Can Email Be Far Behind

One of my colleagues at work and I had a friendly, ongoing difference of opinion. I said, “Web site,” and she said, “website.” Every time we’d edit work for each other, I would correct her “website” and she would mark my “Web site.” And I would say, “I follow the Associated Press Stylebook (dubbed the Journalist's 'Bible').” To which she’d reply, “It’s website.”

Well, in case you are not a language nerd (credit Washington Post writer Rob Pegoraro with that term), you might have missed the hoopla over the AP’s decision a couple of weeks ago to change to “website.” Faster Forward writer Pegoraro wrote, “My instinctive reaction is to stick with traditional practice, but I'm not completely sure what to think.”

A couple of days after I read the news about the switch, I printed out a post about the change and left a copy on my colleague’s desk with a note: “I guess I’ll be changing to website.” However, I didn’t say she was right. Or that I liked it.

Poynter has a good post on the topic.

Feeling Picky

Having delayed getting my Illinois driver's license since returning to the state, I finally read Illinois Rules of the Road. I guess we have a shortage of proofreaders.

Dog-gone Good Ideas

I came across a great site this morning called Springwise, which is a network of 8,000 spotters who scan the globe for new business ideas.

This is a great site to keep up with innovative trends across a spectrum of industries, business, and pop culture.

And there I found a story--Social Networking for Dogs--and followed a link to the original Web site dogtree.com where you can find your dog a playmate or walking friend, arrange dogsitting, and meet new dogs in your neighborhood--if you happen to live in Australia and if you happen to have a dog. Neither of which applies to me at the present.

Oh, don't you just the the Internet? Happy Saturday!

Harry Potter Comes of Age

One of my favorite writers beat me to the punch. Stephen King, writing in the July 13 issue of Entertainment Weekly, took on the subject of Harry Potter.

J. K. Rowling is about to conclude her series of books featuring the boy with the lightning strike scar. In case you’ve been in the wilds of Mongolia for the last 10 years, I’ll give you the lowdown. Harry Potter and his creator can claim credit for turning on a whole generation of young people, particularly boys, to reading for pleasure. Millennials (that’s what you call the generation after GenX) like son Scott grew up with Harry. Along the way, the books stirred the censorship pot of many a right-wing religious fundamentalist afraid that by reading the books her child would suddenly become a devotee and practitioner of witchcraft. I've worried a lot about my son but never about him becoming a witch.

In Goodbye, Harry, Mr. King writes:

“When it comes to Harry, part of me—a fairly large part, actually—can hardly bear to say goodbye . . . And I’m a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone . . . Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods—magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale’s recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita.”

Long ago, I started reading the first Harry Potter to Scott. I suppose we were maybe a quarter of the way through when the elementary schooler, not an early wonder-kid reader by any means, took over for himself. Nearly every night for the next 10 years there’d be a Harry Potter book in his bed—not always the latest since he took to rereading the books. And in the mornings when I’d wake him for school, there it’d be next to him when he awoke. While his interests in literature expanded, the one constant was the love he had for Harry Potter.

We both read the EW article and I asked Scott, “How many times DID you read Harry Potter?” “To be honest, I read the first book at least 20 times and the others 10 times each,” he answered with a laugh.

Mr. King thinks “Rowling will almost certainly go on to other works, and they may be terrific, but it won’t be quite the same, and I’m sure she knows that.”

I don’t know, Stephen. Back many years ago, that little lady in Alabama wrote just one book, and you know, it was one damn, fine one. For years people wondered when Harper Lee was going to publish another one. To this day she’s seen no need to bother. I have to think J. K. Rowling did just fine with Harry Potter, just as Ms. Lee did with To Kill a Mockingbird.

Live Free or Die Hard

I so rarely go to the movies these days but trudged along yesterday with the guys for the new Bruce Willis action movie, Live Free or Die Hard. Short on plot; long on action just like a summer movie should be. Salon.com has a review if you want more details, but I wanted to write about a scene in the movie that I’m still thinking about this morning.

