy for reading, or a desk lamp in a bright and useful design that didn’t look easily tipped over, or worse, clip-on to mar the desk. All the desk lamps were LED’s, which means a wild guess. Our modern age has become very odd, if you need a bright reading / working light. Ordered what I could guess at and will keep looking, in case I find a better model later. — I have an old fluorescent desk light that is bulky and has a decided hum to the bulbs, and a bed lamp that is, IMHO, risky. So I want to replace one or both, and so I’m looking for an option I like which is bright enough. The desk light I chose throws in a clock, pencil cup holder, and USB charging port, so, well, we hope it does the trick.
And just for listening fun — the song, “Mama’s Fried Chicken” is playing, by Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars, off the La Louisianne Sessions. [sic, proper spelling is Louisiane, IIRC.] The song is typically playful and teasing, worth a chuckle. I may have to see what else those guys have.
I think you can still get the three-bulb lamps. (The last time I bought a lamp, I got a two-bulb model from Lowe’s. I have a 60 in the top, and the lower “reading” lamp is a 40W; they’re CFLs for now, but I’ll switch to LEDs at some point. It’s fairly cheap, but does the job.)
Yes, the three-bulb floor lamps still exist. Ikea for example has them: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80393616/
I feel the need for a banana pudding. Just saying. There will be ingredients purchased, likely for Monday delivery.
I may look at Lowe’s and/or Home Depot. I should know tomorrow if the floor lamp I bought will do the trick. It or another may make it to the bedroom, though for now, it’s for the living room, lighting needed.
Neat documentary on Amazon Prime, possibly elsewhere:
The Wolf: Marine Mammal Evolving
This is a French-Canadian film in English and without a French title that I saw. From the titles (in a very thin font) at the start, it may have a quite different French title. The end credits show it’s quite French, however.
Guillaume Mazille, a nature photographer, explores coastal wolves of British Columbia. He and several scientists and naturalists, guides, and First Nations locals investigate these grey wolves, and scientists have concluded we may be seeing some of the first stages of evolution towards a semi-aquatic or marine lifeform, based on behaviors and morphology.
There is beautiful nature footage of landscapes and wildlife, and ah, ample salmon predation going on by wolves and grizzly bears. And several rugged mountain men types. The lore and observations, and how they’ve arrived at their conclusions by combining observations over about ten years, from native, local, and scientific research, was really fascinating and lovely. Well worth a look.
The English-Canadian narrator occasionally misses something. Guillaume himself speaks primarily French and has a very nice French-Canadian accent to his English.
There is an assertion that all marine mammals, from cetaceans like whales, orcas, and dolphins and porpoises; to pinnipeds like seals and sea lions and walruses, are all from a common ancestor called Mesonyx. (sp?) — I had thought they were two or more separate evolutionary paths. I would want to check that.
The film likewise claims they are now classifying polar bears as marine mammals, as they (polar bears) subsist entirely on marine life such as fish and seals and others, although, of course, polar bears split off from grizzly bears in the recent prehistoric past, and show some evolutionary adaptations towards aquatic life.
The film did not confirm, but suggested, that these coastal wolves may have webbed feet, similar to water Labrador retrievers, but said there are behavioral and morphological adaptations, and that they have to move between disconnected land and coastal and river runs constantly.
Very intriguing. I think it might be early to claim these wolves are moving toward a semi-aquatic or marine lifestyle and form, but it was nonetheless really interesting to consider, and they may be right.
Sheila Gilbert has a rocket!
Pepsi has bought Sodastream.
Furniture update! Our old secondhand sectional has given yeoman service for 10 years, but for the past couple of them I’ve been looking for a replacement. The sticking point has always been shipping; dangling out here at the end of the supply chain, shipping costs double the price of most furniture. Lo, at Costco this weekend I wasn’t even thinking of furniture when I rounded a corner and they had a sectional in medium gray fabric for under $1000. After deliberating, we went back 2 days later, talked one of our friends with a pickup into schlepping the 3 largest boxes (the smallest fit into my car) home. Uncrating will come today, and another friend has offered to make a dump run with the old couch.
Some neighbor is cooking fish at almost 10pm. It smells absolutely beautiful. I want some. I know I’m going to fix fish tomorrow and postpone what I’d planned. Will also schedule groceries for Wednesday afternoon. That will be over what I wanted to spend, but my only excuse is, it’s now over three weeks since I last ordered. Hmm, and I think I don’t have fish in the order, which means an added cost if I didn’t include any fish.
