PARVUM OPUS

 

 

FRED'S FIND

 

Fred found The Quote Garden, with pages of quotes on writing (lots), grammar (conflicted), and language (philosophical). Some good entries:

 

We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.  ~ John Locke

 

("Great fewer"?)

 

When I study philosophical works I feel I am swallowing something which I don't have in my mouth.  ~ Albert Einstein

 

Nothing, not love, not greed, not passion or hatred, is stronger than a writer's need to change another writer's copy. ~ Arthur Evans

 

They sell T-shirts (and other items too).

 

Which inspired me to go and do likewise. You can buy shirts and other items bearing the Parvum Opus logo (bet you didn't know there was one!) at CafePress. Besides the logo, we have some other original designs ~ the Stet (mine) and the Dele (Fred's) items. (I'll add other items and designs in the future.) "Stet" is a proofreader's or editor's term meaning "let it stand", i.e., don't change it. "Dele" of course means "delete". Two opposing cosmic editorial forces. "Stet happens" comes out of my experience of either changing something too soon and realizing after I've already marked the paper that I shouldn't have; or of making a change I think is an improvement and then having an editor keep the original. I can't say what "Don't let your dele go down" reminds Fred of.

 

If you have a clever saying you'd like to see on a T-shirt or mug or something, send it to me and I'll put it in my shop and send you one T-shirt or mug or whatever. Unless you want to open your own shop! (If you do, tell them you were referred by Parvum Opus.)

 

By the way, my friend Sonny Robertson now has a CafePress store too.

 

Readers have sent lots of great links and comments, so they're more or less writing PO this week. Thanx and a tip of the Parvum hat ~ and there really is one now!

 

DEA'S LIST

 

Dea wrote:

 

I personally liked your helping out Bob's friend with a little professional advice. I hope you tell him that the most important thing to remember is not to give up writing. Here are some of my favorite links that I use for good, quick internet help when I need to revise, rewrite, or self-teach. I am sure you have many others if not all of these.

  

NoodleTools Quick Cite!

Common Errors in English

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more

Reference, Facts, News ... Free and Family-friendly Resources

 

MIKE'S MENTIONS

 

The same day, Mike Sykes also recommended Bartleby.com, and elaborated on starting 300 years ago for a perfect lawn (I knew that was an English anecdote!):

 

The academics of the University of Cambridge claim that when the same question was asked of the lawns of which the colleges, particularly those whose lawns border the river Cam and are known as The Backs (because they're at the back of the colleges), are justly proud, received the reply, "Very simple ~ all you have to do is cut them and roll them, and cut them and roll them for hundreds of years ..."

 

You can see these at Google Earth around 52 12 17 N, 0 6 53 E, though King's looks in need of a drop of water. (I was at Pembroke myself.)

 

Which reminds me that, whereas an Oxford man walks into a room as if he owns the place, a Cambridge man walks into a room as if he doesn't care who owns the place.

 

Regarding Fowler's Modern English Usage:

 

Glad to see you approve of what I tend to regard as the ultimate authority, if the word 'authority' is admissible in this context. There's a very reasonable page on this at Fowler's Modern English Usage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It's also interesting to see that Fowler's The King's English is all there at Fowler, H. W. 1908. The King’s English, 2nd edition. I particularly like what he says in Chapter IV. Punctuation QUOTATION MARKS. [See Order with stops, which means in American placement with periods.] The compulsory application of [Chicago Manual of Style] by Addison Wesley particularly annoyed an author of my acquaintance (as I think I've mentioned before, when you got into trouble with a reader). ... I prefer Fowler.

And there are also dictionary.com and Main Page - Wiktionary. However, I've never used it, so I'd be interested to know what you think of it. As I've mentioned before, I feel fortunate to have the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on disk - the fact that it's a little dated now (almost 9 years) doesn't bother me, being more than a little dated myself.

 

Haven't used it yet, Mike, but I'm fascinated by the Swadesh lists.

 

You certainly send me off on some interesting trails!

 

Same to you.

 

DAN'S TRANS

 

Dan E. says this is the best free online translator he's found: Free Translation Online.

 

ROSES OF MOHAMMED

 

You heard about Freedom Fries replacing French fries after 9/11. Maybe you've read about Liberty Cabbage replacing sauerkraut in World War I. Now Roses of Mohammed have replaced Danish pastries in Iran. I don't think we have any Irani foods to rename.

 

IDYLLIC

 

Be careful about using "idyllic". While it does mean "excellent and delightful in all respects", it's a special kind of excellence. It comes from "idyl", a pastoral or rural poem, so by extension, serene and natural. So you wouldn't say, for instance, "This is an idyllic spot for an ambush." People misuse it because it sounds like "ideal".

 

BILL BUYING

 

TV ad: "...lowering the cost of our energy bill."

 

You can lower the cost of energy (at least we hope so), and you can lower your bill. But until the energy companies start billing us for sending a bill, so far we don't need to try to lower the cost of our bill.

 

BROKE IN

 

One of the things that foreigners have trouble with is the English preposition. But even more troublesome is what I will call the non-prepositional use of prepositions (or particles). We tack them on to verbs to create new idioms that can't be understood by looking up the words separately. Here are some great examples from a song by Waylon Jennings, "I May Be Used (But Baby I Ain't Used Up)" (just two of the verses):

 

Well I look a little rough and I got a few miles on me

My body needs work and my style ain't what it used to be

And honey I'll admit there's places where I'm wearing thin

But I ain't broke down, I'm just good'n broken in

 

Well I may be worn, but baby I ain't worn out

Let me take you for a ride and I'll show you what I'm talking about

I guarantee, there's a lot of me left to love

Well I may be used but baby I ain't used up

 

CURLING AND PLUCK

 

We've been watching Olympic curling. Fred says it's like being a newborn ~ everyone around you is doing inexplicable things with strange objects, and you have to figure out the rules. Curling has a lot of neat terms like curl and skip, and swingy, straight, and keen ice. Its origins are somewhat obscure, but wouldn't you know it was the Scots who really took it up. Of course they are also responsible for haggis: "pudding made of the heart, liver, lights, etc., of a sheep or lamb, minced with suet, onions, oatmeal, etc., highly seasoned, and boiled in the stomach of the same animal; minced head and pluck." Make do with what you've got, and if all you've got are rocks, ice, and a broom....

 

"Pluck", by the way, is heart, liver, lights (lights are lungs). So having pluck is like having guts and heart.

 

 

 

SOMETHING NEW! Now you can buy neat products with the Parvum Opus / KeithOps Catti logo at CafePress. 

 

If you buy books from Amazon using the link below, I'll get a tiny commission, and I'd appreciate it.

 

Link here to look for books on Amazon.com!

 

 

 

 

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