Your lawyer, David, issues an affidavit
April 21, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under Other noteworthies, Pencils Down
Grading Girl just stumbled upon this list ~ Top 100 Mispronounced Words in the English Language
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html
As WebEnglishTeacher points out, one interesting point is that this list doesn’t allow for regional dialects. For example, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II pronounces the [t] in “often,” though here in the States – and on this list – it is frowned upon. Who would argue with the person referred to in the phrase “the Queen’s English”? Still, there might be fodder for some discussion!
Timing
April 19, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under GG's writing, Pencils Down
Timing is everything.
Time is ours to spend but we can’t keep it.
We can’t see time but we can feel it.
We can feel time but we can’t hold on to it.
Time never stops but keeps going and going.
Time can’t be rushed yet it can’t be slowed down.
Once time is lost, it’s gone forever.
Timing is everything.
Geekiness
April 17, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under Other noteworthies, Pencils Down
It is the 50th anniversary of a book found in every high school English department in the country, William Strunk’s and E.B. White’s Elements of Style. For a humorous take on Elements rules of writing, click on NPR’s website. Enjoy at your own geekiness!
Typo Trials
April 13, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under Blogs, GG's writing, Pencils Down, TLC Speaks
Watch those typos!
The other day a friend sent me this text: “No crazy h__ it is displaying that” (input one vowel; yes, that one). Imagine my shock, anger, and disbelief when I read that. After taking a few deep breaths, I replied with a calm yet questioning message. Well, it’s a good thing he was near his phone because he texted his quick apologies, stating what a horrible typo that was. He meant to send, “Not crazy how it is displaying that.” Needless to say, we’re still friends.
Not all typos are corrected so swiftly. In this technological era of continual texting, daily blogging, everyday emailing, and essential computer work, typos abound by thousands a day. People lose their jobs, friends, lovers, and dignity over something as simple as a slip of the finger. An example of one such blunder with detrimental effects is a university’s recent accidental mailing of false acceptance emails. As a mom with a child about to apply to college herself, I can understand the profound anguish those students must have felt when they learned the truth. The university sent the corrected emails out about an hour later. Can you imagine? Unfortunately, this was not the first time a university created such confusion . . . and it probably won’t be the last.
Michael Duplessis, an auto mechanic, filed the now infamous lawsuit proclaiming that in April 2005, tattoo artist Sam Hacker inked “Chi-tonw” on his chest where he had asked for “Chi-town” Talk about having to live with that mistake every day! Interestingly, some humorous Chi-town residents had the “tattoo-o” placed on t-shirts, commemorating the mistake.
A typo can be costly such as a real estate ad that lists “hardware floor” instead of “hardwood floor,” causing the meticulous home buyer to pass up a listing. A typo can hurt credibility such as an organization’s website filled with some misspellings or grammatical errors. We really do associate typos with a company’s reliability. Employers associate an applicant’s credibility in the same way (sounds like a job for GG!). On the other side of the coin, a typo can be funny such as a congregation’s sign reading: “For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.” No matter what kind of typing faux pas, it is never intended to create the reaction it does.
Next time you type that text, be careful what time you punch in for your child to be home; next time you forward that email, be careful who you are sending that photo to; next time you promote your business online, be careful to proof your promotions. Now if you’ll excuse me, GG has some pertinent proofing to do before posting this blog.
Do fingers fing?
April 13, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under Other noteworthies, Pencils Down
Let’s review the English language, shall we?
Grading Girl concludes that English is a crazy language. I can think of many examples to support this. . . some are from an anonymous essay sent my way, others are GG’s own contemplations: There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither is there an apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or french fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
Why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS ~ Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick?’
Linguistic lovers will especially enjoy this ~
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’
It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn’t rain for a while, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so………… it is time to shut UP! 
Living in the Moment
March 31, 2009 by GradingGirl
Filed under GG's writing, Pencils Down, TLC Speaks
Firsts and Lasts
Life is full of firsts. First step, first word, first day of school, first love, first job . . . the list goes on. We commemorate those firsts and remember them. But what about the lasts in our lives?
Do we remember when was the last time we played with a favorite toy from our childhood? Did we know that on one not so memorable, probably very ordinary day, we would be putting a beloved doll to rest in its box for the very last time?
Sometimes we begin traditions without much planning. We start an activity, like the way it fits our lifestyle, and we continue it for a time. All of a sudden, we wake up and realize the “tradition” is gone. Can we recall which was the last Sunday we dined out weekly for brunch?
What about those traditions we followed for years and years? The Easter brunches, the Christmas Eves, the New Year’s sleep overs. Did we make the last time special? Did we know that it was important to make the last time special?
Life is full of memorable firsts, yet it is just as plentiful of special lasts – only we don’t know it until the lasts have passed. Thus, we must take joy in life’s simple pleasures as well as the main events; we must love one another as if we are all brothers and sisters; we must treat each occasion as if it was a first.
Dedicated to you Mom, inspired from your own words
