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Post by Queen E on Feb 10, 2011 17:23:47 GMT -5
Sue: Got the package! Thanks so much; you wrapped it so carefully. Sorry I've not been around much; just finished editing the bibliography (the devil's annoying work, that); I've got to mail the whole thing next week, so please please keep a good thought for me. If I don't get it right this time, well...then no Dr. Me. You are in my thoughts and prayers and vibes: it's a trifecta! I feel very lucky now.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 18:22:30 GMT -5
Another quick hi! Spent last night cleaning out the old piano - Vince used to use it, but no one does now. It is an enormous old (1909!) upright Baldwin that is in decent shape (needs cleaning, tuning, some minor key repair). So I am thinking of giving it away to whomever will take responsibility for getting it out of here. What did I find INSIDE the piano, strategically placed so as not to interfer with playing? PENNIES. Vince truly thought of everything in trying to keep us safe from his demons. I think I got all the pennies. If there are more and they shift when the piano moves, could be a problem. Not my problem, of course . . . I hope you keep finding pennies in odd and out of the way locations. I suppose I might keep finding pennies; just when I think there are no places left to find pennies, I find a few more. I could never out-think or predict my crazy-brilliant and wildly creative son; I don't suppose I'll be starting now. When I find the pennies, it just sort of . . . instantly quiets me. It feels like my mind has gone somewhere without me for a moment or two. It takes a minute before it begins to reconnect to the rest of me and to the world. Then I pick up the pennies, go put them away in the little bucket. And I go back to doing whatever I'm doing. What I learned googling and such is that unless they've been very well looked after, pianos do NOT improve or go up in value with age. My best guess, judging from talking to a few people and googling, is that it's worth maybe $250, something like that. At this point, it's just taking up rather valuable real estate in the house.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 18:24:27 GMT -5
Sue: Got the package! Thanks so much; you wrapped it so carefully. Sorry I've not been around much; just finished editing the bibliography (the devil's annoying work, that); I've got to mail the whole thing next week, so please please keep a good thought for me. If I don't get it right this time, well...then no Dr. Me. The vibes are vibing your way!!!
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 18:31:51 GMT -5
Heard from the contractor!
He is coming with his plumber on Saturday at noon to look things over and give me a quote on changing the two upstairs bedrooms into one bigger bedroom and a bathroon.
Once that is done, I can really get moving on the foster parenting certification.
There are other things that need to be done, but those things can be worked on slowly; I can go ahead with the safety audit without them.
Oh, boy!
Very anxiety-making. But in a good way - mostly.
There is a 14 year old girl that I've become sorta interested in (just from her picture and short bio, so hard to say if it would really be right). But after what happened last time, I don't want to express any interest or get myself too worked up until I'm certified - or damn near.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 19:01:17 GMT -5
You are all grammar conscious, so I have to tell you the experience I have had living in SE Ohio the last 20 yrs or so (where I am is officially part of Appalachia).
This story wants told because it needs heard.
Yes, that's right. Around here, the natives leave out the "to be." They say, e.g., "I want pampered," or "That needs fixed," instead of "I want to be pampered or I want pampering" OR "That needs to be fixed or That needs fixing."
Now, they have a lot of other quirks too, like saying "you was" instead of "you were." But that is different because they know "you was" is wrong, and will correct it.
BUT on the "want TO BE" or "need TO BE" - quite a different story. It is everywhere, even in newspaper headlines.
I've gotten fairly used to it. However, I still do correct it if I am editing something - and you know what? Everyone always looks at me like I'm crazy. They do not, NOT, NOT, believe me.
Anyhow, I bring this up because I was editing something my student worker wrote the other day. She is from around here. She is super-bright, and an excellent writer. Except for the "to need" and "to want" thing. Of course, I got the "blank stare" when I pointed out a "to need" error that she had made. She said nothing and corrected it, but I knew that she hadn't believe me.
She confessed later that she hadn't believed me, so she googled it, and low and behold - she was surprised to find that I was right! She was glad to learn about it, since she plans to travel far and wide and not stay in SE Ohio - and she's very particular about wanting to speak and write correctly.
Googling is more than anyone else has ever done. They just don't believe me, period. They HUMOR me sometimes by correcting the error if I ask them to, but they absolutely do not believe me.
