tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156376982024-03-13T00:21:40.927-05:00It's Your Damned LanguageIt's your language. You use it every day. You should strive to master it. My late mother, a 27-year, graduate-level professor of English, embedded that in my brain once upon a time. I’m not nearly as smart as she was, but I’m sharp enough to recognize that the vast majority of native-born Americans can’t speak or write English worth a lick.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger232125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-14209004708242224312017-01-23T04:10:00.000-06:002017-01-23T04:10:35.126-06:00Thank You, Mr. RatherDan Rather had <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158087282405716" target="_blank">this </a>to say on his Facebook page yesterday. Bravo!<div>
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<i>"These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times.
And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.<br />
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<i>When you have a spokesperson for the president of the
United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase "alternative facts”…</i></div>
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<i>When you have a press secretary in his first appearance
before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the
briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen
CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his
authoritarian inaugural speech was….</i></div>
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<i>These are not normal times.</i></div>
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<i>The press has never seen anything like this before. The
public has never seen anything like this before. And the political leaders of
both parties have never seen anything like this before.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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<i>What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation.
"A lie, is a lie, is a lie!" And if someone won't say it, those of us
who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our
power to diminish the liar's malignant reach into our society.</i></div>
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<i>There is one group of people who can do a lot - very quickly. And that is
Republicans in Congress. Without their support, Donald Trump's presidency will
falter. So here is what I think everyone in the press must do. If you are
interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official,
the first question must be "what will you do to combat the lying from the
White House?" If they dodge and weave, keep with the follow ups. And if
they refuse to give a satisfactory answer, end the interview.</i></div>
<o:p></o:p></i><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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<i>Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy.
And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and
the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that
question."</i></div>
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Thank you.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-9325981311600414762017-01-22T13:20:00.000-06:002017-01-22T13:20:22.061-06:00OopsNot even two full days into his first term in office and this. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-64890505026395468312017-01-20T08:28:00.000-06:002017-01-20T08:29:08.942-06:00New Word?This morning I was listening to CNN out of the corner of my ear as they reported on Donald Trump attending church services. A reporter named John Zeleny said the following:<br />
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"Donald Trump indeed has been studying some history on its own. He's been reading, I'm told, and <i><span style="color: red;">WATCHENING </span></i>and even, uh, listening to some old inauguration addresses..."<br /><span style="background-color: white;">|<br /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Methinks Mr. Zeleny has been covering Trump too long.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-85444292795887321302016-04-15T08:36:00.000-05:002016-04-15T08:36:03.577-05:00Holy Shit!Transcript from a Donald Trump speech. Speech? Is that what this is? Wow...<br />
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"Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you're a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us."</div>
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Here's another one if you're a glutton for punishment...<br />
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http://www.p2016.org/photos15/summit/trump012415spt.html<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-13334591987155970692016-03-04T04:46:00.002-06:002016-03-04T04:46:30.717-06:00And Then...KENS 5 News' Roma Villavicencio's <a href="http://www.kens5.com/story/news/traffic/2016/03/03/highway-130-toll-road-files-bankruptcy/81290514/" target="_blank">article</a> on Texas State Highway 130...Ugghh.<br />
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<span id="goog_2055538363"></span><span id="goog_2055538364"></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-90400903489864270992015-11-06T16:50:00.003-06:002015-11-06T16:50:54.528-06:00Ano NymousAn anonymous writer for ABC News wrote this:<br />
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<i>"In dashboard video from Caban's car, <span style="color: red;">Golden is seen <b>sloshing </b>back and forth</span> in the back seat..."</i><br />
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People don't slosh. Liquid does.<br />
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<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/taco-bell-exec-face-civil-suit-uber-attack/story?id=34955495" target="_blank">Link</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-22119029652518094902015-11-06T16:44:00.004-06:002015-11-06T16:44:40.510-06:00Dead RingerA writer named Rachel Wold wrote this for the website SportsNaut. It's at the end of the article:<br />
