Number
206
My first cousin once removed, a sophomore in college, is going to major in English because she wants to be a writer. I give you a link to a chart explaining what you call relatives because I mistakenly thought she was a first cousin, but my cousin's daughter is what you see there, a first cousin once removed. I'll probably never use that term. Anyway, my advice to her was don't bother with an English major unless you want to be a teacher (she doesn't), or you just love taking those lit courses (she does). But that's not how you get to be a writer. A writer should read constantly (good stuff), and write all the time. I think broad general knowledge or even specific knowledge in some field other than literature makes a better writer. A good writer does need to be widely familiar with good literature to get a visceral understanding of written English, but for that you just need a good library, not a master's degree.
Did you notice another Boxing Day has come and gone? As a kid whenever I read about Boxing Day in England, it prompted an image ~ sort of a Victorian engraving ~ of two Englishmen with handlebar mustaches in a boxing ring, even though I knew that couldn't be right. (Fred says the same.) Now I know it has nothing to do with that kind of boxing, it has to do with putting things in boxes for people you don't give gifts to on Christmas Day. I still don't get it, but you can go to the link above and see if it helps you more than it did me. Do any of our British readers observe Boxing Day? If so, how?
In today's cartoon Tina's Groove by Rina Piccolo, two waitresses are talking about improving their tips by writing "Have a nice day" on the check. One waitress says that it doesn't work for her, and the other one says, "Try not putting quotation marks around the word nice." I've written about this before, about using quotation marks to add emphasis. It's wrong. Look at: Have a "nice" day. The quotation marks say this is not my word; the opinions expressed in this sentence are not necessarily those of the speaker.
I'm halfway through a book I received for Christmas, Letters of a Portuguese Nun by Myriam Cyr, a history of five love letters written in the 17th century, purportedly by a nun to a French officer. I believe Cyr did this translation of the letters as well as researching the fascinating history, though she is an actress, not a writer or a historian. It is her first book and it's pretty good, but as I edit my way through the text (up to page 92) I find occasional distractions from the story.
Writing of the nun's life, which allowed women more education and intellectual freedom than other women had, Cyr said: "There was only one dominion she was not allowed to conquer; she could never know secular love." We know what she means, but the word "secular" grates. Why? "Secular" comes from a Latin root meaning "of an age", that is, not of the eternal (addressed by religion). A better word would have been "human" or "physical" or "worldly" or even "romantic". Presumably she could have had a non-monastic love for her family. Maybe secular is the right word, but it sounds wrong to me. Looking up "secular love" on the Web I found this from the Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica:
It has been demonstrated
that the observed decrease in the second zonal geopotential harmonic linear in
time and the secular decrease in the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation
do not satisfy the relation defining the secular Love number k as constant
during the whole history of the Earth's evolution.
This does not help, and clearly has nothing to do with agape, eros, caritas, or philia.
Next, Cyr wrote "rebel rouser" instead of "rabble rouser", which is the original expression. "Rebel Rouser" was a great song by Duane Eddy, and I think by "rebel" he meant someone from the South. A "rabble rouser" is someone who stirs up the masses emotionally. So did Duane Eddy, but not for political reasons. The men Cyr referred to were neither rabble nor rebel rousers, they were simply carousers.
Third, she wrote:
Balthazar, pushing to the
front, exalted the infantry to protect the forty cavalrymen about to storm the
fort.
She probably meant "exhorted". Glorifying the infantry in order to protect the cavalry would be something new in battle tactics.
It's an engrossing book, nevertheless.
An AP article in today's paper about new trends in naming babies gives 45 ways to spell "Mackenzie" (or spelling of your choice), saying they're all correct. It's true, any way you spell a name is correct. Nevertheless, please don't spell it Makenize. Everyone's going to say Make-nice.
From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:
"You are probably
very sensitive to any suggestion that your choice of words or pronunciations is
inferior to that of others. Most of us are even more touchy about comments on
our language than we are about criticisms of our dress or our religion."
W. G. Wanamaker, "We Speak American," in Looking at Language
44, 46 (M.H. Scargill & P.G. Penner eds., 1969).
I started teaching English at the age of 20, and since then have heard these comments many times: English was my worst subject. Now I'll have to watch what I say [or write].
Do you feel inadequate when you meet an athlete and you can't jog around the block? Do you apologize when you meet an accountant because math was your worst subject in school? Do you put on a hat when you meet a hair stylist? Do you always tell an artist you can't draw a straight line? Conversely, when you talk to someone who does not have your particular expertise, do you sneer and smirk? I think not. I am mortified when I make a typo, and I often mispronounce words that are in my reading but not my listening or speaking vocabulary. Even though I'm a professional, I'm just a flat-footed journeyman writer compared to Shakespeare or Jane Austen. Language is an unending study, it's like life: we have to get on with it before we get perfect at it, which is never. What scares us is not our imperfect spelling and grammar, it's that we all use words to express our deepest ~ and shallowest ~ selves.
My direct experience of the world is small compared to the verbal input about it, and I keep trying to sort it out verbally. (What do the news reporters and politicians really mean? What's going on?) We interpret the same reports differently. Why is that?
As we flat-foot it into the headlights of 2007, after four years of Parvum Opus, I want to thank those of you not too touchy to keep reading it. I especially thank those of you who contribute your great queries and corrections and stories.
I hope Parvum Opus makes you think sometimes and smile often and laugh once in a while. It does me.
Happy New Year!
*Bonus points if you can tell me what a floogie or a floy floy is.
WHEN
SONNY GETS BLUE! Check out the video clips of
Sonny Robertson and the Howard Street Blues Band at www.sonnyrobertson.com and
www.youtube.com/rondaria.
CUSTOM
CHRISTMAS GIFTS! If you have an idea for a
gift with a special message or design on a T-shirt, mug, mouse pad, tote bag,
whatever, I can design it for you.
SOMETHING NEW! Check out the new "Someone went to Heaven and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" shirts in the Parvum Opus CafePress shop, plus a new Parvum Opus mouse pad! Now you can buy neat products with the Parvum Opus / KeithOps Catti logo at CafePress.com/parvumopus.
It is the glory of God to
conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs
25:2
NEED
SOMEONE TO ORGANIZE A MEETING OR CONFERENCE? CALL KEITHOPS.
Go to Babelfish
to translate this page into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish!
Parvum Opus is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Back
issues may be found at http://www.keithops.us/.
Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries.
The PO
mailing list is private, never given or sold to anyone else. If you don't want
to receive Parvum Opus, please reply with "unsubscribe,"
"quit," "enough," or something like that in the subject
line, and I'll take you off the mailing list.
Copyright Rhonda
Keith 2006. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with
permission, but you may forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright
remains.