3741 Potato

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Whenever anyone says "theoretically", they really mean "not really". 

--Dave Parnas--

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I normally would be very annoyed by the current fad for using "z" instead of "s" on the end of plural words, like "kidz".  I figure that at least it discourages those people from adding the superfluous apostrophe, like "kid's" as the plural form.

I am, however, very annoyed by PC people who insist that ALL rape is about power and coercion, that NO rape is about sex, ever.  Bullpoopy.  I want to slap them.  Some is absolutely about sex, about wanting something so badly that the perpetrator actually hears no objection, interprets all resistance as a game that he is expected to play to reach the goal.  Like the sex-want takes over his mind and everything is interpreted in a way to get him there.

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 I was peeling a squash last night, using a potato peeler.  I was thinking about how easy it was, compared to using a knife.  Then I had one of those flashbacks.

Daughter says I hold onto stuff from my past, that I should just let it all go.  (This from the 37-year-old who tells me all the stuff I did wrong when she was a kid.)  It isn't that easy to let stuff go, because I never got what the shrinks call "closure".  These are things that formed me, made me what and who I am, and with most of it I never found out why, whether it was something about me, or the other person, or what, that caused it.  I never got apologies.  Apologies and/or explanations are very important.

There was something wrong with my father.  He liked to beat Mom and us kids.  We're talking beating to unconsciousness, and when I say "liked", I mean exactly that.  It wasn't loss of control in anger.  It was fun.  He looked for opportunities, and if none presented when he was in that mood, he created one.  Traps.

I was the dinner potato peeler in my teens.   I had to use a knife, and the peels had to be super thin, so no potato was wasted.  It was difficult and time consuming, using a steak, not paring, knife.  When I was done, he had to inspect the peels, and if there was too much white on them, I was punished.  The peels were little tiny nibbles.


One day I was at a neighbor's house, and the mother there was using this marvelous implement:

That evening, I told my father about this marvelous invention, that would make very thin peelings every time and save lots of time.  Zip zip and it's done!

He was furious and beat me for displaying my stupidity and laziness.  I would continue to use a knife, because that's the way it was supposed to be done.

Yes, I am still angry at his unfairness.  Yes, it still bothers me.  Yes, still, occasionally, I am overwhelmed by anger, anger that I am not allowed to express to anyone, and therefore can't release.

I guess that's what blogs are good for.  Maybe it's released now, a little bit? 
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3703 The demise of communication

Saturday, March 16, 2013

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong

and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when

a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong 

it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. 

-- Douglas Adams --

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There's a guy running around loose out there who has been advocating for decades (predating texting and tweeting) that we do away with "correct" spelling, that instead, all spelling should be phonetic, and furthermore that there be no "correct" phonetic spelling, but that everyone should spell a word exactly as they pronounce it.

Gah!  Despite his years of advocacy I don't think he has thought it through.  What about regional accents?   How would you look up the meaning of an unfamiliar word?   Assuming that you could figure out the word anyway?  Could a Bostonian understand a note from Arkansas?

I found the article by him a few weeks ago, and of course now I can't find it again.  When I searched for it today I found several articles about schools that no longer teach spelling.  The theory is that kids will naturally absorb spelling in their reading materials.

Yeah, sure.  Bull poopy.

Phonics is essential to learning to read and to pronunciation.  Often it helps with "correct" spelling.  But given the way people routinely mispronounce even simple words (library/liberry, athletics/altheletics/atletics, etc.) if you allow people to spell words the way they (themselves, individually) pronounce them (libry? liebree? lybree? libery?  lybreree?), we won't be able to fully understand anything anyone writes.  If the spelling of a word isn't standardized, it would be so much work to read the written word that eventually people would give up reading.

And yes, the guy really does mean individually invented spelling - no standard phonetic combination of letters for a particular phoneme, which would result in "correct" spelling of a word again, which he doesn't want..

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From Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll:

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they're the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.' 

I am distressed by the large number of professional writers, educators, and presenters who seem to think Humpty had something there - that a word can mean whatever you mean it to mean.  Unfortunately, that leaves the folks who do know what the word is supposed to mean wondering what the user means.  If you know what I mean.

At this rate, no one will be able to understand what anyone else really means, ever.
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3450 Jasper is snoring, so no title.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle
will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
-- The Buddha --

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Along about January 18th I got a bit concerned about Jasper. He ate some dry food, drank a little water, then promptly threw it all up. He did that once in the morning and once in the evening. Cats are famous for throwing up, but Jasper almost never throws up - probably because he almost never grooms himself, so he doesn't ingest fur. This was a new cat food, and maybe it didn't agree with him, or he didn't like it.

He seemed ok until the next evening, when I noticed he hadn't nibbled at his food since morning. The day after that I noticed that there was no new poopy in the litter box. By then it was Friday evening. He didn't seem to be uncomfortable, and his belly felt like the usual birthday balloon. If he wasn't eating, no poop wouldn't be odd. He was still drinking water and piddling.

Was he blocked? Or just registering a stubborn rejection of the new (good for kidneys, which automatically means cats will hate it) food?

Saturday, Sunday, no eating, no pooping. I decided to call the traveling "vet in a van" on Monday.

Monday morning there was poop in the litter. Why do pets and kids always get sickest just before the weekend, when you go nuts wondering what you should do, then they're all better on Monday? (Ok, not just pets and kids. If I'm going to have any kind of emergency attack, it'll happen on a weekend. Always.)

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I've given up on "lose" and "loose". Even professional writers don't seem capable of figuring it out any more. Now there's a new one. Five times in the past three days, in five different places, I've seen "mirrow" when the writer meant "mirror".

I am depressed.

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I read a natural science article on ravens and crows. I used to enjoy watching the crows from my back deck at the old house. They're playful acrobats, and smart. There were ravens on one of the trails I used to walk. They're sober, and even smarter.

I've seen the ravens at the Tower of London. Their wings are clipped, so they can't fly far, to keep them from leaving because of some old prophesy that when the ravens leave the tower, the monarchy will fall. "If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it."

Funny how nobody ever questions that prophesy. How would the ravens leaving affect the monarchy?

Leave your theories in the comments. I'll tell why tomorrow.
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