For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to write anything about magnetic fields on the Sun, or if you are worried about an upcoming solar apocalypse, or write about whatever else that you think might fit.
So, I know nothing about the magnetic fields on the Sun, other than what Jim wrote about them in his post. I’m not worried a solar apocalypse, either. And, with chest congestion, sinuses full of snot, a hacking cough, a muddled head, and a low-grade fever, I decided to keep my response simple by presenting one of my favorite tracks from my personal favorite Beatles album, Abbey Road. The song is “Here Comes the Sun.”
“Here Comes the Sun” was written by George Harrison. He composed the song in early 1969 at his friend Eric Clapton’s country house. Harrison skipped a meeting at the Beatles’ Apple Corps organization to write the song. The lyrics of the song express his joy on the arrival of spring and the break he got from the band’s business affairs.
“Well, I’m only on page one, so there’s not much to show you at this point,” Jon said, “but I can tell you about it.”
“Yes, please do,” Archie said.”
“It’s got a little bit of everything in it,” Jon explained. “It’s an action/adventure film with exploding hand grenades and it’s a musical comedy, too. It starts out with this woman, hat on her head, reading a self-help book when she decides she needs to turn over a new leaf. She fixes herself some bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then she grabs her baby boy, puts it him the baby carriage, and heads out onto the bustling streets of Manhattan. And that’s when the adventure begins.”
“Sounds like a bit of a hodgepodge if you ask me,” Archie said. “I think you ought to focus on one or two elements rather than on everything under the sun.”
“Don’t worry,” Jon said. “I’m only on page one. It will all come together by the end. I’ll prove to you what a great film show it will be.”
Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday Mix Lucky Dip, where the story cubes are person in a hat reading a book, egg and bacon, pram, music note, leaf, grenade, and filmstrip.
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to write anything about a dating site that we joined, if we had any luck on that site, or if we think all of them are a big waste of time and money.
When I was in the dating years in my life (16 to 30), there were no online dating sites. In fact, back then, there were no online sites of any kind, as the World Wide Web/internet didn’t exist back then — at least not for use by the general public. But when I was in college, a new, computer dating service was introduced. It was called “Operation Match.”
Operation Match was the first computer dating service in the United States, begun in 1965. Users filled out a paper questionnaire that they mailed back with a $3 fee. The questionnaire was geared to young college students seeking a date, not necessarily a marriage partner.
To enter, participants filled out a paper survey with 75 questions about themselves and the same 75 questions about their date’s ideal characteristics. Questions included “Do you believe in a God who answers prayer?” and “Is extensive sexual activity in preparation for marriage part of ‘growing up?’”
There were also four short-answer situational questions. One question, for example, asked: What would you do if your roommate set you up with an “embarrassingly unattractive” blind date for a big dance? Would you “monopolize your roommate’s date, leaving your roommate with only one noble alternative,” or would you “act very friendly the whole time and run the risk of being trapped into a second date?”
Once the questionnaire was completed, participants would mail their answer sheets to Compatability Research Inc. in Cambridge, MA along with a $3 fee. Their answers would be recorded on punch cards and run through a room-sized IBM 1401 computer. Three weeks later, they would receive a sheet of paper with the names and contact information of their top six matches.
I think I was in my sophomore year when Operation Match blanketed my college campus with its questionnaires. I was curious enough to invest $3, complete the questionnaire, and mail it in. Three weeks later I received my printout with my six “matches.” I decided to start at the top of the list and work my way through the six names. The first girl I called had entered into a relationship with a guy just after she sent in her questionnaire, so she was “off-the-market.” Number 3 on my list said she did Operation Match as a joke and had zero interest in going on a date with someone whose name appeared on a computer printout.
I did go out with numbers 2, 4, 5, and 6, and that resulted in four first dates and no second dates, either because I had no interest in a second date with her or she had no desire to have a second date with me.
Bottom line, for me, computerized dating was a bust. I imagine that online dating sites probably are too.
Like I told the officer, Detective, there was no way he was doing it. And that was that, I thought. Things weren’t great between them; she was beginning to grate on his nerves. Then he called me yesterday and told me about her ultimatum. I asked him what he was going to do and he said he was going to let her expire. “Her,” not “it.”
(Exactly 66 words)
Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Story Starter Saturday Mix, where the story starter is “There was no way he was doing it. And that was that…”
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to write anything about the English language. This is a timely question for me because of a discussion I had recently with blogger David Hatfield, who blogs at malaphors.com. I love Dave’s posts, which, as his blog’s tagline states, are about “unintentional blended idioms and phrases – It’s the cream of the cake!”
He wrote this post earlier this week and raised the question of whether the idiom is “champing at the bit” or “chomping at the bit.” The unequivocal answer is “champing.” But most people seem to use “chomping at the bit” because most people are unfamiliar with the word “champing,” so they go with the more familiar sounding, but incorrect “chomping.”
According to Webster’s Dictionary, to “champ at the bit” is to “show impatience at restraint; be restless.” It comes from something said about racehorses waiting for the gates to open, when they bite their bits “repeatedly and restlessly.” They “champ.”
By the way, horse bits are used to communicate with and control horses by applying pressure to the horse’s mouth. The bit sits in the gap between the horse’s front and back teeth, and extends out from side to side. The bit works with the rider’s legs and weight distribution to control the horse’s head.
So, to take the expression outside of the context of horses, one might use it to describe someone who is forced to wait in an impatient way to do something. “Carl had been at the DMV for three hours and he was champing at the bit to have his number called.”
To chomp something is to chew it noisily. So unless Carl was noisily chewing on a piece of beef jerky, he wasn’t “chomping” at the bit.
But here is where this becomes a sticky wicket, whatever the hell that it. In his research on this topic, Dave found that English language authority William Safire wrote, “To spell it champing at the bit when most people would say chomping at the bit is to slavishly follow outdated dictionary preferences.” Safire died in 2009, so who cares what he thinks?
Dave also quoted The Grammarist blog, which wrote, “champing at the bit can sound funny to people who aren’t familiar with the idiom or the obsolete sense of champ, while most English speakers can infer the meaning of chomping at the bit.”
So the messaging seems to be that we should be okay with using words that sound more familiar rather than to familiarize ourselves with the right words and use them properly.
Why is that okay? We are dumbing down Americans by letting them get away with using the wrong words because they sound more familiar rather than teaching them the right words.
No wonder more Americans these days are saying “Nip it in the butt” rather than the correct idiom, “Nip it in the bud.” Although, to nip someone in the butt does sound a bit more interesting than nipping something in the bud.
This, That, and the Other 