You know the Mac guy from the Apple Computer ads? Justin Long’s his name and he plays a geeky computer hacker-type Bruce is charged with delivering to the FBI to avert an attack on all U.S. technological systems: transportation, Wall Street, etc. by cyber-terrorists. In between fending off the bad guys and trying to save the day, Bruce listens as Apple Guy gets all philosophical on him and says, “It’s all controlled and manipulated,” or something like that. I wasn’t taking notes. They were watching the news as the terrorists hacked into broadcast feeds to deliver their evil message.What Apple Guy was referring to was what we are fed as news by the corporate media.

And I thought, maybe he’s right. Maybe if we watch enough of stories covering Anna Nichol Smith and Paris Hilton or Ann Coulter’s screeching, we won’t notice what’s happening that really matters. Could TV be the “opiate of the people?” And are we getting what we deserve?

Why Ann Coulter is Successful

Ann Coulter is provocative. That’s who she is. Yesterday’s Hardball with Chris Matthews exchange between Elizabeth Edwards and Coulter was predictable after the always quotable Coulter said on ABC’s Good Morning America, “if I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” And while I don’t blame Elizabeth Edwards for calling on Ann Coulter to take a vow to be more civil, no one really expects it from her. Her schick is this dare to offend, insult and provoke the democratic moderates and liberals as well as those republicans who possess an iota of dignity and civility. She’s very good at it. Don’t count on her to suddenly say, “You know Elizabeth, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Which brings me to my point. On one hand we all talk about the negative and impolite name-calling that Coulter, Bill Maher and others engage in and how awful it may be. Yet, Chris Matthews and other media honchos know TV is all about ratings. Have a controversial guest on, and well, everyone’s talking about it the next day.

Elizabeth Edwards is right, of course, that these media personalities who have been elevated to a cult-like status because of their exposure aren’t doing diddly-squat to help the political dialogue this country so desperately needs.

Ann Coulter is also right that she can say pretty much what she damn well pleases, but I don’t have to give her no never-mind. And neither do you.

You Can’t Keep a Pisces From the Water

The Great Missouri Compromise I was referring to in the previous post involved my husband and a boat.

After much back and forth, I threw in the towel on the matter, and yesterday he signed the paperwork for the boat and trekked down to Table Rock Lake. However, once he and the fellow who delivered the boat to the lake got the thing into the water, there were problems. The engine started, the boat moved forward about 50 feet and then the motor sputtered to a halt. A line was thrown back to shore and the boat with my husband onboard was pulled back. No amount of puttering by either of the two men could start the engine. After several calls to the marina receptionist who patched dropped calls through to a repair shop, help was finally secured and the boat was carried away for attention. My husband joked to the receptionist, “You were so much help with the calls I ought to give you a tip. Here it is: Don’t buy a used boat!”

Today, brought news that there had been water in the tank that apparently came in through a faulty gas cap, and my husband went down to finish the job of docking the boat at the marina slip. But first he took the boat out onto the lake and called a while ago to let me know that indeed he was on the lake and had just finished a swim. Pisces found his element and was, for this moment, at peace and happy.

Throwing Caution to the Wind

Is it a wise thing to do? A smart financial move? No, I don’t think so, but I understand.

My husband and I have been married since 1971—that’ll be 36 years come this June 29. Lots of water under the bridge. Although not literally, we grew up together, graduating from the University of Alabama a year apart and then both of us returning in rather short order for graduate work—him, a Masters in secondary education and me, my law degree. I was a month shy of 19 and he was 21 when we were married by a United Methodist minister in Montgomery. You don’t stay together this long without figuring out that compromise is the key. This time I fought and reasoned, stewed a bit, and then threw caution to the wind.

I trust Zephyrus will carry this venture along as he long ago carried Aphrodite (Venus) to shore.

Tune in later this week to see what the Great Missouri Compromise is, and I assure you, it has nothing to do with either the U. S. Constitution or the original Missouri Compromise.


Note about the painting
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli is my favorite work of art in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Presidential Political Advice from the Alabama Kitchen Sink

Where do I start? First off, no one is immune to the foot-in-mouth disease compounded by audio and video coverage of every move or appearance for presidents or those aspiring to be president. Are you nuts? What a thankless job! Y’all have some pretty big egos to take it on, I’ll grant you that.