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<i>"It should definitely be interesting to see if McNair has any response to to Kluwe's quite opinionated letter that really drags the old owner <span style="color: red;">through the <b>ringer</b>.</span>"</i><br />
<br />
Here's the <a href="http://sportsnaut.com/2015/10/former-nfl-player-calls-out-bob-ncnair-for-donation-to-oppose-houstons-lgbt-equal-rights-ordinance/" target="_blank">link</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-28272647240397542272015-11-06T16:38:00.001-06:002015-11-06T16:40:44.600-06:00You're Fired!A Lifestyle writer named Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosel wrote this gem for MSN:<br />
<br />
<i>"Another company, YourEDM, caught wind that one of its employees participated in the foolishness, and reportedly posted this message <span style="color: red;">saying that it fired <b>he or she</b> as well.</span>"</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/career/racist-jokes-about-this-photo-got-people-fired-and-sparked-the-hashtag-supernumberhisnameiscayden/ar-AAf8q1N?getstaticpage=true" target="_blank">Yikes!</a><br />
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<img src="file:///C:\Users\JOHNS_~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-90274104868380822802015-10-30T03:51:00.002-05:002015-10-30T04:15:59.703-05:00Cooperation"Investigators say the person who abandoned the snake could be charged with animal cruelty. The reptile is now <span style="color: red;">re-cooperating</span> at an animal shelter in Riverside county."<br />
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An ABC America This Morning anchor on 10/30/15. I could not find his name anywhere.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-1418877880259855172015-07-16T04:47:00.001-05:002015-07-16T04:47:37.950-05:00Fallacy of Ambiguity - Again...I've been watching CBS News Up to the Minute in my hotel room for the past four days...<br />
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The cadence and diction of of Anne Marie Green's speech as she does the news in the early mornings is driving me positively batty. I hate it,but can't seem to change channels for 15 or so minutes. Ms. Green's stress on words and syllables is often so poorly placed that it's not clear what the point of a particular sentence is until the context of the story is clear.<br />
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It's astounding to me that broadcasters are paying people to read news when they clearly don't have a mastery of speech and reading. <br />
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She's not alone in her poor reading habits. The <a href="http://itsyourlanguage.blogspot.com/search/label/fallacy%20of%20ambiguity" target="_blank">Fallacy of Ambiguity </a>is everywhere. I need to start a list of poor news readers and narrators.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-87368271491532319572015-07-08T20:37:00.001-05:002015-07-08T20:37:47.344-05:00Amazing [Dis]GraceOn tonight's evening news, KENS 5 reporter Karen Grace used the word <i>"magistrated"</i> as a verb.<br />
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This is the second time I've heard that usage. Back in 2006 WOAI reporter Kristina De Leon <a href="http://itsyourlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/ever-been-caught-magistrating.html" target="_blank">used </a>it.<br />
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Ugghh....<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-48360696240570404442015-07-07T20:09:00.000-05:002015-07-07T20:09:06.516-05:00The Good What?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I found this atrocious piece of work on Facebook. I noticed the Instagram attribution and decided to give <a href="https://instagram.com/thegoodquote/" target="_blank">TheGoodQuote </a>Instagram site a look. What I found would make a twelve-year-old cringe.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-2146965951221885872014-12-01T09:05:00.002-06:002015-07-16T04:25:57.027-05:00Fallacy of Ambiguity - ExampleAnd so the peeve keeps on peeving...<br />
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This morning the Today Show was doing a piece on a college athlete who was found dead in a dumpster. Host Matt Lauer said, "...was found with a self-inflicted gunshot <i><b>wound</b></i>." <br />
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I'm thinking the stress should have been on the word <i>gunshot.</i> Placing it on the word <i>wound</i> implies that Lauer was letting viewers know it was a gunshot <i><b>wound </b></i>as opposed to a gunshot <b style="font-style: italic;">manicure </b>when he should have been stressing that it was a <b><i>gunshot </i></b>wound, not a <b>harpoon </b>wound. <br />
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<sigh></sigh>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-73592723503010001742014-11-28T22:19:00.002-06:002015-06-15T10:56:24.458-05:00Fallacy of Ambiguity<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
One of my greatest peeves is something known as the
fallacy of accent (One of the fallacies of ambiguity). Before taking a logic
class a few years ago, I didn't know there was a name for this…this...this thing that
drives me so crazy.</div>
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The definition is <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#Accent">here</a></div>
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In a nutshell, it concerns how a
sentence takes on different meanings, depending on which word has the
accent/stress on it. For example:</div>
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<b><i>I </i></b>didn't take the test yesterday.
