Number 115
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CRASH BAM ALAKAZAM
Brother Sam wrote:
There
is no such thing as a car "accident" anymore. Anything involving a
car is a "crash". This
terminology is used by law enforcement and of course insurance companies
because there is always fault/liability when a human and automobile interact.
Even when there is a single car in a "crash" there is liability; an
"accident" implies there was some random intervention that no one
could anticipate (act of God?). Your "accident" was caused by the
other human behind the wheel, there was fault/liability and you crashed.
We did indeed, and I'm
still feeling the impact. "Crash" is a much better word for this
occasion, so I'm glad to learn it's the correct one to use. "Car
wreck" didn't sound quite right either. A "wreck" could happen
with just one car.
Notice, too, the verbs
we tend to use to suggest or avoid causation: I "had" an accident, as
opposed to I "made" or "did" or "caused" an
accident. The accident happened. But cars definitely crash actively, and
someone is always at the wheel.
(This headline, by the
way, paraphrases the great song "Orange Colored Sky".)
ANY TIME
I was trying to earn my
money last week as a copyeditor, and told a client that "anytime" is
not correct; it should be two words, "any time". The problem is that
now some dictionaries show "anytime" as an acceptable adverb,
particularly in the United States. In other words, so many people have used it
incorrectly for so long that the sense of why it should not be used is lost,
and it's like "anywhere" and "someday". But remember the
old song, "Any Time" ~ "Any time you're feeling lonely,"
etc. If you were going to sing that song for the first time and had never read
the lyrics before, "anytime" wouldn't get it: "Anytime you're
feeling lonely" ~ partly because of emphasis. You need that slightly
longer space between the two words. Also, it's different from
"anywhere" because "time" is a noun, "where" is
not. There's a time and place for everything, but not a time and where for
everything. Well, lots of words started out as two (like "every
thing").
FROM THE MACRO KING
About enlarging your
monitor image, Mike S. wrote:
It
may be possible to do better, but Windows already has Accessibility Options in
Control Panel. I use Mousekeys pretty well all the time, though the mouse is
more convenient for some things (and
neither
capability interferes with the other). However, that's a little OT. I haven't
tried the high contrast display, however.
I
habitually use three ways of making images and text bigger or smaller:
In /Adobe Reader/ (or /Acrobat/),
<ctrl><numeric plus> and <ctrl><numeric minus> do that.
In /Firefox/ (browser), they do likewise,
for text; for images, the extension /Image Zoom/ does it from the right mouse
button.
In /MS Word/, I have a couple of very
simple macros that do the same. In their VBA incarnation, they are simply:
Public Sub ZoomIn()
ActiveWindow.View.Zoom =
ActiveWindow.View.Zoom * 1.2
End
Sub
Public Sub ZoomOut()
ActiveWindow.View.Zoom =
ActiveWindow.View.Zoom * 0.9
End Sub
That's
all there is to it! Obviously, you can change the zoom factors (20% bigger, 10%
smaller) to whatever you fancy. Of course, you need to put them on keys, by
Tools -> Customize -> Keyboard -> Categories=Macros, select the macro
and press the desired shortcut key. They'll be saved in Normal .dot and always
be available. (Always assuming whatever version of Word you're using isn't drastically
different from Word97) Nothing to it, really! Word macros are one of my
hobbies, though I'm getting a bit rusty.
Thanks, Mike. (I'm
assuming OT means Old Technology.)
BC/AD
Regarding the attempts
to change our year designations, Bob O. wrote:
One
a purely linguistic note, I'd always though BC/AD rather tacky, because the
former uses English and the latter Latin ~ not very parallel! And of course
BCE/BC is not parallel either, one being three letters and the other two
letters. Speaking of three letters, have you heard the acronym TLA, which
stands for "three letter acronym"? TLA is so ubqiutious in computer
speak.
I've never heard TLA,
but I haven't worked that deep in the computer world.
And Doug J. pointed out
that no matter what they call it, our common calendar is still dated from the
same event.
It may seem more
democratic to change every aspect of language that points to a particular
history or idea so as not to offend someone else with a different history or
idea, but that's not democracy. Rule by the people begs the question, which
people? Majority rule still exists in a democracy, with legal respect given to
the many minorities. Minority rule is oligarchy.
JUDAS, THE MOVIE
The name
"Judas" has entered the language to mean someone who is a traitor,
but a local art historian slash movie reviewer reviewed a local production of Jesus
Christ, Superstar with the attitude that Judas was really doing Jesus a
favor. It's been years since I saw it, so I can't say how accurately this
reviewer's opinions reflect the intent of the play. But I have to say that
either she's wrong or they're both wrong, just based on history and common
sense. She wrote:
. . . the musical isn't really about Jesus at all. It's really about Judas, and his sense of being the only rational and reasonable figure amidst impetuous fanatics.
In many ways, “Jesus Christ Superstar” is the ultimate anti-hero musical. . . . As a protagonist, Judas is able to draw the audience into the world of Rome at the time of Christ as Lloyd Webber and his lyricist Tim Rice imagined it: dangerously political. . . . By casting the plot as the story of political naïveté gone wrong, Lloyd Webber and Rice created a version of the last seven days of Jesus's life that is far more compelling than any church pageant or Sunday School drama.
The seven days play out quickly: we learn early on that Judas is disenchanted with the inconsistent behavior of Jesus and with Jesus's unwillingness to acknowledge the political situation in which the apostles and Jesus are living ("Heaven on Their Minds"). Jesus, wrought by the tensions of his mission, seems to be losing his touch: he violently attacks moneylenders in the temple ("The Temple"), backs away with the fright and disgust from the ill and maimed wishing to feel his healing touch, and luxuriates in the company of Mary Magdalene, here clearly portrayed as a prostitute ("I Don't Know How to Love Him").
Unwilling to see Jesus destroyed by the mob of unsatisfied would-be believers, Judas delivers him to the Romans, hoping contemplative jail time will refocus the mind and energies of the possible Messiah ("Damned for All Time/Blood Money"). Instead, Judas has been duped by God: by turning Christ over to the Romans, Judas sets into motion the machinery that will carry Jesus to the cross and his claim to martyrdom ("Gethsemane"). Judas, anguished, hangs himself, reflecting only from heaven what the band of apostles and Jesus could have done to spread their messages better ("Superstar").
Well, with friends like these . . . The book was better, and made more sense. Judas was responsible for keeping Jesus and the disciples' money, and he was a thief. Even if you are not a Christian, or not religious at all, it's a stretch, and a weird one, to say that turning an innocent man over to the authorities is friendly. And no matter what your concept of "God", by any definition God cannot "dupe" anyone.
Anyway, "Judas" still means rat fink.
______________________________________________
I have a contribution in a new anthology about the "center
of life", Changing Course:
Women's Inspiring Stories of Menopause, Midlife, and Moving Forward, edited
by Yitta Halberstam.
Copyright Rhonda
Keith 2005. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with
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