Words We Love Too Much

The NYTimes has a fabulous blog on English grammar, usage, and style.  This post on Words We Love Too Much discusses the Times' overuse and misuse of the word "epononymous."  Epononymous is hardly a word that rolls off the tongue, and it certainly slows down the fingers on the keyboard, yet the Times used this highfalutin word 64 times in the last year!

Highfalutin, on the other hand, does seem more commonly used in every-week-or-so language, yet I certainly had no clue how to spell it until I just checked.  The more commonly used "highbrow" is probably in daily use.

I love words, language, grammar, and punctuation (the last being my weakness).  One of my favorite books is Eats Shoots and Leaves  on how punctuation use and misuse can really alter the meaning and intent of a written sentence, often to humorous (to a nerd) effect.

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. 'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. 'Well, I'm a panda,' he says, at the door. 'Look it up.' The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'

Eats Shoots and Leaves has been adapted to a younger audience, intended for those in grades 1 to 3.  Here, "Eat here, and get gas," or "Eat here and get gas"  really illustrates the critical importance of proper comma use!

Magnetic Poetry Set for the UN

I've been in Vienna for one of those big international meetings.  In this case, it's the International AIDS Conference that takes place every 2 years (next one in DC in 2012).  To be more precise, I've been at a pre-conference symposium of about 450 people, as well as some smaller meetings.  The global conference has about 20,000 people and starts today - which is why I'm skipping town and heading home.  I enjoy my work on most days, and I used to do even more of this global hob-nobbing, but I grew weary and had other interests in life besides moving the gears of international bureaucracy, so I've moved in a slightly different direction.  Still when I'm back in the game, I get jazzed to be among my people talking about our stuff.  Increasingly though, I'm a little glazed and slightly dazed at these things. As an outsider, I find myself slightly bemused in our meetings, where we speak alot and say nothing, so I've decided to develop a magnetic poetry set for attending global meetings.  String together any of the below words and phrases, and you can participate, too!

inclusion     participation     participatory    comprehensive    inform    disseminate    society    community    community-based    healthcare systems     access     quality services      reduction    elimination    virtual elimination   eradicate    alleviate    women and children    safety and security    society    reach     researchers and practitioners     create     develop    support     strengthen    most vulnerable     affirm    re-affirm    commit    re-commit    progress    adequate progress   appropriate     process     measure    civil society     contribute    empower   reach    bringing together    chronicle and document   joint-efforts    gatekeepers    entry points   advance   rigor   robust evidence    knowledge gap    action   efforts   initiative     challenges and opportunities     stakeholders    partnerships   public-private partnerships    outcomes    results     resources   goals   2012   2015   programmes    
                    

What's left unsaid.

Louise filled the coffee pot with water, and measured out the coffee. One...two...three...she wasn't really counting; she stopped when it looked like enough. The empty wine bottle was on the counter from the night before. Recycle. There, the testament to the night was gone from their vision. "It's going to be a hot one. Ninety-five degrees." She turned toward the fridge, opened it up, and stared inside. "Do you want jam on your toast? I have blackberry." She closed the fridge again. Louise turned back toward the sink. She busied herself washing out the pan - running the water, watching the suds bubble over the rim, scrubbing the tiny black fleck of cooked-on dirt barely the size of her pinky nail with a green scouring pad. He looked on. "He must think I'm really diligent about pot-washing," she thought. She looked up at him, smiled, and looked away. "Do you know this song?  My sister loves it."  \She tried looking up again, and this time held his gaze for a moment longer. "I might go get a new filter for my a/c today.  \I don't know when the last time I replaced it was," she said, as if this were actually an interesting prospect for the day. "Coffee's ready. Do you take milk?," she said busying herself once again with two mugs, and two spoons, and the re-arranging of the fridge shelf to reach the milk. Her fingers touched his when she handed him the warm mug. They both lingered for a second, and then moved on.

The music on the stereo turned to something uptempo, a little too much for a lazy, unscripted morning.   She winced to herself.   She hadn't liked the silence either; she felt like she had to fill it.  But the music felt off, too - the wrong mood.  She wondered what the right mood music would be for the morning after.   Louise's thoughts resounded through her head like in a vast echo chamber. They were small, random, and probably inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, but they took up a lot of space, and they were hard to dodge.  Like a hundred superballs in a racquetball court.  They were loud and active - searching for an escape route.  But she had sealed off all openings, and held them in check.  Her thoughts clashed anyway, each one in direct conflict to the other.  They ricocheted off the walls in her head - and collided with each other with bounces and rebounds.  What was the point of letting any one of them out if the next one would contradict it anyway?

I [HEART] good prose

"Strong character, intense body, with an exquisite lingering aftertaste" was how the coffee was described...
and, not surprisingly, the one I chose.