(Somebody else did.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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I <b><i>didn't</i></b> take the test yesterday. (I
did not take it.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn't <b><i>take</i></b> the test yesterday. (I did
something else with it.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn't take <b><i>the</i></b> test yesterday. (I took a
different one.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn't take the <b><i>test</i></b> yesterday. (I took
something else.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn't take the test <i><b>yesterday</b></i>. (I took it some other day.)</div>
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What kills me is how many professionals are guilty
of shitty accent-placement. Next time a
reporter is reporting or a narrator is narrating, give it a good listen and
tell me I’m wrong.</div>
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Probably the worst offender ever is a male narrator
from the television show “How it’s Made.”
I don’t know who the narrator is because I see mostly reruns of the show
but the dude is really, really bad. I
mean bad. Give it a listen one day.<br />
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Another who is really bad is Dateline NBC reporter Josh Mankiewicz. Just awful.<br />
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Some of the best narrators out there don’t fuck up
accents. A few of them:</div>
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Keith Morrison</div>
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David Attenborough</div>
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Morgan Freeman</div>
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Alec Baldwin</div>
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Sigourney Weaver</div>
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So come on, peeps – </div>
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Get your <b><i>shit</i></b> together</div>
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<b><i>Get</i></b> your shit together </div>
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Get <b><i>your</i></b> shit together<br />
Get your shit <b><i>together</i></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-30844532376703891772014-10-19T20:12:00.001-05:002014-10-19T20:12:42.596-05:00They Be"The <span style="color: red;">camera </span>on the new iPhones <span style="color: red;">are better </span>than ever."<br />
<br />
From the latest iPhone 6 commercial.<br />
<br />
I guess Apple doesn't have enough cash to pay someone to proof scripts.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-81858411800857830762014-08-27T04:17:00.002-05:002014-08-27T04:17:26.432-05:00Dear 'Murca<br />
The plural of "incident" is "incidents," not "incidences."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-85909891706139398952014-04-21T07:05:00.005-05:002014-04-21T07:05:52.625-05:00Hit Me!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Pretty strong dude, apparently.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-55638436842283237112014-02-04T04:14:00.001-06:002014-02-04T04:14:27.616-06:00Huh?<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">Former aide to governor Chris Christie, Bill Stepien, was reported to have said in an email:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">"It's fine. The mayor is an idiot, though. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><i>When</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><i> </i>some, lose some."</span><div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">I can't say that I've ever seen that usage before. Interesting.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-57328311479541054172014-01-15T03:40:00.000-06:002014-01-15T03:40:28.263-06:00Thesaurus Club<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTbhWiMV93_SovYKzjphOUOzyBR_J2eaEAw38i2LnByVO02hsXTFBi7Qi76xMuyWw0iSxVXqsXSrDkZtpLTAclO5IhEXPNHDhZ6FKTC_Ze_IqFd3u1RS3RfdKXZVHt5P3mTRinQ/s1600/ThesaurusClub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTbhWiMV93_SovYKzjphOUOzyBR_J2eaEAw38i2LnByVO02hsXTFBi7Qi76xMuyWw0iSxVXqsXSrDkZtpLTAclO5IhEXPNHDhZ6FKTC_Ze_IqFd3u1RS3RfdKXZVHt5P3mTRinQ/s320/ThesaurusClub.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-26430306665921467282012-12-19T05:13:00.003-06:002012-12-19T05:13:53.092-06:00Post OfficeI was at the post office the other day and spied a box on a counter. I wish I could've snapped a picture of it, but it would have been too conspicuous to the box owner.<br />
<br />
On the side of the box the sender had written:<br />
<br />
<em>Merry Christmas</em><br />
<em>Happy New Years</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>***FRAGILE***</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>***BRAKABLE***</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>***FRAGILE***</em><br />
<br />
[sigh]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-60436673186457491832012-11-05T18:25:00.002-06:002012-11-05T18:25:54.767-06:00OMG! Make it Stop!
