COUNTRY COUNTRAST -- The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of a radical religious group to say nasty things near military funerals. In Pakistan, blasphemy gets you the death penalty, and disagreeing with radical Islamism is illegal, even if you are a Christian. On the same day of the Supreme Court ruling, a Christian cabinet minister who opposed Pakistan's blasphemy law was assassinated.
SHORT VERSION -- You have the right of free speech. I have the right to ignore you.
ATTENTION BIRTHERS -- There is no requirement that the President of the United States be a Christian. In fact, the Constitution specifically prohibits such a requirement, for any public office. That's not in the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, but in the main body of the Constitution itself, in Article VI, which states, "There shall be no religious test for any office of public trust." There are many non-Christian politicians in America, including Hindus, Jews and Muslims, and that's as it should be, so that the entire population is represented. "America is a Christian nation," is the claim; (except for 6 million Jews, 5 million Muslims, 3 million Buddhists, 1.5 million Hindus, 1 million of the Baha'i faith, and 300,000 Sikh, not to mention the 2 million atheists and the 33 million who are non-religious. In addition, there are those of the Zoroastrian, Confucian, Shinto, Tao, Wiccan, and Druid spiritual paths, as well as the many in the Native American Tradition.) And if the President of the United States should happen to be a Muslim? As Colin Powell said, "So what if he is?"
SAY WHAT? -- Office technology department: "Please listen closely to the following options. If you are calling from a rotary phone, press zero."
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Semantics
SUPPLY AND DEMAND -- Words don't always come on demand. Writers struggle for the best word -- the most effective word -- to convey a meaning, an image, or a message. But much also depends on the recipient -- the reader or the listener -- who brings a set of experiences, a history of beliefs and practices, which attach to a word or phrase new meanings, alternate meanings, or meanings that the writer did not intend to send or may not have thought of when framing the sentence. This is why so many domestic arguments are really about semantics, not issues.
Or, as comedian Dave Gardner put it, "What do it look like to both of us? Now we gettin' someplace."
PUNCHY -- Consider why style manuals often recommend Anglo-Saxon short verbs over polysyllabic Latin-based verbs. Multiple sounds in a single word tend to overwhelm the thought or idea the writer is trying to convey. Also, some words are construed to be more active than others. But what makes them more active? Is it that Anglo-Saxon verbs are shorter, and therefore more lithe? In sports, smaller, lighter athletes are often faster and with quicker reflexes than larger, lumbering competitors. The same may be true with words. Or it could be that on a linguistic DNA level, Latin is still a foreign language.
BASE LINES -- I went to an ophthalmologist recently, who was surprised when I pointed out that the medical term "presbyopia" was derived from the Greek for "old eyes." And years ago, I asked a dermatologist, "What do you call this indentation, or pit, on the inside of the elbow." He harrumphed a few doctor noises, and replied: "It's the antecubital fossa." After I got home, curiosity drove me to a dictionary, because I remembered that the element "ante-" meant "in front of," as in "anteroom," and that the word "cubit" was an ancient unit of measurement calculated as the distance from the wrist to the elbow. It turns out that "fossa" means "pit." So "antecubital fossa" is medical jargon for "pit in front of the elbow." Two good examples of the use of jargon, or a way to communicate with fellow members of a select group, and keep outsiders ignorant.
CLICHE CORNER -- Arctic blast, polar plunge and icy grip should all be banished from the lexicon of weather reports. Once is clever, twice is noticeable and three or more usages mean the writer has no imagination.
SHAKESPEAREAN DISSING -- Old Will was a master of the insult. Try using that fact when teaching Elizabethan drama to teenagers.
OVERHEARD -- "You're a Druid, aren't you? That's funny, you don't look Druish."
OVERHEARD, PART TWO -- "I'm going to plant pansies, but I'll do it in a manly fashion."
TRADE SECRET -- The secret of good writing is not in knowing what to put in, but in knowing what to leave out.
Or, as comedian Dave Gardner put it, "What do it look like to both of us? Now we gettin' someplace."
PUNCHY -- Consider why style manuals often recommend Anglo-Saxon short verbs over polysyllabic Latin-based verbs. Multiple sounds in a single word tend to overwhelm the thought or idea the writer is trying to convey. Also, some words are construed to be more active than others. But what makes them more active? Is it that Anglo-Saxon verbs are shorter, and therefore more lithe? In sports, smaller, lighter athletes are often faster and with quicker reflexes than larger, lumbering competitors. The same may be true with words. Or it could be that on a linguistic DNA level, Latin is still a foreign language.
