Archives

Britishisms

Jun9

I found a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss here at my mom’s house, and after Eldest Duaghter finished with it, I read it. I thought it was delightful, witty, and useful. I discovered a name for the comma I always put before the last item in a series–even though I’ve been told repeatedly that it’s unnecessary nowadays. It’s called an “Oxford comma” or a “serial comma.” I like the term Oxford comma; it makes me believe I have something in common with all those British literary types. I also found out that although Americans always put the ending punctuation mark inside the quotation marks (as I did two sentences ago), the English put the full stop or question mark or whatever inside the quotation marks only if it punctuates what’s inside the quotation marks. For example:

British style: It’s called an “Oxford comma” or a “serial comma”.
Also British style: Sherry said, “How very British!”

Anyway, I thought the book was lots of fun. I’m an Anglophile from way back. And I really enjoy learning about the quaint customs and language quirks of our allies from across the ocean. I was somewhat disappointed when I learned (about when I was in high school or maybe even college) that an “electric torch” was simply a flashlight. I had been picturing Peter and Edmund carrying around something that looked as if it belonged in the opening ceremony for the Olympics.
I’m also something of a stickler, which Ms. Truss defines as “unattractive, know-all obsessives who get things out of proportion and are in continual peril of being disowned by our exasperated families.” I sympathize with her desire to “perpetuate an act of criminal mischief with the aid of a permanent marker” when I see a sign that says something like
“PEACH’S, BANANA’S, AND STRAWBERRY’S FOR SALE.”
Actually, I made that sign up, and as you can see, I couldn’t resist the Oxford comma.

Travelling and collecting enigmatic signs

Jun7

We’re on vacation this week, and I’m collecting signs that don’t exactly make sense to me.
I saw this first one in Seabrook at a Hooter’s Restaurant before we left:
Kids eat free from 11:00 to 7:00 Do real parents bring their children to eat at Hooter’s?

The next one I saw on a high rise building in Austin:
IMAGINE YOUR NAME HERE 486-5570 I did imagine “Sherry” in large letters on a banner at the top of a building in Austin, but I’m not sure what the purpose would be.

Here in San Angelo, I spotted this bit of wisdom on the front of a garage:
Know Jesus, but does He know you?

County Chronicle by Angela Thirkell

May31

I just finished reading County Chronicle by Angela Thirkell. The book begins with a proposal and then a marriage and ends with two proposals, marriages yet to come (in the next book?). So it’s a comedy, right? Angela Thirkell seems to have published about one book a year from 1930 until 1959–32 books in all by my count. This book, published in 1950, actually takes place two or three years after WW II. The problems in the novel, although distressing to the characters, involve nothing more serious than a lack of petrol, uncomfortable living arrangements, and unkind relatives. Still the story manages to hold my interest and keep me reading, and lately that’s an accomplishment. I’m supposing that these books are more or less like an English country soap opera and that the characters continue from one book to the next. Actually, the main complaint I have about the book is that there are so many characters, and they’re hard to keep sorted. Nevertheless, Ms. Thirkell has a gift for vivid description and interesting situations. And it’s all very clerical and gentle and pleasantly English. I already have another book by the same author, Private Enterprises that I plan to read next (even though it comes before the one I just read). Maybe someone should do a soap opera based on these books. Lifetime network? It would be a nice change from woman in danger and disease of the week.

G.K. Chesterton

May30

Whoa, go back three steps–actually one day. Yesterday was the birthday of G.K. Chesterton, and I can’t miss that one. He has so many great quotes. And Father Brown and The Man Who Was Thursday and Orthodoxy are such great books.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. To me, this means do it and enjoy it no matter what your level of competency. You don’t have to be a great singer to sing, and you don’t have to be a great writer to blog.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. Often quoted, but still true.

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. Chesterton on homeschooling?

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. I get very impatient with children who are bored or who say they are bored.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare. I wish I could develop true contentment, but I greatly fear that I am unwilling to put in the work required to get there.

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. Wow, talk about praying without ceasing. This habit, too, would be good to develop.

Significant events in US History

May27

I’ve been working for most of the day on a syllabus for the AP American History class that I’m teaching for a group of homeschooled high schoolers next year. I’m tired of working on it, so I have a question. What do you all think are the most significant events, people, or movements in U.S. history? I think I read in an interview once that Ken Burns thought the Civil War defined us as a people. He also made PBS series on jazz music and on baseball because he thought those were characteristically American inventions. If you were a film maker or an author, what or whom would you feature in your work as key to what makes us truly American? I have several thoughts. Immigration, perhaps? Our unique, sometimes rocky, relationship with Europe and Western culture? The whole Westward movement? Protestant individualistic Christianity?
As for people, who is the quintessential American? Benjamin Franklin? I think he was too fond of the French and spent too much time in France pretending to be an American. George Washington? Too remote and aristocratic. Abraham Lincoln? Maybe. The log cabin to president, rags to riches, theme is very American.
What do you think?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-

May25

For Second Daughter:All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

For Eldest Son: Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

For Eldest Daughter: No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

For Dear Husband: Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

For Everyone to Ponder: People do not deserve to have good writings; they are so pleased with the bad.