If I hear one more damned reporter use any form of
the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impact </i>again,
I’m gonna slash my wrists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Tonight Jim Cantore (Annoying,
hands-always-on-his-hips, NBC weather dweeb) referred to the nor’easter on its
way to NY & NJ as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impactful.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then went on to say it would have <em>impacts</em>
here and <em>impacts</em> there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Shit…Make it stop.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-13457278697886030302012-05-04T08:50:00.002-05:002012-05-04T08:50:37.335-05:00AdvertisementThe other day I was going through some of my mother's boxes of stuff, and stumbled upon a number of clippings she saved while teaching in Beijing, China. In 1983 and 1988 she was Chief of Party for a team of professors from UCLA who went to Beijing to teach. <br />
<br />
These little treasures are a testament to her love of language. English was her first language. She had a masters degree in ESL and a masters degree in Spanish. She also had a working knowledge of Portuguese, French and Chinese. <br />
<br />
I'll post these little gems (not just from China) from time to time and tag them as "Mom's Collection."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RfS48PNnrtGhyphenhyphenGnKfRSsU2L94evGA0aBXkO6i57ojSicA2GY3XEsUSppoKMPyocq1WdPwv_4uYQt_FY8Y3u__5IYLM13tsyn2Ylvv2JqudQbaAP8NDQehmxE49FjPBk4w0-Ssg/s1600/scan0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RfS48PNnrtGhyphenhyphenGnKfRSsU2L94evGA0aBXkO6i57ojSicA2GY3XEsUSppoKMPyocq1WdPwv_4uYQt_FY8Y3u__5IYLM13tsyn2Ylvv2JqudQbaAP8NDQehmxE49FjPBk4w0-Ssg/s320/scan0001.jpg" width="174" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-87665985426697354442012-04-14T06:52:00.001-05:002012-04-14T06:53:09.293-05:00Little Miss Muffet Sat on a FuttetLast night I watched <i>"Spiders: The Dark Side"</i> on National Geographic Wild. During a segment about a woman who had been bitten by a black widow spider he said:<br />
<br />
"She's become <b><span style="color: red;">viligant</span></b> in other ways as well."<br />
<br />
I wasn't sure if I heard it right, so I rewound the DVR. Yep. He said it. Nice.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-64066439913999852982012-04-11T05:25:00.001-05:002012-04-11T05:29:30.492-05:00Wholly Cow!I snapped this picture of a sign on the ol' teevee news a few months ago in the wake of the sexual abuse story unfolding at Miramonte Elementary School in California. Amazing.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYXY2jvSJQSfUOpEPae3dPHwOWd2LQcxuxoerD4KFcHaesYEf57Fz8kWSgIYQg07FXgPVmXa-4NdfSgNZMb5i-aoJN-OhCCrYZFU_SDQQyyQWkLg8fXzF6Si5ZsS3QAYSDSSWSQ/s1600/sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237px" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMYXY2jvSJQSfUOpEPae3dPHwOWd2LQcxuxoerD4KFcHaesYEf57Fz8kWSgIYQg07FXgPVmXa-4NdfSgNZMb5i-aoJN-OhCCrYZFU_SDQQyyQWkLg8fXzF6Si5ZsS3QAYSDSSWSQ/s400/sign.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can see why they want (and need!) their teachers back! </td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15637698.post-91333482603588297632012-04-02T18:19:00.001-05:002012-04-02T18:19:37.230-05:00Rick, Rick, Rick<div class="MsoNormal">"Well I don’t know about you, but I believe in act of Gods." - <i>Rick Santorum responding to a fellow candidate, April, 2012<br />
<br />
</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1