Thus ends my tale.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Feb 10, 2011 19:19:16 GMT -5
I hope you keep finding pennies in odd and out of the way locations. I suppose I might keep finding pennies; just when I think there are no places left to find pennies, I find a few more. I could never out-think or predict my crazy-brilliant and wildly creative son; I don't suppose I'll be starting now. When I find the pennies, it just sort of . . . instantly quiets me. It feels like my mind has gone somewhere without me for a moment or two. It takes a minute before it begins to reconnect to the rest of me and to the world. Then I pick up the pennies, go put them away in the little bucket. And I go back to doing whatever I'm doing. What I learned googling and such is that unless they've been very well looked after, pianos do NOT improve or go up in value with age. My best guess, judging from talking to a few people and googling, is that it's worth maybe $250, something like that. At this point, it's just taking up rather valuable real estate in the house. This thing with the pennies is reminding me of the "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings" thing. Hmm.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Feb 10, 2011 19:24:17 GMT -5
You are all grammar conscious, so I have to tell you the experience I have had living in SE Ohio the last 20 yrs or so (where I am is officially part of Appalachia). This story wants told because it needs heard. Yes, that's right. Around here, the natives leave out the "to be." They say, e.g., "I want pampered," or "That needs fixed," instead of "I want to be pampered or I want pampering" OR "That needs to be fixed or That needs fixing." Now, they have a lot of other quirks too, like saying "you was" instead of "you were." But that is different because they know "you was" is wrong, and will correct it. BUT on the "want TO BE" or "need TO BE" - quite a different story. It is everywhere, even in newspaper headlines. I've gotten fairly used to it. However, I still do correct it if I am editing something - and you know what? Everyone always looks at me like I'm crazy. They do not, NOT, NOT, believe me. Anyhow, I bring this up because I was editing something my student worker wrote the other day. She is from around here. She is super-bright, and an excellent writer. Except for the "to need" and "to want" thing. Of course, I got the "blank stare" when I pointed out a "to need" error that she had made. She said nothing and corrected it, but I knew that she hadn't believe me. She confessed later that she hadn't believed me, so she googled it, and low and behold - she was surprised to find that I was right! She was glad to learn about it, since she plans to travel far and wide and not stay in SE Ohio - and she's very particular about wanting to speak and write correctly. Googling is more than anyone else has ever done. They just don't believe me, period. They HUMOR me sometimes by correcting the error if I ask them to, but they absolutely do not believe me. Thus ends my tale. I've heard that sentence structure quite a bit outside of Appalachia, too. It's not Standard Written English, but I think it's fairly common.
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Feb 10, 2011 19:55:53 GMT -5
You are all grammar conscious, so I have to tell you the experience I have had living in SE Ohio the last 20 yrs or so (where I am is officially part of Appalachia). This story wants told because it needs heard. Yes, that's right. Around here, the natives leave out the "to be." They say, e.g., "I want pampered," or "That needs fixed," instead of "I want to be pampered or I want pampering" OR "That needs to be fixed or That needs fixing." Now, they have a lot of other quirks too, like saying "you was" instead of "you were." But that is different because they know "you was" is wrong, and will correct it. BUT on the "want TO BE" or "need TO BE" - quite a different story. It is everywhere, even in newspaper headlines. I've gotten fairly used to it. However, I still do correct it if I am editing something - and you know what? Everyone always looks at me like I'm crazy. They do not, NOT, NOT, believe me. Anyhow, I bring this up because I was editing something my student worker wrote the other day. She is from around here. She is super-bright, and an excellent writer. Except for the "to need" and "to want" thing. Of course, I got the "blank stare" when I pointed out a "to need" error that she had made. She said nothing and corrected it, but I knew that she hadn't believe me. She confessed later that she hadn't believed me, so she googled it, and low and behold - she was surprised to find that I was right! She was glad to learn about it, since she plans to travel far and wide and not stay in SE Ohio - and she's very particular about wanting to speak and write correctly. Googling is more than anyone else has ever done. They just don't believe me, period. They HUMOR me sometimes by correcting the error if I ask them to, but they absolutely do not believe me. Thus ends my tale. I've heard that sentence structure quite a bit outside of Appalachia, too. It's not Standard Written English, but I think it's fairly common. It shows up a lot in Shakespeare. I'm trying to remember something about this English dialect structure (from my 8am linguistics class in 1977) and I *think* it's one of those things that survives from OE. Julia, I'm prone to use that structure, but Res English is one of those dialects too.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 20:17:15 GMT -5
You are all grammar conscious, so I have to tell you the experience I have had living in SE Ohio the last 20 yrs or so (where I am is officially part of Appalachia). This story wants told because it needs heard. Yes, that's right. Around here, the natives leave out the "to be." They say, e.g., "I want pampered," or "That needs fixed," instead of "I want to be pampered or I want pampering" OR "That needs to be fixed or That needs fixing." Now, they have a lot of other quirks too, like saying "you was" instead of "you were." But that is different because they know "you was" is wrong, and will correct it. BUT on the "want TO BE" or "need TO BE" - quite a different story. It is everywhere, even in newspaper headlines. I've gotten fairly used to it. However, I still do correct it if I am editing something - and you know what? Everyone always looks at me like I'm crazy. They do not, NOT, NOT, believe me. Anyhow, I bring this up because I was editing something my student worker wrote the other day. She is from around here. She is super-bright, and an excellent writer. Except for the "to need" and "to want" thing. Of course, I got the "blank stare" when I pointed out a "to need" error that she had made. She said nothing and corrected