Amazon still lists Spice Hunter Fish Seasoning as currently unavailable. I’m not quite out, but I’ve ordered another brand in hopes it will be good. I will look at the ingredients for the current little bottle and think of creating my own, but likely will go for the other brand until and unless the Spice Hunter restocks. They haven’t for over a month; not looking good, there.
Hey, congrats on the sectional! There are currently boxes of dishes and kitchen supplies taking up too much of my erstwhile living room space. I swear, boxes are a nemesis. (Unless you’re a merchant prince or princess or some spacer just getting by.) I still have to transfer some things so they are not all on the table pretending to be a coffee table (it’s actually a small folding conference table, blah). Then hopefully the old cat litter pails (they seal halfway OK) will be dry so they can temporarily hold pantry supplies. Such is my life right now. I did not fight the kitchen cleanup fight today or over the weekend. I am a very bad boy for this, and the trouble is, I’m not sorry, and there’s no one else who’s bothered one way or the other. The cats do seem to approve of ongoing cleanup and empty boxes to play in or climb on or sleep on; being cats of the most feline persuasion. Pursuasion? Oh, bad pun….
Yeah, if I’m up much longer, I may give in and cook that fish tonight. Wow, that smells lovely.
The relevant web page: https://www.spicehunter.com/products/fish-seasoning-blend/
I like their stuff, but some of the ones I liked best got discontinued. (I found them back when they were producing instant hot cereals.)
Yum, I ordered 2 bottles. — Also, I looked at the ingredients. They list onion of some kind. Not a problem for me, but it is for CJ and Jane.
Fish Seasoning – Ingredients:
{ lemon peel, onion, fennel, black pepper, celery seeds, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, lemon juice powder, citric acid, lemon oil; }
So, lots of lemon, some black pepper, and a few other spices which I could get; some of which I have. Good to know.
They have other blends that are free from onions and garlic.
New sectional in and assembled, check. Old couch gone, check. For the last 2 days, there has been a rawther scrawny looking and skittish kitten-waif malingering around the house. He or she is now investigating the collection of empty furniture boxes on the back lanai. Truly, o ye befeathered gods and goddesses, we do not need more cats here!
Batten down!
Yeah, Lane can’t seem to decide if it’s just windowshopping or actually wants a closer look at the islands. We just got told that our library will be shut down tomorrow; I would have expected to remain open tomorrow and close Thursday and Friday, when the hurricane is likely to make its closest approach to Maui. Still, it’s free days off and we can spend the time double and triple checking preparations. We’ll probably be closed Thursday and Friday anyhow.
If I didn’t have two rather, rahther, rawther (heheh) senior kittehz already in residence, I might take the little waif just on that description. (And who’s making it.)
Groceries are ordered for tomorrow’s delivery. Cripes, the cost! I’ve never spent that much for groceries for one, though most of it will last a month. Items needed, either out or soon to be. Items wanted, well…not too much of a splurge, and it’s food. It will be eaten. So…dang. (Holy cow, the price for a roast. I postponed that until my next purchase. Yet that roast would easily feed me several meals, esp. if frozen so I don’t get too tired of it.)
There is a “Lingthusiasm” podcast done by a couple of linguistics profs which I listen to intermittently. If you like language and how it works and the gory details of same, then you all might want to check it out.
I keep noticing a handful of mistakes in patterns, common rules in English writing grammar, enough so that I started writing a reply post about them. I think instead I’m going to send that off in an email to the two ladies who do the podcast, since these show trends not only in education, but in common usage and how it can and does change.
Lately, I keep seeing subject-verb agreement mistakes where people should know better. I always see the confusion of plurals and possessives (when and how to use the apostrophe), and a couple of things that might indicate a shift in how we use verb tense and mood markers in English. This seems to be occurring even for our most common verbs, although the forms of “be” seem to be staying. And then I wondered why English never generalized a positive “ai” to go with the negative “ain’t” that is still just as strong in “substandard” English as it has been since the Middle Ages.
So I will be sending that to them once I have something written out in a clear enough form that other people might make sense of.
(This was sparked because I have seen words ending in S, with -‘s tacked on, which is a no-no we are taught not to do from elementary through high school graduation. I’ve seen it at least 4 times in the past month or two. I’ll even admit, in spoken language, we often say it that way, but the formal rule is not to, and to use only -s’ for words ending in S (there are, or were, exceptions for Z and X in the formal rule).
