Thursday Tidbits

Posted on November 6, 2014 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

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Shades of YMCA

 

 

I spend so much time chauffeuring the ladies to the malls in Florida that they chipped in and bought me a taxi driver’s hat. Looking a bit like one of the Village People, I spontaneously broke out with a chorus of Y M C A !

Do you have any idea of how many words an average 3 year old child knows? It’s around 1000 and this number leaps to an astonishing 50,000 words by the time a child reaches the age of 12. This is sometimes puzzling as many teenagers respond to questions with monosyllabic grunts. Where have you heard this before: “ Where are you going?” “ Out.” “Who are you going with?” “ Nobody.” “ When will you be home?” “ Later.”

The English language can be downright confusing for people from other countries who come to live here. Several words sound exactly the same but have very different meanings, like “ there” “their” and “they’re.”

And some of our shortest words have very complex undertones.

Take the word “we.”

On the surface, “we” is a pronoun,  very easy to understand. That is, until you enter a relationship or get married. When a spouse says to her partner, “we have to rake the leaves,” it really means that “he” is going to rake the leaves. You get my drift. Ah yes, the royal “we.” I am working on a story with this as the theme. Working on a title and it looks like this: “ We” do it All For “You.”

As regular readers know, I shy away from controversial stuff like politics. My goal is to entertain and not wade into shark infested waters. But watching the mid term elections in the U.S. and reading Graham Steele’s new book “What I learned About Politics,” makes me feel that democracy as we know it is in really bad shape. The U.S. is almost dysfunctional. There is no middle ground in their political system any more…or at least that’s how it appears at ground level. Enough.

A small committee is continuing to work out the details of how the community can assist Austin and Marilyn with their wedding. This is a real wonderful story. I am the “foreign correspondent” on the committee but we want to make sure that this is done properly and with dignity. After all, it is their wedding and we don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. An update will be coming shortly. Many thanks to all of you who have been in touch with me with offers of support. I still contend that Antigonish is the best small town anywhere. We’re far from perfect but when it’s crunch time, we deliver.

Have a great day.

P.S. My good friend, M.D. sent me this video link a few days ago. If you have 6 minutes and 27 seconds at the end of your busy day, take a peek.

http://www.aboveandbeyond.ca/bruce-teacher-letters-students/

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