Lying there, shirtless, I waited beneath the fluorescent lights, alone for a quarter hour, thinking how lonely a hospital room can be. And so it would have been, except I’m a veteran with this procedure.
In comes Surgeon, we greet, and I say, “Cut on me.” We locate the three lipomas that I want removed from my arms and chest, three being a standard insurable amount, and then he throws one more in for free—each now having its own X inked over it.
Already I’m happier.
I am more qualified to talk about grammar than war, although (the pending Syrian) war is the truly important item—so I will start with grammar.
The War on Grammar: We know that language simplifies itself over time. For example, the use of the apostrophe seems doomed. Half the people who see it’s importance, use it incorrectly (yes, I know, I did, and I know punctuation is not grammar, strictly speaking).
Continue reading “The Grammar of War and the War on Grammar”
Last week our CEO walked by my cubicle, talking rapidly on a cell phone to someone from another company, “…I cannot believe you are still on [IBM’s] Lotus Notes. I was in a company that was where you are, and five years ago they switched over to Outlook…."
That is “beat” as in “surpassed,” not “treated violently.” Newsworthy the moment was because as everyone knows, there are few sports in which I could surpass Lucy.
