The Second Time Around

This post’s title could refer to different situations. Lots of events are better the second time around. For the purposes of this post, set aside every dirty scenario that your warped mind came up with and focus on the basic building blocks of every sentence you have ever read or spoken.

English 101: The Second Time Around

I am forcing myself to try and relearn the valuable grammar and style lessons that managed to be pushed out of my memory to make space for something mindless, like movie quotes. As I trudge through The Elements of Style, I realize every word I write does not tell. If nothing else, Strunk and White declare that writing should be concise and clear; leave out superlatives. Hmmm. It is going to take effort to put this lesson into practice. I don’t know if you have noticed, but my writing is often unnecessarily wordy (take <– that sentence, for example).

To make light of my trepidation, I want to share with you some of my favorite passages from The Elements of Style. Believe it. Mr. Strunk has quite a biting sense of humor.

Comment about Nauseous and Nauseated
“The first means ’sickening to contemplate’; the second means ’sick at the stomach.’ Do not, therefore, say, ‘I feel nauseous,’ unless you are sure you have that effect on others.” (80)

Comment about Flammable
“An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives. The common word meaning ‘combustible’ is inflammable. But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means ‘not combustible.’ For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now marked FLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence are concerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable.” (71)

Box Fort

One week after the move and there are still unpacked boxes. Almost every corner in the living room is occupied by either a box of books or by a piece of furniture that needs to be put together.

This maze of boxes got me thinking of Friends, Season 5. After Ross says the wrong name during his wedding—OMG!—during the final episode of Season 4, his marriage to Emily crashes down around him. Ross is eventually kicked out of the apartment he was meant to share with Emily.

In fly Joey and Chandler!

Ross and his boxes settle into a temporary living arrangement with Joey and Chandler. While Chandler is preoccupied by the idea of sharing his space with Ross, again, Joey is grown up enough to recognize that Ross needs their support… and that the boxes are the perfect building blocks for a fort!

The One Where Ross Moves In – Part 1[hit 7.30 - 8.15]

Chandler: What are you doing?
Joey: Nothing.
Chandler: You built a fort, didn’t ya?
Joey: Kinda.
Chandler: Oh my God, the air purifier! Ross’s air purifier! All I heard through four years of college was mmmmhmmhmmmmmm…
Joey: Dude, you should’ve gone out once and a while.
Chandler: I hate this thing!
Joey: Come on, Chandler, Ross is our friend. He needs us right now, so why don’t you be a grown up and come and watch some TV in the fort!

Oh Joey, you are so craaaaazy! Ha! Hit the next link to see more of the fort fun =D

The One Where Ross Moves In – Part 3 [hit 3.56 - end]

The Austen Genre

Oh wow, I have not created a post for quite some time. What can I say, I had a lapse of laziness.

Work has been the same. Organize those books! I have spent the last week working in the Fiction & Literature section. Rows, upon rows of books in this section. Working my way through the shelves, I found myself reading the back of several different books each day. The strange thing is that I have found a trove of books that I want to read but never would have know about if it was not my job to sort through them all.

I tell ya, bookstore or library work is such a treat for book lovers. Not only do I get to sort through countless titles, but I occasionally get free books. Score! One of the freebies that I picked up was a novel written with Jane Austen lovers in mind. Did you know that there is an entire sub-genre of novels whose authors are devoted to recreating, continuing, and building on the timeless pieces created by Jane Austen?

Lovely. I am an Austen fan. I reread Pride and Prejudice almost every year. What can I say, I love to escape into the world Miss Austen created–though I am not one of those women who longs for a Mr. Darcy. =D

So, since I am in the Austen mood, I have decided to try and work my way through each of Miss Austen’s completed novels. I even used my bookseller discount to get a super cheap book that contains seven of Miss Austen’s novels.

My recent purchase reminded me of a scene in the film adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club. In this scene, the sole male in the book club is under the impression that Miss Austen’s novels are a series. Silly boy [hit minutes 7.38-8.50].

Man, I am a dork. Oh well, happy reading to me

Lady Gresham: What is she doing?
Mr. Wisley: Writing.
Lady Gresham: Can anything be done about it?
- about Jane Austen in the movie Becoming Jane

Threads of Opinion

When I stop to think about the threads that make up an opinion, I wonder how much of said opinion is based on generalizations. Public opinion is a generalization—thoughts on a topic boiled down and labeled as “generally accepted”.

There is such a large variety of thoughts possible. How is it possible to take apart a woven blanket of ideas on a subject and declare that one thread type is more significant than all the other threads just because it is used more often? The blanket would not be complete without the other thread types.

Sure, there are times when generalizations need to be made for the sake of simplicity. Yet I find that I like to try to look beyond the generalization; to try to uncover what other ideas are floating around. Just because a larger number of individuals have a certain opinion does not mean that differing opinions are less significant. Quantity does not inherently imply quality.

This is a crunchy topic, so chew carefully. =D While you digest my little corner of thought, here are some quotes from people with other opinions on opinions.

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.”
-Voltaire

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
- Bertrand Russell

“Every man is a fool in some man’s opinion.”
-Spanish Proverb

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.”
-Bertrand Russell