it, but I knew that she hadn't believe me. She confessed later that she hadn't believed me, so she googled it, and low and behold - she was surprised to find that I was right! She was glad to learn about it, since she plans to travel far and wide and not stay in SE Ohio - and she's very particular about wanting to speak and write correctly. Googling is more than anyone else has ever done. They just don't believe me, period. They HUMOR me sometimes by correcting the error if I ask them to, but they absolutely do not believe me. Thus ends my tale. I've heard that sentence structure quite a bit outside of Appalachia, too. It's not Standard Written English, but I think it's fairly common. I don't know. I never heard it until I got down here, but I've never lived anywhere outside Ohio, and have traveled very little on the other side of the Mississippi. One thing about me is that TV was my first and primary teacher of English, so that probably permanently colored my outlook. According to my student, when she googled it, it showed up as "Appalachian," but I don't know what key words she used to google. She may have been specifically looking to see if it was an Appalachian construction - don't know. I just know it struck my ear in a wince-worthy way when I first came down here. Now, I still notice it, but not the same way. Another thing I found out moving down here - they don't say "Appuh-layshen." They say "Appuh-latchen." After 20 yrs, I find I sometimes do it one way, sometimes the other. I don't think living down here as affected my grammar so much, but I do think it has affected my accent a bit. In Columbus, people have a very "classic American" standard midwestern accent; in SE Ohio, it is a very "Kentucky/West Virginia" sound. I think a bit of that has rubbed off on me.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 20:18:11 GMT -5
I suppose I might keep finding pennies; just when I think there are no places left to find pennies, I find a few more. I could never out-think or predict my crazy-brilliant and wildly creative son; I don't suppose I'll be starting now. When I find the pennies, it just sort of . . . instantly quiets me. It feels like my mind has gone somewhere without me for a moment or two. It takes a minute before it begins to reconnect to the rest of me and to the world. Then I pick up the pennies, go put them away in the little bucket. And I go back to doing whatever I'm doing. What I learned googling and such is that unless they've been very well looked after, pianos do NOT improve or go up in value with age. My best guess, judging from talking to a few people and googling, is that it's worth maybe $250, something like that. At this point, it's just taking up rather valuable real estate in the house. This thing with the pennies is reminding me of the "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings" thing. Hmm. Hmmmm. I am not really seeing the similarity.
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 10, 2011 20:22:51 GMT -5
I've heard that sentence structure quite a bit outside of Appalachia, too. It's not Standard Written English, but I think it's fairly common. It shows up a lot in Shakespeare. I'm trying to remember something about this English dialect structure (from my 8am linguistics class in 1977) and I *think* it's one of those things that survives from OE. Julia, I'm prone to use that structure, but Res English is one of those dialects too. Could be. Don't know much about Old English and don't know what Res English is. I remember years ago, when (I think it was) "needs changed" was used in a front page headline, that one of the profs here at the University had finally had it, and wrote an exasperated Letter to the Editor. It was pretty amusing reading - and there was (surprisingly) a brief response from the editor, acknowledging the error. However, I'm sure 95% of the "townie" readers thought the Prof was batty, or possibly British (or both). Or they may have thought he was Canadian.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Feb 10, 2011 20:53:25 GMT -5
This thing with the pennies is reminding me of the "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings" thing. Hmm. Hmmmm. I am not really seeing the similarity. It could just be the eternal mystery that is my brain.
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Feb 10, 2011 23:08:34 GMT -5
It shows up a lot in Shakespeare. I'm trying to remember something about this English dialect structure (from my 8am linguistics class in 1977) and I *think* it's one of those things that survives from OE. Julia, I'm prone to use that structure, but Res English is one of those dialects too. Could be. Don't know much about Old English and don't know what Res English is. I remember years ago, when (I think it was) "needs changed" was used in a front page headline, that one of the profs here at the University had finally had it, and wrote an exasperated Letter to the Editor. It was pretty amusing reading - and there was (surprisingly) a brief response from the editor, acknowledging the error. However, I'm sure 95% of the "townie" readers thought the Prof was batty, or possibly British (or both). Or they may have thought he was Canadian. Res = reservation. Julia, it's got to do with where the teachers in Indian Schools came from
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Post by Julia, wrought iron-y on Feb 10, 2011 23:11:17 GMT -5
It shows up a lot in Shakespeare. I'm trying to remember something about this English dialect structure (from my 8am linguistics class in 1977) and I *think* it's one of those things that survives from OE. Julia, I'm prone to use that structure, but Res English is one of those dialects too. Could be. Don't know much about Old English and don't know what Res English is. I remember years ago, when (I think it was) "needs changed" was used in a front page headline, that one of the profs here at the University had finally had it, and wrote an exasperated Letter to the Editor. It was pretty amusing reading - and there was (surprisingly) a brief response from the editor, acknowledging the error. However, I'm sure 95% of the "townie" readers thought the Prof was batty, or possibly British (or both). Or they may have thought he was Canadian. Interestingly enough, that construction is used in any number of British idioms. Julia, the insistance on "to be" construction may also be of a piece with the latinist prescriptivism which forbids split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition
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Post by SpringSummers on Feb 11, 2011 0:16:42 GMT -5
Hmmmm. I am not really seeing the similarity. It could just be the eternal mystery that is my brain. I think this is a good theory.
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