BASE LINES -- I went to an ophthalmologist recently, who was surprised when I pointed out that the medical term "presbyopia" was derived from the Greek for "old eyes." And years ago, I asked a dermatologist, "What do you call this indentation, or pit, on the inside of the elbow." He harrumphed a few doctor noises, and replied: "It's the antecubital fossa." After I got home, curiosity drove me to a dictionary, because I remembered that the element "ante-" meant "in front of," as in "anteroom," and that the word "cubit" was an ancient unit of measurement calculated as the distance from the wrist to the elbow. It turns out that "fossa" means "pit." So "antecubital fossa" is medical jargon for "pit in front of the elbow." Two good examples of the use of jargon, or a way to communicate with fellow members of a select group, and keep outsiders ignorant.
CLICHE CORNER -- Arctic blast, polar plunge and icy grip should all be banished from the lexicon of weather reports. Once is clever, twice is noticeable and three or more usages mean the writer has no imagination.
SHAKESPEAREAN DISSING -- Old Will was a master of the insult. Try using that fact when teaching Elizabethan drama to teenagers.
OVERHEARD -- "You're a Druid, aren't you? That's funny, you don't look Druish."
OVERHEARD, PART TWO -- "I'm going to plant pansies, but I'll do it in a manly fashion."
TRADE SECRET -- The secret of good writing is not in knowing what to put in, but in knowing what to leave out.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Press Freedom
Bill Keller, the managing editor of the NY Times, regarding the Wikileaks fallout, wrote: "A free press in a democracy can be messy. But the alternative is to give the government a veto over what its citizens are allowed to know."
The first thing a repressive government tries to do is to control the flow of information. This has been happening in Cairo and historically has happened in many other countries. One of the things that worry me about Sarah Palin is her almost obsessive control of her message. She communicates almost entirely through her web site, Facebook and Twitter. Her public speeches are only to friendly audiences; she takes no questions, and avoids reporters like the plague.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Blitzed
BLITZED -- Or, Sherlock Blitzer strikes again. CNN anchor: "Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced today he will not run for re-election next year. Here's CNN's Wolf Blitzer with a commentary. Wolf, what does this mean?"
Blitzer: "It means that Joe Lieberman will no longer be in the Senate."
SPACED -- Farhad Manjoo posted a rant on Slate with this pronouncement: "Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong." And, he claims, "Every third e-mail I get from readers includes the two-space error," and many in the public relation profession, he adds, are among the ignorant offenders. Guess what, friend Manjoo: The point is, in fact, arguable, and is not necessarily wrong. The single-space practice began with the advent of computers and computerized typesetting. Ranter Manjoo must be of the computer generation. We geezers who learned spacing B.C. (before computers) got into the practice with manual typewriters, when a tad of extra space was helpful to readers in spotting the end of a sentence. Computers can be programmed to add a smidgen of extra space, just as the machine can automatically justify the type to align the right-hand margins, which typewriters cannot do. I guess it didn't occur to the ranter that if so many professionals disagreed with him, there might be some validity to their positions.
COMMA-TOSE -- And as for the ranter inserting a comma after the penultimate item in a list, as he does with "totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong," that, too, is arguable. Academics say yes, newspaper usage says no. It's a matter of style, which in this case refers to consistency of usage. There is no right or wrong, it's the way any group of editors decides to do it. Another example the use of percent. Should it be one word or two, or abbreviated to pct. or substituted with the symbol %? Each is correct. Writers use whichever form the editor of a particular publication prefers.
Blitzer: "It means that Joe Lieberman will no longer be in the Senate."
SPACED -- Farhad Manjoo posted a rant on Slate with this pronouncement: "Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong." And, he claims, "Every third e-mail I get from readers includes the two-space error," and many in the public relation profession, he adds, are among the ignorant offenders. Guess what, friend Manjoo: The point is, in fact, arguable, and is not necessarily wrong. The single-space practice began with the advent of computers and computerized typesetting. Ranter Manjoo must be of the computer generation. We geezers who learned spacing B.C. (before computers) got into the practice with manual typewriters, when a tad of extra space was helpful to readers in spotting the end of a sentence. Computers can be programmed to add a smidgen of extra space, just as the machine can automatically justify the type to align the right-hand margins, which typewriters cannot do. I guess it didn't occur to the ranter that if so many professionals disagreed with him, there might be some validity to their positions.
COMMA-TOSE -- And as for the ranter inserting a comma after the penultimate item in a list, as he does with "totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong," that, too, is arguable. Academics say yes, newspaper usage says no. It's a matter of style, which in this case refers to consistency of usage. There is no right or wrong, it's the way any group of editors decides to do it. Another example the use of percent. Should it be one word or two, or abbreviated to pct. or substituted with the symbol %? Each is correct. Writers use whichever form the editor of a particular publication prefers.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Brilliant!
DUH --- Wolf Blitzer, CNN, 8:35 p.m. Saturday, 8 January 2011: "Authorities said they are not convinced the shooter acted alone. That means there may have been another person involved."
Reaction from the Samurai Rim Man: "Ain't he all broke out with brilliance."