The last rule I recall is that ‘s is fine as long as it doesn’t suggest a false pronunciation, that is, you really do pronounce the possessive with an extra -Ó™s syllable or -s sound.
Plurals and Possessives:
Singulr Nouns that do not end in S or Z:
Singular: add -‘s; (brother’s, horse’s, fox’s)
Plural: add -(e)s’; (brothers’, horses’, foxes’)
Irregular Plural Nouns that do not end in S or Z:
Typically end in -en: add -‘s; (men’s, women’s, children’s, brethren’s, oxen’s)
Singular Nouns that do end in S or Z:
Singular: add -‘; (boss’, princess’, cactus’, bus’, fez’)
Plural: add -es’; (bosses’, princesses’, cactuses’, buses’, fees’)
(I couldn’t think of a Z word right away, so maybe it’s the fez’s tassel.)
Verbs that form contractions with IS and ARE:
If you can break the contraction into (it is) or (they are), then use it’s or they’re;
If you can break the contraction into (something is) or some things are), then use -‘s or -‘re;
(Note: technically, you should avoid forming a contraction with was or were; however, these are rarely done, but in the same way; )
(Also, note: here’s, here’re, there’s, there’re; )
Pronouns:
(Technically, there are possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns, but first let’s cover how to tell the possessive forms, and then we can learn which is which form.)
Most Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns form their possessive without an apostrophe, instead of the rule for nouns.
(Poss. Adj.) my, (thy), your, his, her, its, our, your, their, whose;
(Poss. Pron.) mine, (thine), yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, whose;
Exception: one’s, someone’s, anyone’s, no one’s;
(Non-standard dialects or archaic: These forms are not standard English and are only used historically or in dialectal speech and writing. — mine’s, (thine’s), hisn, hern, hin/hine (“hin-uh”), ourn, yourn, theirn; some writers use -‘n instead of -n. These were more common in Middle English and Modern English up until the 19th century. They still occur in some dialects, but are not formal, standard English. Included for completeness, usually omitted in textbooks. Note how they are hyper-correct by analogy with other forms.)
The possessive adjectives are what we typically use: my book, your ball, her house, their dragon. We think of them as pronouns anyway, which is why this point seems technical and confusing.
The possessive pronouns are used when the noun is omitted: this hamburger is mine, that cookie is all yours, sweetie, the house is theirs, and so on.
Oh, and for people who use y’all as the plural you: (1) the pronoun form is y’all; the unstressed contraction with shall or will is ya’ll (ya + will) versus (you or ya + all); (2) the possessive form is y’all’s; however, even where the y’all form is used, yours or you all’s are strongly preferred, and the y’all form is common, even among educated speakers, but is supposed to be omitted in favor of you or you all, in formal speech and writing. It is not usual and may be humorous or mocking to use y’all as a singular form, with the exception of the phrase, “Y’all come back now, you hear?” (Note how, even there, y’all and you are exchanged.) In regions where y’all is used, we all, you all, and they all are forms that may be used in order to distinguish inclusion or exclusion of the speaker, the listener, and others.
Note Also: Recently, some grammarians have begun accepting “singular they, them, their, theirs” as a neutral-gender, unspecified personhood form, along with one, someone, anyone. They cite the common usage of “they” in this context in casual speech and writing going back to Middle English and Modern English, including sources like Shakespeare, as justification for including this as an acceptable form. This might lead to a “they (singular)” versus “they all (plural)” and thus to some sort of “we (singular)” versus “we all (plural)” split, if the usage ever becomes generalized into a paradigm. Or there could be a three-way split of singular, singular-or-plural, and plural-all-inclusive forms. But use of singular they seems to be gaining ground as a much-needed way to say he-or-she (or one) for a person when the gender is a neutral factor or unknown.
For speakers who typically use “you guys” as a plural, these speakers add or omit “guys” in context, and typically omit it for the possessive. But for completeness, the possessive tends to be either “your, yours” or one of ( you guys’, your guys’, you(r) guys’s, or youse guys / guys’s ), depending on how far the speaker, region, and level of formality is being used. Most speakers probably stick to your(s) or you guys’ forms, much like the y’all group. Throughout America in big cities, it’s increasingly common to hear speakers use both y’all and you guys about equally, or to hear a strong preference for one or the other. British speakers I’ve heard seem to prefer the you guys forms and avoid the y’all forms. However, one Australian I used to know said that the y’all form was appearing there, mostly thanks to travel and the influence of American media and the internet.
