The Drought Continues, and other news
It’s hard to complain about the drought when the rest of the country is dealing with unheard of amounts of snow, stupidly cold weather, and ice storms. It’s 4:00 on Presidents’ Day afternoon, and it’s 71 degrees here. The birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, kids are running around outside enjoying the sunshine. I went for a swim this morning that was lovely and warm. We’ve grilled outside twice so far this week. I drove to Stockton yesterday to see my Grandma and Great Aunt, and the scenery was lovely, with green hills and fields of wildflowers. It’s a great time to be living in California, and those of my readers East of here are probably using the F word about me right now. I am sorry for your misery, and even more sorry that there isn’t a way to ship some of that excess water, which you CLEARLY don’t want or need, out our way. We had a lovely wet few days last weekend, but then that goddamned high pressure system came back, and it’s been nothing but gorgeous ever since, with nothing but gorgeous in our foreseeable future. We’re so screwed.
In other news, I heard about this guy on the radio awhile ago, and keep meaning to tell you…he’s got an issue with the expression ‘comprised of’, because ‘comprised’ means ‘composed of’, so when someone says ‘comprised of’, what they’re really saying is ‘composed of of’. and that gets his inner grammarian all ticked off. So he goes through Wikipedia, page by page, finding where the term ‘comprised of’ has been used, and replacing it with ‘composed of’. Not everyone agrees with his interpretation of the rules, and some are perhaps offended that he is going in and making changes to their entries, but I kind of like his dedication and persnicketyness. Rock on, Mr. Grammarian, let your freak flag fly!
2 Comments
Nance
I was strenuously pulling for you to get lots of nice, soaky rain for extended periods. Not to overwhelm, but to make a difference. Your weather now sounds lovely, and I’m only Envious In A Good Way, but I do understand the overarching concern which remains. How I wish we could effect a sort of Snow Swap. Certainly the New Englanders wish it as well. We’ve all run out of room, that’s for sure.
Thank you for linking to the Comprised Of/Consists Of article. We all have our Grammar Bugaboos, and I read his Wikipedia page with great interest. He is not strident at all; he presents both sides with great fairness and is quite amiable about it all. I’m like you–if he has the time, ambition, and resources, go for it. I was the same with my Personal Mission to stamp out “alot” while actively teaching writing, and I moved on to teaching the difference between “woman” and “women,” which, believe me, most of my students had no idea existed, especially in pronunciation.
EXCITING THOUGHT: If we each took ONE GRAMMAR CONCERN and made it a Personal Mission, imagine what we might accomplish.
Okay. Never mind.
Ally Bean
I wish you rain and rain– and then some more rain to go with your lovely warm temps. You deserve it.
A fussy grammarian brings joy to my heart. I have a small sign in my office that says: “I am silently correcting your grammar.” This man is taking it even farther.
If I were to start down that road my pet peeves are: 1) it is “would have” not “would of” AND 2) the word is not “lie-BERRY” it is “li-bRary.”