National Grammar Day, March 4th

National Grammar Day

Oh, my goodness, I almost forgot! Today is National Grammar Day! And I would not have known about National Grammar Day, if Soccer Dad, had not given me the heads up about it! Now, even though I have my B.A. in English, I haven't ever formally taken a grammar class, so, I do feel a bit insecure around some people when they talk about nonrestrictive modifiers and future perfect tenses. However, I do love language, and can appreciate grammar and those whose skills are above my own, and today I will pretend that I have the best of grammar skills, and as long as Edgy doesn't tell on me, no-one will be the wiser. Just, no-one comment on the run-on sentence, please.

Anyway, I found this delightful article about the ethics of grammar, which tells me of the four situations where it is permissible to correct a person's grammar. And, I have discovered that according to SPOGG (Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar) voters, President George W. Bush is the celebrity with the worst grammar. (Sorry Soccer Dad as a Democrat, I felt morally responsible, to point that one out.) And, I have discovered that SPOGG has a blog!

I feel as if I am witnessing the development of a real-life-English-major-e-version of S.P.E.W.!

Anyway, thanks again Soccer Dad!

Banned Words for 2008

Every year Lake Superior State University (read here for the history of word banishment) listens to complaints and comments from the American public about overused words and phrases in American usage and they compile a list of words that are to be banned for the next year. The list for 2008 includes: Perfect Storm, Webinar, Waterboarding, Organic, Wordsmith/Wordsmithing, Author/Authored, Post 9/11, Surge, Give Back, 'Blank' is the new 'Blank' or 'X' is the new 'Y', Black Friday, Back in the Day, Random, Sweet, Decimate, Emotional, Pop, It Is What It Is, and Under the Bus.

I agree with the banning of "Perfect Storm," "Post 9/11," and "Decimate" and hereafter you will never see these phrases appear on my blog because I do believe that "perfect storm" is way overused, I don't live my life according to a 9/11 timeline, and I never reduce anything strictly by one tenth. I can't promise about the other words and phrases, because either I like them, or I still find them useful or ironic.

If you are looking for a "random" resolution for the new year, you could check out the complete list of banned words. It would be a major accomplishment to remove them all from your vocabulary... or even just your blogging vocabulary.

Abet and Aid Punsters Day, November 8th

Abet and Aid Punsters Day

I'm not a very good punster, and because I am currently watching election results, my brain is busy trying to not create conspiracy theories about the Utah County voting machine glitch. (I know that logically Orrin Hatch and Chris Cannon would have probably still have won without the glitch, but if Republicans are stuffing the ballot box in Daggett County... )

But, when you are in the mood for a pun, if you aren't too depressed from the election results, check out this website for 200 of the funniest puns ever.