So, rules and a digression on language change. 🙂
Most English grammar textbooks, including at the college level, have some version of these rules listed, and how to tell which is which, and how to avoid incorrect / non-standard usage, to use standard, formal, business English.
Note these rules are for both American English and British English (Received Pronunciation) and for International English (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and everywhere else).
Chances are high that widespread mass media and the internet will result in a re-merger of the US/UK spelling divide first, likely with changes to standard spelling anyway; and to a more gradual emergence of a standard spoken pronunciation or dialect. That’s assuming things continue without a big break in communications and travel. My guess is that spelling will be simplified for some words and forms, at least, if not all of them, and that further changes will lead to people using new spellings by preference, so that the old spellings are lost. (Thru would be a prime candidate, for instance.)
These rules also allow for avoiding confusing of their, they’re, and there, or theirs and there’s.
What about “aye”?
Aye, aye, sir / ma’am; or aye-aye, sir / ma’am.
The aye’s have it. — Or the ayes have it. — For some reason, English does have an odd thing where certain words usually not made plural may be shown in the plural either with the usual pluralization spelling rules, and likewise for possessives, or else they use the -‘s in place of the plural, despite that this is directly counter to the ordinary rules. (It’s most often used with yes and no, aye or yea and nay, and yea for the affirmative sometimes gets spelled yay by analogy with nay, with a long history for these odd exceptions.) So aye’s and nay’s, yes’s and no’s, or just ayes, nays, yeses, nos or noes.
Then there is the Vermonter “aye-uh,” which is really just a retention of the old pronunciation of “aye” with the schwa E (E-muet in French) from Middle English and very early Modern English. It’s somewhat like a blend or crossover from aye and yea or yeah.
I also maintain that “yeah” is the modern casual form, distinct from “yea.” 🙂 — And kids today do not get taught this at all, because “yeah” is supposed to be non-standard, even though everyone uses it. So I see it these days spelled as yeh and ya and yah and yea, but rarely as yeah, unless some teen or 20-something has been fortunate enough to encounter it or search out the spelling. Hah!
English is filled with odd, maddening little exceptions like this, where if you look too deeply into the rules or the recent past when spelling and grammar were not yet fixed and still in transition, then you quickly want to throw out the rulebook entirely, haha.
When my mom was in college in the 1950’s, and even when I was younger, the usual rule for plural acronyms and abbreviations was to use -‘s, so: CD’s, DVD’s, and so on. But around the time I was in college, another style appeared treating these with the normal plural rules, so CDs, DVDs, and so on, no apostrophe unless it was indeed possessive. (Plural possessive, CDs’, DVDs’, if you’re talking about the contents of several of them; the DVDs’ files.)
There are competing “style manuals,” of which the Chicago Manual of Style determines a lot of standard American usage nowadays. But because it was geared towards newspapers and periodicals where space was at a premium, or simply to be different, it had its own preferences for when to double letters, when to do this or that finicky spelling or grammar twist, and so on.
The end result is that, between American education that has shifted towards compressing more information into less time, therefore glossing over (omitting) a lot, or gearing toward passing the test instead of learning the material, the reasons _why_ we do a thing — versus changing fashions and real preferences, and the acceptance of dialect more often, which is not necessarily a bad thing — we have a state of flux where English is (again) rather loose in how it’s followed.
I can just about guarantee you that if I were asked to edit, oh, a hundred or so essays, or else grade them for English rules (the more conservative textbook rules) that I’d find the same set of mistakes occurring over and over in just about every manuscript. (In fact, now that I think of it, I’d be hard pressed to say how many most common errors editors and graders face daily.) But perhaps a hundred common errors would be too conservative. It might be closer to a thousand. I’ve never really counted, but given a little time, I could list a large number of them I see again and again.
