More fun with English

Oddities of the English Language--thanks to Ernie for these gems.

The longest words containing only one of the six vowels including Y are the words Defenselessness, Respectlessness, close behind are Tennessee.  And subbookkeeper (Some dictionaries consider subbookkeeper to be a word, in which case it's the only word with 4 consecutive doubled letters).

  

Forty is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order. One in the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order

Bookkeeper is the only word that has three consecutive doubled letters.

Despite the assertions of a well-known puzzle, modern English doe not have three common words ending in “gry.” Angry and Hungry are the only ones.

“Ough” can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all.

“A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.

Due do and dew seems to screw people over just as bad as they're there and their...

Ten two-letter words in a proper sentence: If it is to be, it is up to me!

There are a number of English words that are pronounced differently when you capitalize them and the term for this is Capitonyms. In English, this means words that when capitalized are pronounced differently than if they are written in small case

Polish: from Poland; written in small case the word becomes polish which means to create a shiny surface by rubbing; a compound used in that process

Reading: a personal or place name; written in small case it is reading which means to read some words

The following poem from Richard Lederer's The Word Circus is an example of the use of capitonyms:

Job's Job

In August, an august patriarch

Was reading an ad in Reading, Mass.

Long-suffering Job secured a job

To polish piles of Polish brass.

Fun with English

Lessons My Grammar Taught Me

·       A dangling participle walks into a bar.

·       Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

·       A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

·       Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

·       A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

·       A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

·       Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

·       A synonym strolls into o tavern.

·       The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

·       A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

·       The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

·       A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

·       Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

Questions My Grammar Asked Me

·       What if there were no hypothetical questions?

·       Is there another word for synonym?

·       Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

·       How is it possible to have a civil war?

·       If a parsley former is sued, can they garnish his wages?

·       If you were to eat pasta and antipasto at the same time, would you still be hungry?

Thanks to Denis O. Vaughn W. and Soren K for these gems

Find your local Food Bank

Food Banks are an important part of our social safety net, they are here because of our governments  (Federal, Provincial and Municipal) lack of adequate support many of our neigbours. There are many ideas of what to do about Food Banks and the people who need them. This is not the forum for that discussion. 

Food Banks help so we need to support them.  You may not know that there is a Food Bank Network. The Food Banks Canada network is made up of ten Members (Provincial Associations) and their approximately 450 affiliated food banks (Affiliate Members). The following is from their Website:

"While many people are aware of their local food bank, they may not know just how large the network of food banks across this country is.

We represent ten Provincial Associations, more than 500 Affiliated food banks, and over 3,000 food agencies. Together, we serve approximately 85% of the Canadians who turn to their community food bank or food program for help. Without our network, more than a million people each year would have times where they simply couldn’t put food on the table.

We support our network in a number of ways, including our programs, large-scale food donations made through our National Food Sharing System and our Retail Food Program, and financial support from us and from our donor partners. We also provide support through awareness-raising campaigns that increase the profile of the issue of hunger and through advocacy work that finds longer-term solutions.

If you operate a food bank or agency and are not yet part of our network, please contact your Provincial Association to find out how you can become part of the movement to relieve hunger in Canada."

By going to this link you can find your local Food Bank if you live in Canada. (Click Here). Once you have found your local Food Bank, call them or visit them to see how you can help at this time of year. Please call your local food bank before visiting.

Are you an Elder, a Senior or Old?

Those were the days, my friend. We were young and gave no thought to growing old. As my generation grows older we still fight the idea that we are growing old. 

There is an attempt by many to change the way we refer to people of a certain age. Older, Elder, Senior, which label to you like? Some other terms for being old that I have heard are “Oldster”, “Vintage”, “Golden Ager”, “Third Ager”, “Older Adult”, “The Silent Generation”, “War Babies”, “Boomer”, “Seasoned Citizens”, “Autumnal”, “mid-century vintage”. I heard one person respond by saying, ‘I'm an"ibaallt", meaning "I've been living a long, long time.” Another person said, “I am xx years young.” and “I have been around a long time”

The problem with all of the above terms is they are labels and labels change and evolve, and once labels that were acceptable become negative. We use labels to help us identify those who are different than us. The issue is, of course, that we will all grow old. Using labels can be a form of ageism.  Some of us think ageism is not real or is not important. I have friends who say “Age is not important, it is just a number. Well, it is if you are in a comfortable position, but I know there are many out there who, because of their age, cannot get a good job, or have been fired because of their age.

I was talking to a younger person and they asked me how old I was, and I told them. They said, “Congratulations you should be proud”. I wondered for what, living, or for living for so long? Today, I am alive, I am healthy, that is a fact and that could change in a flash. The reason I am alive probably has to do more with genetics than what I have done or how I have lived. I wondered why anyone would be proud of being any age. If I was to ask a person who was 19, or 40 or 55, were they proud of their age, I think I would get a shocked look and no answer. All ages are equally valid. Unless we die young, we each go through all of them. There is nothing unique or special about a certain age compared to another.

Changing the words, we use to express age, will not make ageism go away, but it may help society overcome that prejudice, but it will be a slow process as our society is still in love with the idea of staying young.

When does old apply to you? I believe that being old means someone who is at least 10 years older than me. However, others may not hold that view. I like what Ronnie Bennett over at “Time Goes By”, said “Oh just stop it. Everyone, stop it. If you are asking the question about when being old “kicks in”, you're there.”

So I will leave you with a couple of question, now that “you are there”, what does that mean to you, and how do you refer to yourself?