Reaction from the Samurai Rim Man: "Ain't he all broke out with brilliance."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Spelling counts
FROM THE ARCHIVE -- The spelling system of any language is, at best, only an approximation of pronunciation. Writing is, in fact, a totally arbitrary system of symbols and marks meant to convey the sounds of a language; and compared to modern gadgetry, a very primitive way of recording speech.
Language changes with time. What is agreed on as a convenient and conventional way of recording speech with certain symbols may, in a few years, no longer accurately represent the way people speak. Modern English orthography more nearly represents the pronunciation of Queen Elizabeth I than the current monarch. Nevertheless, we retain the spelling system because it would be neither feasible nor practical to republish all the books and re-educate all the people. In one generation, several hundred years worth of books would be unreadable.
The point is this: Despite the inconsistencies in English orthography and the sometimes wide disparity between spelling and pronunciation, the use of "standard" written forms remains a mark of literacy and education. And that allows you to achieve other goals, one being the smooth communication of ideas. In the writing biz, we are judged by our product; the symbols representing words, which we commit to paper.
MORAL: Pronounce as you wish, but hew to the spelling conventions.
TEA PARTY ECONOMICS -- Free the Fortune 500!
Language changes with time. What is agreed on as a convenient and conventional way of recording speech with certain symbols may, in a few years, no longer accurately represent the way people speak. Modern English orthography more nearly represents the pronunciation of Queen Elizabeth I than the current monarch. Nevertheless, we retain the spelling system because it would be neither feasible nor practical to republish all the books and re-educate all the people. In one generation, several hundred years worth of books would be unreadable.
The point is this: Despite the inconsistencies in English orthography and the sometimes wide disparity between spelling and pronunciation, the use of "standard" written forms remains a mark of literacy and education. And that allows you to achieve other goals, one being the smooth communication of ideas. In the writing biz, we are judged by our product; the symbols representing words, which we commit to paper.
MORAL: Pronounce as you wish, but hew to the spelling conventions.
TEA PARTY ECONOMICS -- Free the Fortune 500!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Government and media
DOMINATION -- We often hear the claim that the so-called "liberal" media are dominated by the government, and "only lets the public know what government wants the public to know." If so, how is it that there is so much negative, embarrassing information published about government? The complaint is usually registered by Republican conservatives, when Democrats are in power. But newspapers also publish plenty of information about Republican activities. So, if the "liberal" media are so biased in favor of Democrats, how is it we know so much about Sarah Palin? How to explain GOP success? How is it that Richard Nixon was re-elected with 61 percent of the vote, carrying 49 states? Remember also Abu Graib, Guantanamo, My Lai, Watergate, and the failure of pre-9/11 intelligence, not to mention the current spate of information outed by Wikileaks. With all the information critical of both sides available, the claim of "liberal domination" and influence on the electorate falls.
There are many things that can be said about the news media in America, but lack of independence is not one of them. Incompetence, sometimes, yes. But the same can be said about politicians. Not all politicians are independent and/or competent.
Edwin Newman once said that the Constitution guarantees a free press; it does not guarantee a fair press. Nor, I would add, does it guarantee a competent press. For many years, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, newspapers were often rabidly, even proudly, partisan in their coverage. One way to ensure competence in any profession would be through licensing, as is done with plumbers, electricians, and medical professionals. However, if government can issue a license, it can also take away a license. In journalism, that's too high a risk to take.
FIVE C's OF GOOD WRITING -- Clear, Concise, Consistent, Complete, and Correct.
DUMBEST INTRO AWARD -- In a report on the weather and declining temperatures, the NBC presenter in Philadelphia said, "It feels like the end of November out there!" The date was Nov. 27. Duh!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -- There's a thin line between news and gossip. As David Brinkley defined it, "News is something worth knowing." Even so, defining what is worth knowing is subjective. To some folks, knowing what Snooki and the Kardashians are up to is more important than foreign policy, the stock market, pollution or the latest Middle East crisis.
There are many things that can be said about the news media in America, but lack of independence is not one of them. Incompetence, sometimes, yes. But the same can be said about politicians. Not all politicians are independent and/or competent.
Edwin Newman once said that the Constitution guarantees a free press; it does not guarantee a fair press. Nor, I would add, does it guarantee a competent press. For many years, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, newspapers were often rabidly, even proudly, partisan in their coverage. One way to ensure competence in any profession would be through licensing, as is done with plumbers, electricians, and medical professionals. However, if government can issue a license, it can also take away a license. In journalism, that's too high a risk to take.
FIVE C's OF GOOD WRITING -- Clear, Concise, Consistent, Complete, and Correct.
DUMBEST INTRO AWARD -- In a report on the weather and declining temperatures, the NBC presenter in Philadelphia said, "It feels like the end of November out there!" The date was Nov. 27. Duh!
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -- There's a thin line between news and gossip. As David Brinkley defined it, "News is something worth knowing." Even so, defining what is worth knowing is subjective. To some folks, knowing what Snooki and the Kardashians are up to is more important than foreign policy, the stock market, pollution or the latest Middle East crisis.
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