I was lucky: proper English was important to my mom’s mom, even though she grew up a farm girl and very poor. For her, it was a way to improve herself, to become refined and classy and well educated. She would have done well in college if she had ever gone. My mom was an English major as well as with courses in math and accounting and business, and a professional artist (painter, primarily, but she loved all crafts). My dad — My dad was a farm boy and for some reason, despite a good mind, he never could speak or write a textbook grammatical or properly spelled sentence in his life. He was a natural engineer and started out on the farm, repairing things. He grandfathered in before there was quite so much extensive calculus and physics required. However, like my mom’s mom’s family, my dad’s parents taught their kids to read, write, and do arithmetic, starting from before they went to school. So even though my dad had trouble with his formal English, he could read and write and speak at college level. (And I would guess he could do that at 12, like my mom and like me). My dad always retained his Virginia Appalachian accent. So I grew up hearing a mix of that and a city Texas accent, along with Oklahoma rural relatives on my mom’s mom’s side. Heheh. (And my own accent is a fairly neutral big city Texas accent.) It wasn’t until I was in late high school and then studying English and French in college, that I understood that the accent and peculiar old-fashioned vocabulary from my dad’s side of the family was not simply from mountain isolation or lack of a full education due to farming. The old timers retained things from the Colonial and Elizabethan periods, and from the mix of early English, Scots, German, Dutch, and others among the colonists. Er, and the tiny town nearest the farm my dad was from? Its modern name doesn’t let you know that there or very near there was an important older town from early Colonial history. Right around that area is the Cumberland Gap, one of the passes out of the mountains and into the American interior in neighboring Kentucky and Tennessee. (Yes, with people like Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett.) The high school my dad went to there bears the name of one of the early explorers. So there’s history all around there, and that part of the country is truly beautiful, but harsh in the winters. (I’ve seen the old family cemetery. You can tell a great deal about the history of that area from how people are clustered together, young or old, especially in the winter.)
I’m sure my language talent and interest come from both my mom and dad and my maternal grandmother, but I also grew up with stories of how both sets of grandparents read to their kids and taught them to read, and how that was passed down from the same interest from their parents. So even though they had at most a high school education, for my grandparents and further back, so far as I know, the ability to read and write and do arithmetic, to study and learn, were considered vital.
One other bit: My dad told me that his dad was well known in the county and surrounding counties. That even though he wasn’t anyone important politically or religiously, he traveled around and knew most people and had a good memory for stories and histories. He did surveying and, hmm, was skilled enough to do contracts, legal advice, without being a lawyer, simply by being familiar with it. So this enters into things too. It’s curious how, even for people who were very ordinary back then, they might be active and respected, or “characters,” and know a lot about their local history and their neighbors.
I guess I’m in the mood to tell history too, at the moment. 🙂 I think if my dad had not been an engineer, he would’ve been a historian. He loved history. His memory for local stories was much better than my retention of what he’d told me; plus, I was only visiting when we’d visit the old home place in the summers or occasionally, around the holidays, since we lived in Texas instead of Virginia. We’d get to visit relatives in Oklahoma less often, but that’s how I know red dirt, haha, and good people, and heard about my great-grandmother’s love of peppers. 😀 (She made hot chow-chow, also.) (My dad’s side of the family would make Sauerkraut.) (Both sides of the family were farmers, so I tend to appreciate this, despite being a city-boy.)
It’s odd: I have real trouble imitating an Appalachian accent. I get interference from a Texas accent, I guess. Yet there are important differences. And my mom’s side of the fame have ab Oklahoma accent, which I’d probably also have interference with from my own.
However — Those older accents are giving way to a standard American accent, more so with people younger than me. You’ll still hear the old accents, but more of the under-30 age groups have far less of an accent.
Heh, yeah, I geeked out on the language topic. 😀 Occupational hazard! 😀
Of course, people could pick up yeah elsewhere: “Yeah, Chihin.”
I have to disagree about yay being a spelling of yea. Yay (rhymes with bay) is the cheer, not yes. See: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yay
Another curiosity–which somehow seems to be related to me, maybe because it’s one of those primal utterances–is the interjection of wonder or pleasure, ooh (rhymes with boo). It’s in the dictionary, but rarely in print.
I agree about “yay” as a cheer, whereas “yea” is the positive for “nay;” but I’ve seen people insist on it.