Arnold Lobel

May22

Today is the birthday of Arnold Lobel, author and illustrator of many, many children’s books including, Frog and Toad Are Friends and Owl at Home. In fact, one biographer noted that Mr. Lobel died in 1987 leaving a legacy of over 100 books that he either wrote or illustrated. What a legacy!
It’s an especially fine legacy since many of Lobel’s stories are memorable and thought provoking for adults as well as children. A long time ago a friend read me the story Cookies from the book Frog and Toad Together. In this tale, Toad bakes some cookies, and then Frog and Toad try, unsuccessfully, to keep themselves from eating all the cookies. In the midst of their fight against temptation, Frog says that they need will power which he defines as “trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.” At the end of the story, Toad is sad because the cookies are all gone. Frog says, “Yes, but we have lots and lots of will power.” Toad is not consoled. Neither am I when left with useless will power but no cookies. And isn’t it true that when I need will power to resist temptation it’s never enough, and I only have plenty of will power in the abstract when there’s no real place to exercise it.
Other unforgetable stories include:
A List in which Toad loses his list of things to do and is paralyzed and unable to do anything
A Lost Button in which Toad loses his button and shouts this immortal rant, “The whole world is covered with buttons and not one them is mine!”
A Swim in which Toad looks funny in his bathing suit.
Tear-Water Tea from the book Owl at Home in which Owl thinks of sad things to make himself cry so that he can make tea from his tears.
Mouse Soup in which a mouse tells stories a la Sheherazade in order to keep from beng cooked into a weasel’s soup.

Lobel was a great story-teller himself, and I am indebted to him for many smiles and pleasant read-aloud times.

Books by Arnold Lobel can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Lillian Hoban

May18

Today is the birthday of Lillian Hoban, one of my favorite children’s authors and illustrators. She illustrated the Frances books which are favorites around here. We love Frances the badger who has trouble going to bed and is sometimes a very picky eater. I also really like another of Russell and Lillian Hoban’s books–Nothing To Do. As I remember it, this book is the story of a little badger boy who can’t find anything to do until his father gives him a very useful talisman. I haven’t seen this book in years and years; it’s out of print. I found several used copies at Amazon, and I think I’ll ask for one for my birthday.

Authors’ Birthdays This Week

May14

May 9:
Eleanor Estes: The Hundred Dresses is a wonderful chilldren’s book about prejudice and cruelty and repentance and how sometimes we repent but are unable to repair the damage we have done. It turns out Eleanor Estes was a children’s librarian. I like librarians.
Sir J.M. Barrie (1860-1937): Peter Pan is fun, but I really enjoyed The Little Minister when I read it many years ago. It’s the romantic story of a new minister in a a small village who falls in love with an elusive gypsy girl.

May 12:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): I will never forget watching a film in some literature class with Oliver Reed as Rossetti. He played a dark and tortured poetic genius, misunderstood, of course. I’d love to see the film again to see if it’s as memorable as I remember. Anyway, Rossetti was a Victorian, Pre Raphaelite poet and artist.
Try Edward Lear, for poetry that’s a little lighter than that of Rossetti. My personal favorite is The Pobble Who Had No Toes. It’s a fact the whole world knows,/That Pobbles are happier without their toes.

May 13
Daphne Du Maurier: I already jumped the gun and wrote about her here.

May 14
Hall Caine (1853-1941): I never heard of him, but according to VictorianWeb , he was a novelist and a protege of . . . Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Dante Alighieri: Last, but not least, I found this date for Dante’s birth in some source, however, this Dante website says that he “was born in Florence in May or June 1265.” Since it fits with what has become the theme of this post, we’ll use this date.

American Scandals

May11

Here are a few interesting bits of gossip I learned from reading the book A Treasury of Great American Scandals. At least, Eldest Daughter says it’s gossip; I say it’s only gossip if they’re still alive.

*John Adams called Benjamin Franklin “that Old Conjurer,” and the two men cordially hated one another. Of course, most people got tired of John Adams after a while–except for Abigail.

*Andrew Jackson was an ardent duelist. He once was shot through the chest in a duel, and then, bleeding profusely, he calmly took aim, fired, and shot the other guy dead. The bullet remained lodged near Jackson’s heart for the rest of his life.
Continue reading →