Living with Language

The absorption of language into an ongoing life. Something interesting on language as it touches upon the author and the times.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Digital Shortcuts Are Great . . . if You Don't Come a Cropper

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        "Pay your bills online."  Easier and faster than checks and snail mail.  And then you get emails about it, bills upcomi...
Friday, May 15, 2020

"Never Reapply Iodine!"

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       How such dire warnings stick with one.   I learned it from Miss Swihart in Groveland Park grade school, who taught gym, but also hea...
Monday, April 27, 2020

Hooked! A Minnesota Fish Story

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                 I told Connie my " Life's Little Instruction Calendar " today said, "Get to know a woman who baits her...
Wednesday, April 22, 2020

For Clocks, Telling Time Isn't Enough

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        The latest Hammacher Schlemmer catalog has arrived.  It's the "Mid-Spring Supplement 2020."  Not enough to come out...
Friday, April 17, 2020

iPhone's perceptive dictation translation

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        Son David texted me today that he "braved the outside [of his apartment] to get a fancy donut down the block" (referencin...
Thursday, April 2, 2020

This snack does double duty

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        In the midst of our wonders and worries about coronavirus, things like this keep happening.         I gave Connie a kiss or three...
Friday, March 27, 2020

Do Public Service Messages Live On?

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        A few blog posts back, I said a clever bit of public interest ad language won me over for wittiness and the value of its point, but...
Thursday, March 26, 2020

The Wednesday Torah Study class was on--line.

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        I attended my first "Zoom" class on this, my home computer.         I was nervous.  I got there...here...40 minutes ear...
Monday, March 23, 2020

An Occasion for Poetry

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        March 21st was World Poetry Day, just the other day.  It was established by UNESCO twenty one years ago, thus bringing it "of ...
Saturday, March 21, 2020

Is Joe Biden a Secret Stutterer?

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        That is the informed observation of one Dan Roche on the op-ed page of Thursday's L.A. Times.         As a life-long (since h...
Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Tense Times, Language Makes Us Laugh

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        Son David insists either he or our helper Sonia, who is here part of weekdays,  get my two-week grocery shopping list instead of me...
Sunday, March 15, 2020

Can language do this much?

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        The Automobile Club of Southern California produced a public service announcement.           The video showed a woman driving wit...
Friday, March 13, 2020

"Coronavirus"--a Sleuth's Expose´

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        The word "coronavirus" has been bothering me for days, ever since the "Rise of the Planet of the Coronavirus" a...
Thursday, March 12, 2020

Hello to Blog, coronavirus, toilet plunger?

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        Hello, Blog!!!!  We meet again, and I am humbled by you.  Plenty of fun and juicy entries I have planted here, but not for a long t...
Friday, May 10, 2019

What did this say. . .?

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       Sometimes a music review doesn't quite add up.        Three worthy artists were playing a program of trios for violin, piano a...
1 comment:
Thursday, May 9, 2019

Unwrapping an Unconscious Rap

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       For too long, I was without the map on my iPhone home page.  I needed it and somehow got it again--pulled it down, uploaded, downloa...

Simple word: "Dashboard"

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       I was wondering about the word "dashboard."        You may not be surprised to know it comes from the days before "...
Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Krazy Senior Reading Can Get Sticky

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       I found  Krazy Glue does more than just put together balsa wood parts on a model airplane, which I learned years go; it manages to h...
Thursday, May 2, 2019

Cute twenty-something with blond curls

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       Tongue-twisters come from many different places, including a random newspaper story.  A baseball player is making his first entry to...
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

"Just Fill In the Blanks"

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       One of the least likely to be successful telemarketing campaigns:         A phone call came.  There was no sound, no voice        ...
Monday, April 29, 2019

"Waldorf Salad for Taurus Study"

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       This title appeared among the voice memos on my iPhone, dated 10/2/18.  In looking back recently, I asked myself, "What the hec...
Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Who Says Birds Don't Have Home Addresses?

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 I would have knocked, but I was afraid it might frighten them. And who am I to upset a household...
Tuesday, April 23, 2019

A Selfish Post?

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   I told my daughter Elizabeth, who is standing by the poetry peddler bicycle (Elizabeth started and leads the community org...
1 comment:
Thursday, April 11, 2019

Coal Train and Coltrane, 2 Different Tracks

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       In November, 2017, there was news about Canada wanting to carry coal they'd dug at home over U.S. soil to reach a port on our We...
Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Sign-age

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       Rough Roads                    Loose Gravel                              Uneven Lanes  --three signs right next to each other a...
Monday, April 8, 2019

I MUSICI

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       I pulled up to a red light behind a car with a license plate that caught my eye.  It said IMUSICI.          A vanity license plate...
Friday, April 5, 2019

A.O.Sea?

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        Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the newly elected Members of the House in Congress and is having an impact with her probing ques...
Thursday, April 4, 2019

Excess Orange Juice Admonishment

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       After grudgingly pouring Connie a refill for her already consumed 16 ounce glass of morning orange juice, I was moved to remark:  ...
Saturday, March 30, 2019

Shout out; Call out

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       "Shout out" and "Call out" sound alike, but they're just about the opposite of each other..  If you "sh...
Thursday, March 28, 2019

The NAGgy adVOCATE

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       We have a friend who recommends things that she loves and believes that we will love too:  TV programs, documentaries, movies, etc. ...
Wednesday, March 27, 2019

"100 % Recycled . . ."

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I don't like seeing the phrase "100 percent Recycled" on toilet paper! Somehow it gives me the creeps. My imagery gets w...
Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Does Trump Have his Wits about him--Oh, Maybe it's his Jester's.

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       On the "Reliable Sources" program Sunday, March 24th, over CNN,  I heard the redoubtable journalist Carl Bernstein of Wate...
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About Me

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Don
I am a retired college professor in the Southwestern United States, communication studies my field. I've ALWAYS been interested in language and have done several light-hearted but serious page-a-day calendars on the theme for family and friends, the younger contingent of whom has encouraged me to do a blog. This is it!
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