“Ooh!” is just fine in English. I tend to use it too. “Ooh! Cool!” — And I’d claim “Ew!” is a short ih followed by a w sound or a very brief ooh; though if others say that’s an ee followed by an ooh or a w, I wouldn’t object. 😉
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Aside: One thing I’ve never understood about French pronunciation is how an “ey” (like our ay, ey in say, which is really an eh followed by a brief ee or y- glide) turned into oy and then wah, in most cases. So vere became ver or veir and then voir and then the pronunciation (but not spelling) changed to vwahrh, for the verb to see, and for things like reservoir and so on. You can often tell where English borrowed words like these, because in Middle English, they usually came in as ei, and in Modern English, they usually came in as oi; although in both cases, there are exceptions. I _think_ there was a transition between ei and uh-ee and oi, and then it went to oo-ee or oo-ah and then wah. But that’s an awful lot of sound change on one cluster (diphthong) when other vowels in French didn’t change nearly that much. Some habit did it, as well as split between oi and words that kept ei. But I’ve never seen an explanation for how or why it happened.
Well, dang, one of those days. — The used washer and dryer I got some months back, the dryer is not doing its job. Discovered the load of clothes I’d put in a couple of days ago did not dry and therefore soured, badly. Presently rewashing with extra soap, and will dry half a load at a time, in hopes that will work.This gives a backlog that won’t likely get done until tomorrow. One or both cats, meanwhile, had decided the plastic tub acting as a laundry basket (empty) looked to them like a litter box without litter, and so…I discovered this too late…and now have it in the bathtub, with the plastic tub filled with dish soap and hot water, to soak, before emptying and drying. Another plastic box is filling in as laundry basket. Meh.
No, I do not think I’ll get to vacuum today; maybe tonight. I’m irritated with the two cats and the dryer and myself, for not being perfect, because…I’m wired that way.
Had a weird argument in a dream last night, and actually recalled the dream when I woke, which has not happened in ages. The argument was bizarre, over something that would not have ever been an issue with my mom, with some dream-time version of my mom who was, quite clearly, not my real mom. And has never appeared before, and…my mom has been gone 20 years since April. (My parents and grandmother do occasionally show up in my dreams, but as themselves, or a close-to-real version of themselves, although my grandmother’s last two appearances, dream-wise, have been reminders of when she was no longer her capable self. (Didn’t like my dreaming brain playing a bad trick like that, and didn’t know if it had any reason for it.) The strange not-mom in my dream last night? I can’t figure that one out either. The argument was over something that never would’ve happened in real life; a matter of privacy that would not have been any problem between me and my parents. Just odd; but it highlights that I (still) have issues over such things, even though there’s no roommate or partner or family member with me, with whom such might be even at issue. So…I dunno. At least I recalled the dream when I woke up. Maybe that’s progress. I do think sometimes, dreams are meaningful or are our brain’s way of working things out, or at least mental and memory housecleaning. Or sometimes simply for no reason, random or fun or due to whatever we ate. — Though I have had one seriously lucid dream and others partially, when I was college age, plus one that was in the inexplicably preternatural realm, which I dismissed at the time as an anomaly, and later discovered was probably at or near the time a former friend had died. I have no scientific rational explanation for how that could be, and yet it was. — So I think at times there can be some real purpose to our dream lives, while at other times, they seem to be just random imaginings.
Time to rinse that tub and set it aside to dry. The clothes are washing and drying.
I am most definitely going to take some time this evening or overnight to read and relax. Completely frustrated about the housework and life in general. (But hey, it’s not so bad in the overall scheme of things. Just danged annoying.) Reading tonight, definitely.
Hoping to get the vacuuming done before the groceries arrive tomorrow afternoon. But if not, well…I will live with it until I do. Phooey.
I want a new washer and dryer, but can’t justify it until I’ve got enough saved / income. That, and then a couch, oh, please. — Still hoping I can consider a townhouse or other small place of my own when my lease is up next August, but increasingly, it’s looking like I’ll renew the lease instead, unless things really improve, income-wise. Gotta keep going towards fonts.
YellowDogAutomobile – before you blame the dryer, check out the vent – if is blocked then the dryer won’t dry. I had the problem and it was found to be the fact that the line from the dryer vent to the outside had not been cleaned in 25 years,
Ms. Cherryh – hope you are more able to eat. I lost weight when I cracked a tooth and waited for a cap.
I’ll see if friends can look at the vent, or some repair person. I also wonder if there’s some point between the drum and the lint trap which is clogged, as each time lately I’ve emptied it, it has less lint than I would expect. After three full cycles, a typical, fairly moderate load of clothes was not dry last night, and for the sake of the neighbors’ nerves and mine, I stopped. Checking mid-cycle, it’s heating fine, but there was steam and condensation inside the drum, which yes, makes me think you’re right, a venting problem. Don’t know if/when friends will get over, but I may find a repairman. Cheaper than waiting until I get a new washer and dryer. But I may decide that’s needed, if the dryer remains a problem. Always something, seems like. I get one thing solved a while, and hen there’s some other thing. Life’s like that, I guess. Just wish it would ease up a while and let me get ahead a little.
