I’m On Vacation!

I’m recharging right now.  Film Chris and I are in Michigan, and we are seeing friends and family alike.  But we are also recharging our batteries, and laying out our creative plans for the future.  I’ve got a couple of short stories in mind, and he’s trying to decide which scripts most need his focus.  Plus I’ve got notes in a work notebook somewhere to use to update The Dishonor Roll, so keep your eyes out for that.

And We’re Back To Politics

Ok, I do have some grammar points to make, but first I have to share this with you:

Read About Why It’s Not That Hillary Is a Woman

I am so mad at so many women right now.  Especially blogger Melissa, who is quoted in this blog saying something about how Hillary Clinton not winning the Democratic nomination means that women aren’t being taken seriously in this country.

Excuse me, Melissa, but I have to argue that point.  (Unfortunately, it’s on my blog, which you will likely never read.)  Women who are taken seriously in this country:

Redundancy

I received a letter for my review today at work.  I had to edit it for content as I knew some of what it was talking about.  Because I am addicted to editing the way my husband is to Good and Plenty’s, I also took the liberty to tackle some punctuation errors.  Oh, and I changed some wording for clarity.  (And yet, people at work don’t seem to hate me.)  Anyway, the file name was “Communication Letter.” 

Let me first say that it was not a letter about communication.  It was a piece of communication.  But so is a letter.  So IMHO, “communication letter” is redundant.

I didn’t tell the author of the letter that.  I think I had already pressed my luck by removing her extra commas.

This Is a Grammar Blog, Right?

Lately it seems I’ve written way more about politics than language.  Sorry ’bout that.

I was thinking the other day about big words.  Not big, boring words my friend Natasha reads about in her pre-med classes.  Big, potent words that my loved ones slip in to their speech effortlessly and correctly.  Irene complained about a blowhard vendor bloviating on the phone to her the other day.  Chris said tonight that he isn’t sure how his co-writer will feel about their project tomorrow because he is so mercurial. 

Big words are only useful when used efficiently.  By that I mean that if you are using a big word just to use a big word, it’s stupid.  Use a smaller, common word when that’s what fits the sentence best.  But some ideas are so perfectly captured by a big, juicy, multi-syllabic word that nothing can substitute.  Here’s what Irene could have said:

Clinton Refuses…?

AP article: Clinton Refuses to Drop Out of Race

She refuses to back out of the race?  The race that she lost?  WTF?

Michigan and Florida

So the Democratic Party made a decision  about seating the Michigan and Florida delegates at the Democratic national convention.   Now Hillary Clinton’s campaign is unhappy, because they aren’t going to get all of the delegates they feel they won in January.  But here are a few reminders: