My second favorite thing about Read Away the Day Day, is that people come in costume to read. For this day, no one had volunteered for Kristen’s class, and so I was pulled into duty. The costume is all Kristen. I said I would wear whatever, as long as I didn’t have to think of the whatever. Kristen happily whipped me up this Sam costume. Do you like green eggs and ham?
However, people who understand the correct use of quotation marks (and, I will agree, we are in the minority) will giggle because by putting quotation marks around the word stop, they are actually encouraging us to not stop our vehicles. Had the company, or the sign makers asked us, we would have told them that when trying to draw people’s attention to something, perhaps the use of the exclamation point would have been a better choice.
Yes, that’s right folks. When you look up how to use quotation marks correctly there is a whole lot of information about using them for dialogue and where the commas go and on which side of the quotations the punctuation lives. There is nothing that instructs you to put them around “words” willy-nilly when you are trying to draw people’s attention to them.
Do you know why? Because when you put quotes around things that aren’t dialogue, it can often be read that the word you are quoting is not true. My favorite example from my workplace was at Bread and Circus and the sign in our Prepared Foods department advertised “fresh” sandwiches. “Are we trying to tell people we only serve old, moldy sandwiches?” I asked aloud before erasing their quote-ish presence. That sign above? It is saying to keep driving right through there. Don’t stop, no matter what other context clues tell you.
And really, what is wrong with the exclamation point? They are scattered all over the blogs (including this one) as well as enthusiastic people’s letters and notes. Why are they not used more on signs? Are they not dignified enough? And shouldn’t sign makers know better? Why not have an English major on staff to proofread those signs before you print them? God knows there are tons of unemployed English majors out there. Do us all a favor and hire one. The English major gets a job. Businesses don’t suffer the expense of incorrect signs and the general public isn’t assaulted by incorrect grammar.
Happily for those of us who get pleasure in the misuse of quotation marks, there is a blog. Yes, you too can enjoy The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.
Well, my Guidelines did their job, but they went out with a whimper.
Up and dressed: yes, Friday and Saturday
1 hour study: yes, Friday, no Saturday
1 hour blogs: yes, Friday, and then 20 fruitless minutes spent searching for a count up timer for the blog on Saturday
1 hour exercise: yes Friday, yes Saturday. Both days there was jogging.
4 hours work: I think I did some work on Friday, but probably not four hours. No on Saturday
Keep up with dishes and picking up: Yes on both days.
Nap maximum time 30 minutes: I think I didn’t nap on either of those days.
Eat only when hungry, stop when full. Nope.
Plan food. Nope.
Fruit and veggies while watching movie. Nope.
So overall, I would say the guidelines kept me from going into a slide early on. I count them a success and will use them on my next break.
The pacing of this movie was slow, and I had time to contemplate a variety of things, one of which was not very nice and I won’t say it here. I would categorize this movie as “a nice movie.” It also contains a good message for people who are entirely sure they will never get over a former spouse or boyfriend.
ps. Alan Rickman is one of my “phone book” people. That is, he could read me the phone book and I’d be happy to listen.
Having just watched 960 minutes of a television show in five days, I figure I should give a shout out to Sports Night. I didn’t watch this when in was originally on TV, though I knew who Aaron Sorkin was and really enjoyed the movie The American President. I’ve spent other vactions watching seasons of The West Wing. Having some time on my hands, I figured I would get the series and see how it was.
It was good enough for me to spend over three hours per day watching it, causing me to avoid much of the “work” I had planned over my vacation. From the pilot episode, where Peter Krauss‘ hair was entirely too poofy, this show had zing and pop that kept me saying, “just one more.” The characters were well developed and likable and the plots nicely balanced the story development, the fluff and the nice big statements. And the writing is so intelligent. I expected it on the West Wing. After all, people working in the White House must have incredibly complex and thoughtful discussions on a daily basis, even under the worst presidents. But intellectual leanings on a show about a sports show?
I also appreciate the shout out Aaron Sorkin gives to those of us interested in the minutiae of life, aka “trivia“. Throughout the series, someone was always talking about some little nugget of information, for example the correct definition of the word montarily, or the curse of Thales. I admire television that is not afraid to be smart, even when you wouldn’t expect it from its characters.
I took yesterday off from my guidelines and had a day of sloth. There was much consumptive entertainment. So here is the report from Wednesday:
So, on one hand, I missed a lot of my goals. But I am taking cheer in the fact that I’ve had portions of vacations that passed with multiple days like this day.
Given how much I loved this director’s movie All the Real Girls earlier this year and given the favorable reviews when it came out, I expected to really like this movie. I didn’t. The cinematography is great–never has a decaying Southern town looked so good–but I was bored.
In case you hadn’t heard, albums are back, as evidenced by their appearance in my local not-hip-at-all Fred Meyer store. Now you youth who grew up with the tiny pictures on the CD covers, or the mp3 files with no picture at all can put the needle to the record and gaze at the cover art and record sleeves as you listen, just as your parents and grandparents did before you.
“Content of your character” movies sometimes come in surprising packages. Legally Blonde’s statement about sticking to what you know is right and being who you are rings strong and true. I can’t help wondering if the writer grew up to listening to Free to Be You and Me.
I’ve been avoiding this movie for years for unknown reasons. I like Drew Barrymore and fairy tale-type movies, but I just never could hit “play” on this one. Having seen it, I can tell you that I enjoyed it fine.