I would think keeping the vent clear would be an apt. responsibility, though I don’t know. You might look at the vent line between the drying and the vent to make sure it wasn’t kinked or crushed when the dryer was pushed back near the wall.
If you have a vacuum with a hose, try vacuuming out the inlet vent as well as under the lint filter. If that is no help, pull the dryer out and vac the inside of the dryer where the vent tube attaches as well as the vent tube, and then feed the hose down the hole in the wall.
At the apartment I used to live in, the apartment complex would clean out the vent line from the dryer. It took a bit of asking, but turns out they had a leaf blower, with an adapter to plug it into the vent line. They unhooked the dryer, hooked up the leaf blower in it’s place, and It blew quite a bit of lint out. It helped drying times significantly.
Groceries arrived and put away. Don’t think I missed a bag. If not, could be exciting later! Oh my, I overestimated. The store did a small number of substitutions. Two cases where the product packaging was problematic and transferred things down except one of those. Squeaked by, storing frozen items, though a couple are in the fridge instead of the freezer. All in all, not bad.
Note to self: Next time I have the urge for enchiladas, fix them myself instead of a frozen dinner. Not bad, but not great. I can make those, once I dig up a recipe. (That cookbook will have to be located.) Should be fairly simple, I think. Frijoles refritos (refried beans) are no problem, once I double-check the spices. Spanish rice, likewise. Any other accompaniment, I’ll figure out.
Did get the special items I’d wanted, so my inner gourmet or I-want-it self will be satisfied, once I cook those. Not today, this took longer than expected.
Hahaha, the pkg. of stir-fry veggies was, my gosh, huge, enough for several people. So I’ll divide it up later. So I got a real bargain on that, but it took up extra storage.
Don’t know why one meat mkt. product was packaged as it was. Poor use of space. But it’ll do fine.
So, happy all in all, but hmm, gotta keep refining how I do things so I get this down to an easy thing again. — I was irritated about the bill. Then realized, back when I would get groceries every week or two, and adjusting for prices now, I didn’t do too badly. But I will be more careful next time. Getting this down OK.
This was the second time I’ve ordered to have things delivered. So, not too bad. — And I may have lucked onto a resource. The woman who made the delivery said she works as a part-time caregiver. (Ouch, I had a defensive pang inside at that.) But my eyesight and situation are different now and _not_ the ideal I want. (Partly, that’s on me. Partly, it’s on friends and the local cab company; frustrating for me.) And partly, yeah, it’s just how things are for me now with my sight. So…I listened. Told myself it doesn’t hurt to listen, and told her I wasn’t promising I’d use her, but did want the info and the option and would think about it.
Well, that was a good idea. — Seems she and others work as independent contractors for a service used by various grocery stores and other stores. Hmm, yeah? So she does these daily and does part-time caregiver work, and says the pay for the deliveries isn’t bad. (It is not, however, good, either.) She said, though, that she also can do errands or take a person with her to do so, and deliver back to their home. Aha! Y’know, that could help. Other things for part-time caregiver stuff or what amount to a maid coming in to clean, etc., she does. Not sure I’d need that, but the errands might help me. So she already had my number from the delivery, and gave me hers, and, hmm, food for thought. Periodic errands might be worth it to me.
Once the dryer and another apt. repair are done, and the pest control is, uh, back under control, I think I’ll be back up to speed on household chores. But this has been a wake-up call to me not to let myself get behind.
So this was maybe a help. — She also said that she’s finding more elderly or shut-in or disabled folks, or other needs, this way, so it’s, ahem, possibly drumming up business contacts or clients for her. Heheh. OK, smart is good! 😀
And…dang it, this is an area where my sight is more of a problem now. I have more trouble reading facial details now, expressions, and in more lighting conditions. So getting a read on someone beyond tone of voice or broad body language is more of a problem. Or identifying someone I don’t see regularly. This made it harder to gauge her than I would’ve liked. But I got an OK vibe, nothing immediately out of whack, but I’m less prone now to feel I click with someone. So, a cautious maybe. — And also due to difficulty reading details, I’d guess her age in a certain range and hope I’m not too far off there. (Don’t think so.) She’s Houstonian and black, maybe 30’s, maybe 40’s, probably younger than I am.
