Three people e-mailed yesterday to say the comments they posted never showed up. Sorry. I think we've fixed the settings so that anyone, whether a registered Google user or not, can post comments.
Pronunciation pet peeves:
I can't figure out how it's possible that the president of the United States, even after comedians have lampooned him over it for eight years, still can't say the word "nuclear." It consists of two, simple, one-syllable words, neither of which he has any trouble pronouncing. If you can say "new" and "clear" you can say "nuclear." Maybe the president does it in defiance.
Another thing that really gets me is when businesses mispronounce their own names or products in broadcast advertising. A local jewelry store advertises its name and product as "jew-lery." And I've heard several Realtors (two syllables) refer to themselves in advertising as "realators" (three syllables).
Movie lines:
One of my favorite movie lines is from Chariots of Fire: "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel his pleasure."
Of course, that one is only slightly ahead of this jewel: "There are two kinds of people in the world — those with loaded guns and those who dig." Can you name the movie?
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5 comments:
Reposting comment about "numbers": "google" is the name of an Internet search engine; "googol" is a number.
And a guess at the "...two kinds of people..." quote: The Good, the Bad, and the UglY.
pet peeves: pronouncing 'err' as though it were 'air'; pronouncing 'harass' with the emphasis on the second syllable; the epidemic use of 'ize' words - 'prioritize' and 'utilize' cause spasms of bruxism.
2nd guess on "...two kinds of people..." quote: Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Reposting my comment about being afraid to try the editting exercises.
Feedback is best way to improve our writing, and having a pro helping (that's what editors do, right) and for free is a good deal.
If you get tired of my posting so much, let me know - I've been married forty years and am well trained.
On "Whom do you think...": if you infer an implicit verb - "...whoever is higher than he [is]...", wouldn't the pronoun be the subject, and "he" be correct?
One of my favorite movie lines is from "French Kiss" and is richly delivered by Meg Ryan with an incomparable and delightful look of scorn: "You're French, aren't you?"
And always fascinated by destiny, my favorite book lines are from "Look Homeward Angel" by Thomas Wolfe: "Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas. The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cutpurse went unhung. Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time. This is a moment...."
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