Back in the Cybersaddle
Okay, so I've given in at last to the haranguing of all the glassy-eyed Macolytes in my life, and have finally come over to The Light Side.That's right: From now on, I'll be posting from my new MacBook. Still learning my way around the thing, and feeling like an old dog struggling to learn new tricks. Incidentally, the expression on this old dog's face is pretty much identical to the one on mine when my old IBM Thinkpad finally gave up the ghost the other day.
posted by Martha at 1:49 PM
8 Comments:
I'm glad you're back.
I read this blog often and subscribe to the "A Way With Words" podcast.
I almost used the wrong "your/you're" in the comments of this language-based weblog. How embarassing!
I've been wondering lately about the popular locution, "But it's not about that!"
Of course, a piece of fiction or nonfiction could be about, or not about, something. And so can many other things with a *topic*. But "It's not about that!" is currently used in all kinds of other situations. And it's virtually never expressed as an opinion, but as ultimate Truth.
When on occasion I ask the speaker of "But it's not about that!" what they mean, they are dumbfounded and say things like "What do you mean by 'What does it mean?' ? -- I've heard lots of people say that."
This is the phrase I most hope disappears from the language A.S.A.P.
Hey Andy!! Thanks for the warm welcome back!
And Daz, I have to confess that I haven't noticed that phrase being overly used. (Of course, now that you've pointed it out, I'll probably hear it every other hour and go nuts as a result!
For three more expressions on a dog's face please look at my "klister page" at http://0042bfe.netsolhost.com/klister/top.html
I'm also reminded of what Lynne Truss said int Eats, Shoots & Leaves that when she sees a sign saying "No dogs please" she thinks in fact that dogs DO please (though I know she is a cat person).
...and I meant to say I hope you're pleased too with your new machine...
Speaking of Macintoshes, I recently saw a sentence on my Mac that read something like
"They caught him unawares."
I was surprised to see that the M-W Collegiate calls "unawares" an adverb, since in that sentence, which seems typical, it seems to play the role of an adjective.
Even stranger, "red-handed" is allowed to be an adverb -or- an adjective.
Yeah, yeah, I know there's a thing where an -s ending is used to mark some adverbs in English. Which may help with the etymology but not with the logic of it.
Huh. Yeah, now that you mention it, daz, that does seem weird. (Although the AHD's usage note helps.)
N'est-ce pas?
You're going to love your computer. Macs are so much better than the alternatives....
I think you will find this posting amusing:
http://thewordnerds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19
I'm talking about the statement from Kenny: Always have enjoyed entomology and look forward to each new episode.
Note he's talking about the WORD NERDS podcast... ha ha ha.
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