Follow the man who seeks the truth; avoid the man who thinks he's found it.
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It's 37 F outside right now. We've had freezing temperatures overnight the past few nights, and it's only mid-October. There've been several inches of snow in the mountains to the west of us. The few woolly-bear (Pyrrharctia isabella) caterpillars I've seen have very wide rust saddles, just a touch of black on either end, which folklore says means a very long hard winter. I don't care what the scientists say - in my experience it's a very good predictor!
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Dear Internet: "Invite" is a verb. The noun is "invitation". Please stop sending me invites. I refuse to acknowledge them.
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I save the crosswords from the newspaper, and work through them in bed at night. Yesterday's was from July 1, 2009. On the other side of the page was the local activities section, which announced the debut of the "Kingston Sculpture Biennial" (a children's art activities program). Biennial? Debut? Biennial is an adjective, not a noun, so there isn't a noun in the name, leaving one to wonder what it is exactly except that it's in Kingston and has something to do with sculpture (in general; if you interpret sculpture as the noun, then it's referring to a specific sculpture), and I don't think something is described as biennial anyway until at least the second occurrence.
In the same article the paper announced that "Neuhas [newspaper error, should be Neuhaus] iceboats will be launched at 4pm" on July 4th. There are often iceboats on display at the Maritime Museum, where I had volunteered for a while, and occasionally you'll see them on the frozen Hudson River, so I'm familiar with them. An iceboat is just a spidery wooden or fiberglass frame with runners on long "legs", and a sail. It tends not to stay upright in water.
Isn't the water a bit too soft for launching iceboats in July?
Sigh. I don't understand.
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Later: I searched online for the launch of the iceboats in July in Kingston. They were boats made of ice! Icy boats! Not the same thing at all!
Ne'mind.
But it serves to illustrate and emphasize my complaint about the deterioration of communication. Did no one proofreading the article notice the confusion it might generate?
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