I realized, in thinking about this, just how much dialect can tell us about people, even when we don’t realize it. — I also got an uncomfortable jolt of just how much we as Americans are still divided by race, even in the same city, only miles apart. Now, my city has always been a port city with people doing in and out from along the Gulf Coast and the interior, from the USA and internationally. Locally, we get that strong Texas flavor plus a good helping of neighboring states, especially Louisiana, but also Florida, curiously enough, probably from hurricane migrations.
But we have some degree of ethnic neighborhood and dialect divisions. We have both a trend towards integration and multi-racial backgrounds and yet an opposing tendency to segregate ourselves by ethnic groups, and yes, there are racists as well as unbiased folks in our city and state. But at the end of the day, despite a lot of similarities, I would guess, I speak a white dialect and she speaks a black dialect and other friends speak a Tex-Mex dialect and still others speak an Asian-infused dialect. There are exceptions, too, thanks to a growing degree of multi-racial people. Because some of us would rather not have hat barrier anymore, or the hate and stupidity that goes with it.
I had to struggle with this, thinking of it just now. — She and I aren’t all that far apart in age. ur backgrounds might not be too different in terms of working to middle class. She likely got a public school education not too different than mine. I would guess she has some college or a degree. Hmm so if we have all that in common, then ouch, it sure is telling that she has an urban working to middle class black dialect, and mine is not so different, but a white dialect. There are differences there that most Americans would recognize. And she’s not so ghetto; she’s probably middle class now, and probably grew up poor to middle class. So not all that different. I grew up with friends at school who spoke that same -way, from that same suburban or urban black background. Some of them were only across the railroad tracks or elsewhere in my school district, not far away, and my city has become slightly less divided in my lifetime. (Hmm, slightly.)
I had initially written more to this, but wanted it shorter, then ended up going on anyway. — Several of you have language or other backgrounds, academics or business, and train people. So if any of this I’m saying is useful, good. If I’m mistaken, well, I’m trying not to be, but maybe a friendly word or two of discussion would fit.
I am sure we all recognize the ethnic divide in our dialects. And yet we are so used to it we ma not always hear it or know why we do. But we’re most of us confronted with it regularly. People from smaller towns are not so often faced with it.
But here I was, trying to figure out how to describe the differences, and that led to thinking more about the fact that we still differ, even if so much of our backgrounds are similar. Why? Because we still have not overcome to reach that dreamed of state of equality where it no longer matters to us, where it’s just as unremarkable as eye color or hair color. — And I think that isn’t only because I’m white and am not always confronted with the difference, every day. I think we are all so danged used to the divides that we hardly ever notice things like, why and how is my dialect different from hers, if there’s also a lot that is the same between us, or not so different after all, anyway?
My city is roughly 1/2 white, 1/8 black, 1/8 Latino, some notable percent Asians and Indians and others; and overlaid on this are the growing number of folks who are multi-racial and so don’t fit neatly in those rather artificial boxes. My city is also an international port city, sea and air, so we get people from all over the US and internationally, native, local, resident, immigrant, refugee, visitors, guests, you name it. So there is this huge diversity, plus influx from the country (rural) and other cities. — So especially recently, but ever since I was born and before, my city has this constant stirring and bumping into each other and blending gong on, or gathering into groups too.
It’s hard to tell if things are integrating well or not. I would guess (and reports say) there/s less of a distinction made now. I see all kinds of people any time I’m out.
And yet those divides have not disappeared yet. Food for thought, I guess. It ws for me. We are in the 21st century and still, race comes up as an issue, with racists clamoring, while others of us want that divide not to be such a barrier.
I was just impressed by an interpretation / rearrangement of “Black Is The Color” by Rhiannon Giddens, on her CD entitled, Tomorrow Is My Turn. This is an urban, funk / jazz / blues – infused rendition of the old poem, in which she sings to a man as her true love. Therefore, “Black is the color of my true-love’s hair” gets he/him/his pronouns instead of she/her/hers. The vocal style and the instrumental backup really manage to fit the ancient poem and bring it into modern times. Really cool.
I she she has other jazz and blues songs, some classics, others new, and other genres. She’s got a great vocal range and feel to her singing. Good stuff. — There’s also at least one Irish song from those iTunes lists of hers.