“The local peasant is as stupid as he is stubborn, and the cudgel will instruct him more quickly than hunger or imprisonment.” –Mikołaj Pobóg-Rutkowski, Polish nobleman and landowner in a letter dated 18 December 1783, pleading with the authorities to allow him to beat every tenth peasant in the village of Vyshatychi. Quoted by John-Paul … More Quote of the Day
Apostrophes cause many writers problems. The use of the apostrophe has become so problematic that the British actually have a society for the protection of the apostrophe: http://www.apostrophe.org.uk/ The apostrophe has two uses: 1) to show possession, 2) to take the place of missing letters in contractions. Possession: Make singular nouns possessive by adding apostrophe … More The Apostrophe (yawn!)
“Any intelligent person knows that life is a beautiful thing and that the purpose of life is to be happy,” said my father as he watched the three beauties. “But it seems only idiots are ever happy. How can we explain this?” ― Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence
Trying to make sense of cat behaviour. “Oh, Tabby shat in my shoe. He must be really angry at me for leaving him alone for three days.” This is obviously a case of projecting onto a cat the human tendency to take revenge by defecating in a shoe. Tabby probably doesn’t even know whose … More Stuff that Might Seem to Make Sense But Doesn’t
“One of the two major parties, the Republican Party, has become an insurgent outlier — ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”–Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. It’s Even Worse Than … More Quote of the Day
Several years ago the following passage appeared on an academic nursing site. It has since been taken down “The Self Observation methodology incorporates the Self-Observation technique, which is comprised of the three actions of deep relaxation with introspection, self-observation, and transcendence, all occurring within a specific time and space; resulting in transcended reflection to discover … More Really, Really Bad Writing
At a time when few agree about anything, subjects and verbs still have to. Choose the correct word: $25,000 (is/are) a bit more than I can afford to pay for a parrot. Neither the students nor the teacher (was/were) sorry to hear the fire alarm. Neither my wife nor I (am/is) planning to go to … More Subject/Verb Agreement
“I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”– Stephen Colbert
Wolf Blitzer: What do you think of Pope Francis, Mr. Trump? The Pope has been making quite an impression on Americans. Donald Trump: Pope Francis seems like a nice guy. I haven’t met him personally, of course, but he has a nice smile. It’s a little leery, but he’s a Wop from Argentina. What do … More Donald Trump on Pope Francis
“Everybody makes fun of virtue, which by now has, as its primary meaning, an affectation of prudery practiced by hypocrites and the impotent.”–Thomas Merton
No Harm Spilt 