Welcome back. Historical trends show most of you went away just before Christmas and will be coming back this week. ;-)
So it’s 2010. Anyone else feel like we’re on some kind of, I dunno, second odyssey or something?
Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.
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I’m looking forward to 2015, when we’ll have hoverboards, flying cars, Mr. Fusion (Polywell?), and crime will be so rare that vandalism and petty theft will make the front page of USA Today. The next few years are going to be very exciting.
Anyone know what happened to Sandy Szwarc and Junkfood Science? I miss her posts.
Started the the New Year with a very bad news day so it can only get better right?
Well, it is good to be back.
But that damn word is one of my most despised words in the English language! I can’t ever remember how to spell it, and I can’t even get close enough for the spell checkers to get it right. I always have to do a google search on 2001 a space od* to get it right.
Or maybe I should say a “bing search”, as one of my New Years Resolutions is to migrate away from google….
It’s almost as bad as
yatchyacthyachtyahtcyacthyaughtyot.
I remember reading somewhere that the word “parallel” was the most misspelled word in the English language.
That might be true, but I would bet that since the invention of the internet, the words “looser” and “loser” are the two most misused/transposed words.
“yot”
Isn’t that a female tittle?
“yacht”“boat”
I can’t get parallel right either. And I’m an engineer with an English fetish!
But apparently, its usage is common enough that spell checkers know what I am trying to say. Er, um, type.
I’m with you on looser. Pathetic…..
But I’d wager “teh” is a more common mistake on the interwebs. But that’s probably more an artifact of the qwerty keyboard than a misspelling issue.
And I think Dean has a soft spot for it’s/its.
No, I don’t think I lose it on “its” and “it’s” very often. I have other ones that get me though. I can rarely remember the difference between “discreet” and “discrete” for example.
Oh man, that discreet/discrete one irks me to no end too.
I also should add that since I’ve been dealing with “non-English as first language folks” more and more over the last 10 years, I’m less anal about stuff like this.
It’s like the yacht versus boat thing. I’ve learned to appreciate the value of the least common denominator.
Or should that be the MOST common denominator? Sigh…..
“Discrete” means noncontinuous, which you can remember because the ‘e’s in it are noncontinuous. Whereas “discreet” means sneaky, which you can remember because the vowels are together just like in sneaky.
Likewise, you can remember “its” by analogy with “his” and “it’s” by analogy with “he’s”.
Eric,
Spoken like a true English speaker. :)
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.
Finally its 2010, no more two thousand …
Say it with me
twenty ten
You know, I said “twenty ten” yesterday to someone who looked at me and said, “is that how we’re saying it now? Twenty Ten?” I said, “sure, that’s easier isn’t it?”
I’m pretty sure it’ll catch on. And of course I will take personal credit, no one thought of it before I did. (Never mind AGMartin, I said it first I did I did!!!)
“Twenty ten” is absolutely proper, and logical.
Just compare it to how we naturally pronounce 1810 or 1910, and follow the progression.
Or compare 1970 to 2070. 60 years from now, do you think folks will still say “Two thousand seventy”? Maybe, but I doubt it.
On the other hand, I’ve been lobbying to get the guys in our office to say “two ought one ought”. But I’m a smart ass.
Upon further reflection, I think this sounds even better:
“one one one one one ought one one ought one ought” !!!
About the long Christmas-New Year holiday.
1) Most of what we did around here was shovel snow repeatedly from our 500-ft steep sloping and curving driveway, plus adding insulation around the windows. In addition, I spent some days removing ceramic floor tiles from a concrete floor in our downstairs bathroom, which is now under reconstruction.
2) As for vacations, ours was all of 24 hectic hours from early Saturday morning to early Sunday morning. We drove over to Burlington, Wisconsin, where our daughter and her fiance live. We had a quick cup of coffee and shared a breakfast bun, and made arrangements to see them that evening. From there, we drove east to I-94 and straight south to Morton Grove IL, in time for a small party involving the Illinois part of our family and a couple of friends from the middle of the last century. Then, courtesy of our hosts, a great mid-afternoon dinner of spiced veal and spaetzele. Then, early that evening, a quick dash back up I-94 and State Rd 50 to Burlington, in time to meet daughter and fiance for a local showing of Avatar. An overnight stay at their place, then back to rural Dane County early Sunday morning.
Life is nice, if you know how to preplan and maybe even schedule the everyday stuff.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Wow, 2010 and still no Monolith! Note to future science fiction writers… go farther into the future than a few decades.
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