Can any of you drop by with a snowplow and maybe a pizza?
OK, that’s not fair. Real question: Name your favorite fictional spy, secret agent, or other such operative!
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
When driving around in The Wife’s car, we often enjoy listening to her SiriusXM radio thingie. Most often we seem to end up on the 80s Channel, because that’s the stuff that we grew up with, and they often play quite a bit of somewhat obscure stuff along with the “big hits”. It’s not just “Walkin’ On Sunshine” or “Come On Eileen” all the time. And what’s really cool about that is that the shows are often hosted by the original VJs from MTV. (The ones that remain, anyway — JJ Johnson passed away ten years ago, sadly.)
Anyhow, for those who may have formative memories from that period, who was your favorite?
Refreshing the memory, we have here, from left to right: Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, and JJ Johnson. My personal favorite? A toss-up between Nina Blackwood and JJ Johnson.
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A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
(Sorry, I had this saved in Draft and forgot to publish it.)
You’re in charge of planning a big time-period specific costume party. You get to pick the time period, and further, let’s assume that everyone will be able to attend looking fully period-specific. What period (or historical locale) do you choose?
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You know, I still have people telling me how much sentence-diagramming rocks? You people got issues, man.
Onto the next thing. By way of a writing update, here’s some wisdom from Mr. King:
It seems to me that every task, even things we just love doing, has some component that we just don’t look forward to and grind our way past because the entire task is enjoyable on balance, even if that one part of it stinks. For me and writing, it’s proofreading. Full-on editing, I like, but proofreading is like a weeklong trip in the company of Ms. Dully McDullerson. Important and essential work, but I’m never gonna enjoy it. (Plus, reading the book basically twice in two months is tough, although there is a benefit in that I’m bursting with ideas for the future volumes in the series now, which is nice.)
So there’s the question: what’s the “dull dreary drudgery” part of some task that you otherwise love doing?
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A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
Wow, did I ever get voted down last week! Who knew I was keeping online company with so many big fans of sentence-diagramming? Oh well…I stand by my view that it sucked and I hated it with a passion and it wasn’t all that useful anyway. So there. Harumph!
On to the new thing, though: toilet paper! Or, rather, the dispensing of the stuff. It may just be luck-of-the-draw, but in every place we’ve lived, the toilet paper hanger has never once been located in the logical spot, meaning, to the right or left of the throne, in easy reach. The last apartment had it on the opposite wall, and every other place — including this quite wonderful house — put it on the wall behind the throne, so you have to do this really awkward reaching thing to get at it. Is this normal, or have we just managed to always be in a place where the toilet paper thing was oddly placed? This is why we so often end up just sitting the roll out on the counter. Where is your TP hung?
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A friend of mine posted this article about diagramming sentences to Facebook the other day, so here’s the simple question: did any of you enjoy diagramming sentences or think it a worthwhile thing to learn? For my part, I hated it with an utter passion. I thought it a complete waste of time that didn’t do a single thing to teach what good writing is. I am, however, also prepared to grant that my loathing of diagramming may be influenced by the fact that the teacher I had in seventh grade, who did the most with diagramming in my school career, happened to be one of my least-favorite teachers of my entire grade-school career. It’s interesting to me how perceptions of entire subjects can be shaped by our reaction to the teachers who taught them. Sentence diagramming? Bleecccch. And trigonomery — now there‘s a teacher I couldn’t abide!
So, did any of you enjoy diagramming sentences?
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The other day would have been Roberto Clemente’s 80th birthday, and in his honor, the Pittsburgh Pirates groundskeepers mowed his number into right field at PNC Park:
Clemente is the one sports figure whom I would most like to travel back in time and see in action, just once. Who is yours? (Assume you’d get to see yours do something representative of his or her greatness. You wouldn’t be stuck going back to see Babe Ruth go 0-4 with two strikeouts and two week grounders to short.)
