Playing Fast and Loose with the English Language
A reader asks: My wife just said about some left over green veggies “ Don’t worry about those, I will salad them.” Grounds for divorce?
Ha!
My interpretation here is that your wife regards the English language the same way I do, i.e., as a tool for us to use to communicate, rather than a set of hard and fast rules. She’s probably also aware that the way we use the language changes naturally over time, and that nobody living today knows exactly how we’ll be speaking and writing 50 years hence. I respect people who are so familiar with the language that they can make their own charming little contributions to it. In this case, introducing the use of the word “salad” as a verb.
I would point out, however, that there is a difference between this and simple, substandard grammar. Someone asked the other day if the sentence, “My father taught my brother and I how to play poker” was acceptable. The answer, of course, is that it’s acceptable only to people who don’t understand English grammar, and you don’t want to be among them.
I was on a Zoom call the other day on which someone was trying to explain the hostility between two sects somewhere in Central or Eastern Europe. (Was it Hungary? I can’t recall.) The caller explained, “These people just don’t along with each other.”
With each passing day it appears that Trump is losing a few more voters. Take the story of the Haitians in Ohio as an example.
Trump is revered by two groups:
Are you telling me that the “Patriots Network” creates and promotes memes based on quotes that they themselves acknowledge to be fake? I’m struggling to think of anything more stupid.
As shown at left, key public figures in red states are slamming Trump for his selfish and traitorous behavior.
Energy/financial guru Robert Rapier writes:
The meme here reminds me of the late, great George Carlin, and his masterpiece explaining why he worships the sun, and not the traditional Judeo-Christian God:
And they’re using conductive (rather than inductive) charging like the trolleys of 100 years ago?
Meat-eaters nowadays seem to have deep-seated emotional issues with vegans, for reasons that remain unclear. Why all this aggression against people who may have compassion for the welfare of other sentient beings. or may be concerned about their own health, or that of the planet as a whole?
