A nice turn of phrase

A while back I read something that struck me as very nicely written. I wish I could recall the author, but I can't. They wrote that someone had "a Sequoia-sized chip on their shoulder." I like the imagery, the hyperbole, and the humor.

Hey, You Guuuyyyysssss!

Today, September 24, is the fifth annual National Punctuation Day®!!  Check out the web site; it's great!  From a newspaper article quoted on the site: National Punctuation Day®, the holiday that reminds America that a “semicolon is not a surgical procedure,” celebrates its fifth anniversary September 24. What started as a clever idea to remind corporations and professional people of the importance of proper punctuation has turned into an everyday mission to help school children learn the punctuation skills they need to be successful in life.

I have to admit that the first thing I thought of when I found out that today is National Punctuation Day® was The Electric Company, an educational TV show back in the early 70s.  I loved it then, and I still love seeing some of the re-runs.  I can remember watching it at school every morning in at least one grade, probably third.  I remember Morgan Freeman was a regular, as was Rita Moreno.  Bill Cosby was on during the first season, and segments he had taped for the show were repeated in subsequent episodes.  I still see actors and actresses occasionally and think, "Hey!  I remember him/her from Electric Company!"

But what comes to my mind (quite often, I'm sorry to say) whenever I hear the word "Punctuation" was the punctuation song from The Electric Company.  Remember it?  Care to sing along?  Well, here's a video from the show that I found on YouTube, and I've posted the lyrics afterward.  Enjoy!

Title:  Punctuation

Composer:  Joe Raposo / Elaine Laron

Lead vocals:  Lee Chamberlin, Rita Moreno

Backing vocals:  Short Circus #1

(Scene:  Lee and Rita, swaying in tropical outfits, with the kids chroma-keyed into the background.)

Chorus:

[SC]  Punctuation.  Punc, punc, punc, punctuation.

They are the little marks that use their influence

To help a sentence make more sense.

[LC]  Now a period is just a little dot,

But it occupies a very special spot.

If you should see a period, my friend,

Ah, then you know a sentence just came to an end.

Chorus:

[SC]  Punctuation.  Punc, punc, punc, punctuation.

They are the little marks that use their influence

To help a sentence make more sense.

[RM]  Now an exclamation point is saying, “Pow!

Yes, sirree!  I don’t mean maybe!  Boy, and how!”

When you see it there, it means you ought to say

That sentence in a MOST emphatic way!

Chorus:

[SC]  Punctuation.  Punc, punc, punc, punctuation.

They are the little marks that use their influence

To help a sentence make more sense.

[LC]  Now a question mark is always there to show

That there’s something that somebody wants to know.

It’s as if a sentence tries to say to you,

“I don’t know the answer, but perhaps you do?”

Chorus:

[SC]  Punctuation.  Punc, punc, punc, punctuation.

They are the little marks that use their influence

To help a sentence make more sense.

[RM]  Now a comma is that funny little sign

That says, “Hey, wait.  Just a second.  Hold the line.”

When you see a comma, mostly it will mean

There are words you ought to take a breath between.

Chorus:

[SC]  Punctuation.  Punc, punc, punc, punctuation.

They are the little marks that use their influence

To help a sentence make more sense.

[LC, RM]  So if you want to be a reading sensation,

You’ve got to know your punctuation.

 

Did you enjoy that stroll down memory lane?  I did!

Happy Punctuation Day!!!

Tags: National Punctuation Day, The Electric Company

mondegreens

What is a mondegreen?  It's not a literary problem, it's a speech problem.  It's a spoken phrase that can mean two different things depending on the way you hear it.  It comes from "She's Lady Mondegreen." or.  "She's laid him on the green."

There are simple mondegreens: "last train," or, "last rain," "that's no time," or,
"that's snow time," "he's in the Jewry room," or "he's in the jury room."  There's the infamous Shakespearean line that actors have to be careful of: "I hear his trumpet," instead of  "I hear his strumpet."

They can be complicated as in "She had a graded dress," or, "She had a great address."  And they can be very far afield, "This Malcom Eddy," or, "dismal comedy."

I wonder how many others there are.                                     DB

Tags: mondegreens

To lay or to lie?

Two verbs that I struggle with are lay and lie.

 

Lay means to place or put. The past tense is laid. We speak of laying something on something, such as laying a book on a table, or if you did it yesterday, you laid a book on the table.

 

Lie means to recline. Many times it is used with the adverb down, as in "I would like to lie down on the bed." Here is where it gets really fun: the past tense is lay, just like the present tense of the other verb! The past participle is lain. If I decided to lie down, I would lay on the bed for a while, then realize that I had lain there too long.

 

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I need to go lie down!

 

 

Syntax horror

The BBC ran an article on its website on the misuse of grammar. Item 10 is not incorrect: when you start firing your weapon, you open fire.