Wednesday, October 20, 2010

WNW: English, The Obituary

First, a couple of housekeeping items:
1) Just got a 3-min
ute clip from the
Chocolate Never Faileth DVD. Check it out in the sidebar! It shows how to make Tiger Tails, a great kids' birthday activity.

2) TODAY I'll be signing the cookbook at the Lehi/AF Costco from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. I hope to see some friendly faces!

On to Word Nerd Wednesday!

This one is courtesy
Lara, who sent me a link to an article that made the nerd in me totally grin.

It's as much a pseudo-obituary as it is an article. You can find the brilliant piece in
The Washington Post

It begins, like any good obituary, with the "birth" and early history of the dearly departed, as well as those loved ones it left behind:

The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.

After describing some rather dire mis-usages found in
The Washington Post itself, the piece goes on to say:

Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame.

Another great bit:

It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all.

The kicker is the last line, which I won't ruin by copying it here.

But here's a hint: It deals with two issues, one of which we
ranted about discussed here recently.

Go read
the full piece.

It's worth your time!

Sniff. Poor English. It had a good run.

13 comments:

LisAway said...

I love this. I read it awhile ago when a friend linked to it on facebook. I loved the whole thing, but laughed out loud at the closing. Super awesome.

Kristina P. said...

Would an LOL be appropriate here?

Angie said...

Ha. That's great. I'll have to check it out.

Elana Johnson said...

I so wish I didn't have to work until 2:15! I'd come see you at Costco!

Susan Anderson said...

Between you and I (heehee), that article rocks!

=)

Susan Anderson said...

PS. Okay, here's one that really bugs me, and I see it often in blogville.

"Relishing in"...as in "I relish in my family" or "I relish in my yard, food," etc.

Please, people. The definition of relish (to delight or take pleasure in) *includes* the prepositions.

So, you relish your family, your yard, and your food (hopefully).

Sorry, I needed to vent.

"/

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Alas, poor English, I knew it well(ish). Brilliant article!

Anonymous said...

Wow. That obit. took a while to come out, huh? ;) My father used to purposefully write my grandmother notes on the fridge that said things like, "Ma, I done went to the store." It about killed her.

* said...

Ah, love the bit about not clear if it would be mourned at all!

Myrna Foster said...

Thanks for the link! And I thought it was just our local paper.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion you are mistaken. Let's discuss.

Heather Moore said...

funny.

I loved watching the tiger tail demo.

Melanie Jacobson said...

Yeehaw! Love it!

BOOKLOVER DEALS FOR PRIME DAY!

Amazon's famous Prime Day events are huge for so many reasons, and for bookworms, it's even better: books aren't high-ticket ite...