Lunedi Lunacy

I don't talk about work a great deal because a) it's boring and because b) I'd have to kill or at least paralyze you for life after I told you what I did.  But I can guarantee one thing if I had written the previous sentence at work the position of the repeated "because" would have been cause for discussion.  Should the "because" really have come before the alpha tag or would it have been better after?  And was it really necessary to repeat it or would a single "because" have been sufficient? 

Yep I work with a bunch of language nerds!  The air temperature in our office can rise on the placement of a comma or the number of bullets on a PowerPoint as readily as it can when the kettle boils for afternoon tea.   And be assured that no point of grammar takes precedent over a "nice cuppa" in what we affectionately think of us our "college dorm".   But that's a story for another day.

So for the gang at the office who make my days, and a good few of my evenings, enjoyable here's a few lunacies that I feel somehow you'll understand and probably agree with.*  And okay that last one isn't about language but lets not pretend it's not something we've never done!**

*Yes I know I ended a sentence with a preposition but how often have I said it's a silly rule that was applied to English only because it was a Latin rule and the codifiers of English grammar where all bloody Latin scholars at Oxford!!!!  So drop it okay?  Tea anyone?

** Yes I know a triple negative - Geoffrey Chaucer used the multiple negative in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales to describe the Knyght: He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde (line 70).  Two centuries later, Shakespeare used it in Twelfth Night:  Nor never none / Shall mistress be of it, save I alone (Act III, scene i).  If it's good enough for Chaucer and Shakespeare then it's bloody well good enough for this crowd!   Anyone want one of Jenn's Costco biscuits?

13 May - 1848: First performance of Finland's national anthem.

 

Its Only Words

A few months ago I discovered a weekly posting at The American Scholar by writer, journalist, editor, literary critic and, most importantly in my opinion, teacher William Zinsser.   Though to the best of my knowledge he has never addressed the subject of policies and procedures I was introduced to him during a Procedures Writing Course several years ago.  The professor insisted he was a "must read" for anyone planning to write "anything".   And what recommended him most was his insistence on the economy of language in writing.   It is rumoured that some teachers even tell their students to "Zinsser" their work (a newly coined verb meaning to take the clutter out of their essays).

Since then his On Writing Well has become one of those books that I return to almost yearly as a reminder that "writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it.'" His Zinsser on Friday essays cover a broad range of subjects from baseball (one of his great loves) to jazz, from his WASPishness to his waspishness - and you'd be hard pressed to find an extraneous word - like extraneous - in any of them.

What brought Mr Zinsser to mind - and has me eager to unpack On Writing Well as soon as possible for another (much needed) read - was an e-mail from my friend Charlie highlighting some interesting facts about writing.

Pythagoras' Theorem:	24 words
Lord's Prayer (King James version):	66 words
Archimedes' Principle:	67 words
Ten Commandments (KJV):	179 words
Gettysburg Address:	286 words
American Declaration of Independence:	1,300 words
US Constitution including all 27 amendments:	7,818 words
EU Regulations on the sale of cabbage:	26,911 words

Having just gone through the EU export procedures for "live" animals - heaven only knows what they would be for "dead" animals - I am going to write Mr Zinsser and suggest that a book on writing policies and procedures is long overdue. And I want the concession for sales in Brussels!

23 agosto/August -Santa Rosa di Lima

Lunedi Lunacy

Not exactly Lunacy but ...



I am posting this for all my smart friends - hey that thing that analysis the reading level for blogs says you are all smart. I couldn't figure it out and had to look at the answer.

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

1 Banana
2 Dresser
3 Grammar
4 Potato
5 Revive
6 Uneven
7 Assess

Give it another try . Look at each word carefully.

No, it is not that they all have at least 2 double letters.

The Answer: well let's see if anyone can guess right and who knows maybe there will be something in store - yeah yeah one of my Rome fridge magnets!!!

Answer on Wednesday.

Many thanks to my own little "muse of fire", Cathy.


01 marzo - Sant'Albino di Vercelli

Words! Words! Words!

For some reason the conversations at coffee these past few days have centred around words and language. In a day when language is changing so rapidly we can often lose the things that give a language its flavour - dialect, local idioms etc. We were talking today about safeguarding regional dialects here in Italy.

And language can also be used as a safeguard - which brings me to the purpose of this post. I am been discovered by spammers both on my blog and on my e-mail. Fortunately the blog spam seems fairly innocuous - selling various programmes etc, unlike my e-mails where someone has decided that I would be interesting in wife swapping and having affairs with dissatisfied married women. What the reaction would be when I swapped Laurent with some guy for his bored suburban spouse can only be imagined. And though I think I may be able to bring some satisfaction to that poor dissatisfied woman - yes I have delusions of triviality - I am really not all that willing to put myself out, as it where, to accomplish the task.

All that to say I am going to add word verification to my comments section so that spam is eliminated and chances of anything nasty or viral being transmitted through it reduced. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and hope its doesn't stop anyone from leaving a comment.

And speaking of "word verification" - as my friend RG mentioned a few weeks ago you'd think if they were going to call it that they would use actual words. I mean what the hell does "defliqit" mean?

25 novembre - Santa Caterina d'Alessandria

Orimpics You Say?

Just think if Laurent had stayed in Beijing we could be part of the Olympic celebrations starting next month - oh joy!

The Chinese government has spent an Emperor's ransom to ensure that these will be the greatest games in the history of the Olympics. But are they really ready?



I haven't found a way of posting this without the 4 second slide show so for a longer look: hit the pause icon and then forward arrow to see each photo or a double click will take you to the album.

And thanks to my friend Naomi for sending me these photos from the Chinglish pages of Engrish, a hysterical look at fractured English at its most creative.

19 lulgio - San Simmaco Papa