Let’s just look at last week’s installment of how not to get elected president and a bonus what can happen when you do.

John Edwards gets $400 haircuts and film of him primping with a compact mirror while a woman sprays the ‘do’ with hairspray ends up on YouTube with an “I Feel Pretty” soundtrack. Advice: John, I love ya’, but next time go down to the barbershop and get a cut. The kind of shop where they leave the hair on the floor until it builds up real good. Take a film crew with you. Chat with the old codgers while you’re at it. AKS Advice to John’s team: don’t allow the senator to be filmed with any mirrors, combs or hairspray.

John McClain tries to be funny with a take-off of an old Beach Boys song, ‘Ba ba ba ba Barbara Ann,’ except his version is Bom bom bom bom bom Iran. AKS Advice: Senator McClain please refrain from singing or making jokes. You look so uncomfortable. AKS Advice to handlers: what are you guys doing to this candidate? He’s self-destructing. Senator, find a coffeeshop, you know the one where all the old war veterans hang out for their morning coffee and visit it. Definitely not Starbucks. Take a film crew with you.

Tommy Thompson complains about the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel which suggests he pull out of the presidential race after the former Wisconsin governor says making money is “part of the Jewish tradition.” AKS Advice: Governor, quit bellyaching and tone down the dye-job on the hair. AKS Advice to campaign team: figure out a message fast because I have no idea what Thompson stands for, and if former Senator Fred Thompson gets into the race, your guy is toast. Sorry, but he already is.

And I saved the best for last. President Bush deviates from the prepared speech and takes questions at Tippecanoe High in Ohio with apparently the world’s oldest students judging from the audience shown in the video (look at Keith Olberman's site on MSNBC if you can bear it) of the loopy appearance. AKS Advice: Sir, any conversation that involves a discussion of “chicken plucking factories or whatever you call them” is going to leave people shaking their heads and wondering what were you thinking or more likely, have you forgotten how to speak without a script. AKS Advice to the team: you guys are one swell bunch and you’re doing everything just right. Don’t change a thing except encourage the President to do more impromptu speaking.

Dissing Rap Music, Dissing Wordsworth

I love to read fellow blogger Naomi and her Diary from England. She posted recently about Cumbria Tourism’s attempt to appeal to the YouTube generation. Now, as much as I love YouTube, I love the poetry of Brit poet William Wordsworth a whole lot more.

The YouTube production by Cumbria Tourism has bastardized a favorite poem of mine, Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, you know the daffodils poem, with a rap "music" version of the famous poem. I endured the whole rap treatment of the poem delivered by a be-bopping squirrel mascot known as Sam, a.k.a, MC Nuts.

Lovely Lake Ullswater serves as a backdrop to this large annoying rapping rodent.

“The modern re-working manages to stay true to the original sentiment but with some slight variation of the lyrics. As well as making the works of Wordsworth relevant to a new, younger audience, it also shows how modern-day rap and its clever use of wordplay is a distant relative of poetic rhyming verse.”

So says the Web site for the Lake District.

Crap, or as some call it “rap,” has it’s following, and I have actually found a couple of “songs” that worked for this old, white Baby Boomer. I’ll have to show it to Scotty and see what he thinks. I predict this 18 year-old will agree with his mum.

And no, I'm not intentionally becoming a poetry blog. Check in tomorrow for a crazy photo.


I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

Should We Bring Back Public Flogging?

DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.

SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don’t know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --

CHARLES McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

I usually watch a little of Imus in the Morning on MSNBC but missed the comments that are causing the ruckus swirling about the I-Man. Boy, did he look uncomfortable this morning. You know it’s serious when a visit to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show is scheduled. The I-Man is set to visit Rev. Al this afternoon.

Should any of this surprise you? Some folks are acting like Don Imus is some normal pretty-boy broadcaster. Heck, I believe he might hold the title as the original “shock jock,” although he has worked to clean up that image and regularly gets politicians and pundits to appear on his morning show. He’s no stranger to controversy either. With a mouth like his, it’s no wonder he’s been fired before. Well, I’m not sure if it was the mouth or the coke and vodka and I don’t mean Coca Cola either.

