In DC
for several days seeing clients and friends. I miss this town very much but am glad I don't live here. Mostly I miss my DC friends quite a lot. Once again I urge a mass exodus to Chicago. Really, you can stay at my place. The house is rocking. Don't bother knocking. Come on in.

as well as
I'd like to come out against the useless construct "as well as". For instance:

"First let's look at what makes the 4800 series tick. For starters the cards are built on a 55nm fabrication process. Until recently with NVIDIA's 9800 GTX+ launch, the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series were the only video cards to do this. As you know, smaller die equals less power needed and heat generated as well as decreasing the cost of producing the cards. AMD is able launch these cards at a very affordable price partially due to this." — from Gaming Nexus

That entire paragraph had its tires shot out after the third sentence. More graceful:

"As you know, a smaller die means less power needed, less heat generated, and decreased production costs."

When, long time back, I taught writing classes, I mostly imparted misinformation to rows of unconvinced freshmen and sophomores. But one task I did well was to tell them to avoid "as well as".

Kids, I'd tell the kids (who were not much younger than I), Whenever you find yourself using as well as, there's always a better way to phrase your sentence. As well as means you're masking your disorganization with a little bit of pomposity.

I did not say it so gracefully in person, in front of a bored college class, at age 23. Mostly I stood up there and babbled like an idiot and was glad when class was over. Teaching is not my thing. Is it possible even to teach writing? I do not know that it is.

Happy birthday mariebernadette.

N.M. school tries to reach students via podcast

This is bad in so many ways. How about getting kids involved in reading good stories, instead of using them as marketing drones for a big corporation? I grew up in rural NM, on the opposite side of the state, on a Navajo reservation. We did not have Zunes. Some of we actually liked to read.

Yeah, I know. But what sounds right?

"We like to read."

or

"Us like to read."

If "We like to read" is correct, why is "Some of we like to read" incorrect?

I think "Some of we like to read" is correct but used very rarely. I don't have a grammar rule to back up this audacious claim. I used to be pals with a master linguist but don't have access to her knowledge any more. Will research when I get time. Cause this stuff bugs the hell out of me.

What is your view?

Too much, too little sleep tied to ill health in CDC study
I think we should avoid CDC studies. Thank you, MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer.

B vitamins fail to cut heart risk in study
Whatever study that was I am glad I was not in it. Thank you Reuters.

Scientists find something good about a big bottom
Bicycle race!

And now the Bennett sisters, 1910.

erratum
In a previous post I said "since they leavened Vista of so many of its promised features" and that was wrong. I've emended to "since they curtailed in Vista so many of its promised features."

More self-conscious than accurate in this blog. This points up my ongoing solipsism: like anybody noticed my misuse of leaven.

You have surged to the vanguard of goonery
I feel like crap these past couple of days. No energy though I am sleeping long hours. Faint nausea. The bald cowboy has stopped circling me maybe sensing my scorn. Another large man walks up and down the place declaiming something I can't tell what. He looks me up and down each time he passes by. What the hell. I am sitting here minding my own. I believe if I were a large goony man then people would fuck with me less. Instead of size and goonery I got meanness. Pure meanness. But that comes out only after you mess with me for a while and the altercation has begun already.

As usual at Star Lounge the rambling cast of characters is distracting and instead of working on poems I'm spamming LJ.

markup
There should be markup tags <strange></strange> along with the regular, not deprecated markup like <strong></strong>. I'm gonna tell the W3C.

Obama's remarks gives Clinton an opening

What a regrettable headline from AP.

One small thing. Nicole Kidman is walking her young son to school. She comments that it is nice to walk to school in the morning. He says You wouldn't say that if it was raining.

If it were, she corrects.

Awareness of the subjunctive in Hollywood. In a Hollywood script. Made me smile.

The traits of vacuousness and narcissism nourish each other keeping us unaware of our faults and thereby rather happy.

Creationists seek foothold in Europe

What a bunch of maroons, as Bugs would say.

Maroon a racist term? It means wine red. Is Maroon 5 composed of five racists? And she wiiiilllll be loved. I don't think maroon carries a racist meaning now but the sound and hint of it, maroon, what a maroon, could easily call down that burden since it associates a particular color with dumbness.

I have offended maroon people.

Book: 41 pages of printable poems so far. Need about 80 to really make a footprint. None of that half-assed chapbook nonsense. No filler. If after doing this 25 years all I got is filler I need to be whipped and sent home. If the title of my book contains a grammar error I want someone to kick me in the balls as hard as you can. Fortunately there's no grammar error at least not there, up front, in the title.

Just cooked and ate a delicious dinner of peppers, garlic, mushrooms, and hippies lean chicken breast. Healthy and tasty.

I registered the domain libidinouswino.org. I would like to host a combination grammar and porn site. I am not sure where to get porn content, and there are all kinds of regulations involved. I could earn revenue from porn clickthroughs, disburse a few language usage notes that, in my opinion, are particularly relevant to digital America and, best of all, learn a lot. We will see. I welcome suggestions.

Spent all afternoon sitting in Star Lounge working on a poem about haunted plumbing. The poem is bad. Haunted plumbing is not as compelling as I thought.

Has anybody ever had experience with plumbing you suspected was haunted? If you have time, I'm very grateful to hear your story. Thank you. Hope you all are having a pleasant Sunday evening.

How do I tell my friend that the title of her book of poems contains a usage error?

Answer: I don't. I keep my fool mouth shut. She's irked and defensive enough already. Her chief mode: complaint.

What's the book's title? Who is she? Not sayin'. Not even in a locked post.

I hope her book does very well. Only uptight pedants like I will notice the usage error.

Uptight pedants are not her audience.

I've noticed that when a poet focuses chiefly on the passion of her work, on her anger however righteous, then her craft suffers. I've noticed this over and over. I used to point it out, and got verbally abused as a reward. I'm older and smarter now.

Hope her book sells a million copies and she is crowned queen of American Poetry.

Not that my friend is necessarily a she. She could be. Or not! She or he does not even read this blog.