But a contrite Imus with big ole cowboy hat in hand has apologized. On Friday he said,

“Want to take a moment to apologize for an insensitive and ill-conceived remark we made the other morning regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team. It was completely inappropriate, and we can understand why people were offended. Our characterization was thoughtless and stupid, and we are sorry.”

And again today, more apologizing. It was a stupid thing to say and he shouldn’t have said it. And now he joins the cadre of foot in mouth public figures. Should he keep his job or not? As with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rosie O’Donnell and other full-of-themselves TV characters, I have the choice whether I will subject myself to their opinions, and quite frankly, I prefer to let the free market determine whether we will have Imus in the Morning.

A Mighty Fortress

“As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wonder what message the builders of the massive fence intend. Are they hoping to lock out criminals, child molesters, door-to-door solicitors, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormans? Fences either keep people or animals out or in. Rarely do they do the job with complete success. Those guys on the TV show Prison Break found a way out of Fox River State Penn (a.k.a Joliet Prison). A dog can dig under a fence or jump over a fence if he is really set on escape. Kids will climb a fence to go swimming, retrieve a baseball or just because someone wants them to stay away.

Fences are necessary to corral animals like horses, cattle and friend Stan’s two ostriches. Necessary to enclose dangerous activities, swimming pools, military bases. Fences can be small like one set up to keep rabbits out of the garden, although Peter did manage to squeeze under. Huge fences can enclose an entire town like the ones that surround Times Beach in Missouri after the environmental disaster.

I have been watching the development of this fence for several months now since I pass by it often. Even before the streets were paved and the land plotted for houses, the fence was commenced. It’s a strong fence as I would think a brick fence or rather a brick wall would be. Once the houses are built and the people come will they be safe? Will they escape crime, abuse, addictions, job troubles, head-strong kids, worrying about money? Will they be isolated, insulated, or prisoners by choice?

From the Mending Wall by Robert Frost:

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”

Short & Sweet Thursday

Let us rid our vocabularies of:

Went missing (disappeared)

Passed away (died)

Resigned under pressure (fired)

Have some more nominees? Let's hear them.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I think Republican presidential contenders have been reading a little too much Uncle Remus. First, it was Mitt Romney apologizing for calling the Big Dig construction project in Boston a “tar baby,” and now, poor old John McCain has fallen down into a tar pit himself when using the “tar baby” language. While both used “tar baby” to refer to a difficult problem that is aggravated by attempts to solve it, it can also be used as a derogatory term for a black person and that’s reason enough to avoid it altogether especially if you want to be President and you are a white guy.

Making Private Matters Public

She plopped down into the faux leather chair directly across from me at the chain bookstore. No sooner than she’d settled in with the baggy full of pretzels and a giant Sonic drink did her cell phone begin to ring. Me, I would have taken this conversation outside. She, however, ignored my presence, oblivious to my significance or disregarding it. It was as if I was invisible. She was at the center of this Universe.

“He cheated on a test?” she asked in her best Roseann Barr loud nasily voice. “Boots, I have to tell you every kid in America has cheated on a test.”

Whaa-whaa-whaa on the other end.

“Hush! Everybody does it at some point.”

More whaa-whaa-whaa.

“Punishment? Two weeks for an 11 year old is too much. Tell Phil to get out his belt and put it to his behind. He’ll remember that.”

Whaa-whaa-whaa.

“Did he get kicked out of school? Boots, this a troubled kid. Somebody is going to have to sit on him. Boots, my faith is in you. You are my daughter.”

Whaa-whaa-whaa.

“He’s acting out for some reason, and it may be because his daddy left. How would you have felt if your daddy had left and moved in with another woman?”

At that point I had had enough of Boots and her momma’s conversation about the “troubled kid.” I went over to Momma, grabbed up the cell phone and threw it across the store to the self-help aisle.

P.S. You didn’t think I really did that, did you? That’s what Scotty said I ought to have done. Instead, I was the quiet observer—the one who goes home to blog.

The Truth Matters

“Your boy goofed,” son one e-mailed me last week while including the link to the Slate piece about a John Edwards DVD on health care that was sent to Iowa caucus voters. The marketers/editors had engaged in some fancy and deceptive editing which involved taking remarks John Edwards made about the war in Iraq and applying them to health care. Was it a benign error simply the result of good intentions gone astray?

I haven’t read much about this nor have I seen a response from John Edwards. I know zealous campaign workers sometimes get out of hand without their candidate’s direct knowledge. But don’t think I’m letting John Edwards off the hook. Someone in the campaign should have been aware of this bad edit. And I always say the buck stops at the top.

There will be other goofs on the part of other candidates, and it looks like for me, at least, who I support will come down to which candidate makes the fewest blunders. That is unless it is Hillary Clinton, and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL I SUPPORT HILLARY CLINTON. The last time this Yellow Dog Democrat took that dramatic a stand was when Jimmy Carter ran for re-election and I sat that one out.

However the ‘bad edit’ concerns me on another level and that is on the subject of visual and auditory honesty in marketing and communications. Anyone who knows a little about Photoshop knows how easy it is to make the false appear real. There seems to be an attitude of if it looks or sounds good, it is. I still hope a third question is pondered: is it true and honest?

Oh sure, Playboy used to airbrush the imperfections out of photos for the oh-so-perfect Playmates long before Photoshop came along. College marketers will sometimes use stock photos of people who are not their students--not my husband of course, but he did tell me of a conversation with an outside advertising consultant who used the stock photos because she said, “the real students are too ugly.” I imagine advertisers are likewise guilty in their haste to make their products sell.

But what I am asking is, remember to question. Remember that angles matter. What is left out can be as important as what is left in. Take the time to question and think for yourself.

Hey You Guys

I never thought we Southerners were ahead of the curve, but I think our use of “y’all” definitely fits the bill. Over at In These Times I noticed an article entitled “A Politically Correct Lexicon, Your ‘how-to’ guide to avoid offending anyone.” In the piece, Joel Bleifuss gives readers an up-to-date lowdown on the ever-changing world of what you can safely call various groups and categories of folks. Don’t you like how generic “folks” is?

I latched onto “guys” because if folks would adopt the non-sexist Southern “y’all,” we wouldn’t have to think much about it. Bleifuss says,

Guys: Very controversial. Used, especially in the Midwest, when referring to a group of people. “In Chicago that word gets used a lot,” says Hill. And Baim says, “I use it all of the time.” Some feminists, like Andi Zeisler, the editor of Bitch, find “guys” problematic. “We assume the descriptor ‘guys’ denotes a quality of universality,” she says. “It would be hard to imagine a group of men being addressed by their server as ‘hey you gals’ and not taking offense, but the reverse happens all the time.”

And while I had already noticed, it’s now okay to call Indians “Indians” instead of Native Americans. Bleifuss has this to say about the use of Native American:

Native American: Some Indians object to the term, seeing it as a way to linguistically eradicate “Indian” and thus the history of their oppression by whites. “I almost always hear Native American, and in the more enlightened conversations there is usually ‘indigenous’ thrown in there somewhere,” says Lott. Sen says, “Native American seems to be a more distant construction, developed by academics.”

The New Garden Fence

You most likely do it without thinking twice. Despite their protestations to the contrary, men do it at least as much as women, although women are better at it. It can help some overcome awkwardness and develop social skills. Your immune system benefits from the endorphins stimulated and stress is relieved. And here’s the kicker, cell phones are the conduit.

Did you guess? I’m talking about gossip and “mobile” gossip in particular. I came across this article entitled, “Evolution, Alienation and Gossip, The role of mobile telecommunications in the 21st century” over on the Social Issues Research Centre web site.

With the advert of cell phones, we can gossip anytime or anywhere. Now, I have to question this “benefit” to relieving stress a bit. What about the innocent bystanders who must endure a certain degree of stress when subjected to the cell conversations of others?

But I’ll accept that this technology allows us to maintain closer relationships and connections. So go ahead and whip out that cell phone. It’s good for you.