This being my first column of the year 2015, I wish to return to my main preoccupation. Actually, the preoccupation properly expressed would be Katherine Zeta Jones. But for now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll settle for a less exciting passion: words.<\/p>\n
I was surprised to discover that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vape\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become a word to describe inhaling those electronic cigarettes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or e-cigs \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never even seen, except in magazine ads.<\/p>\n
And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that duo, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153actually\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153literally,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d now sprinkled into much teen-speak, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Actually, I literally ripped his lungs out when he insulted me.<\/p>\n
And we have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d my guess to be the most common filler word in the lexicon, despite its usually having no meaning, no function in language, like except in constructions like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like those wheels, man,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You look like my sister.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But for now, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like narrow down this grammar lesson to a word that rears its head every election cycle. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve alluded to this speech mannerism in the past, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m convinced its use has become much more common lately. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m referring to the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ever eaten humble pie? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that simply a metaphor for actions like eating crow? Humble pie began as umble pie, made of deer innards and generally eaten in the middle ages by those of a low social status. No, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an actual ritual in which Mom deep-fries crow or bakes humble pie. These actions merely refer to getting one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comeuppance. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been acting haughty, perhaps claiming the Dallas Cowboys have a prayer in the playoffs, but suddenly our dreams are dashed. After all that posturing, bragging and exaggerating, we lose and resort to a heaping helping of crow or humble pie.<\/p>\n
Please note: humble pie is to be consumed only as a consequence to our being a smarty-pants. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I was surprised to read in Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s paper that our new Attorney General, Hector Balderas, said he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by having won the election.<\/p>\n
Hector, a native of a humble place called Wagon Mound, should feel anything but humbled. He won the election handily and, if anything, he ought to feel \u00e2\u20ac\u0153emboldened,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153energized,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153confident,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but certainly not humbled. After all, his is the highest law-enforcement position in the state.<\/p>\n
My singling out Balderas is merely because his statement was made only last week; virtually every winning politician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acceptance speech was also peppered with that word.<\/p>\n
The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153accepted,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d historical usage of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d used to refer to football teams like the Immaculate Conception Colts of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s, when teams like the Roy Longhorns, Springer High and the Santa Rosa Lions spanked us. Then we felt humbled. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strange how some meanings of words get reversed when used by politicians.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s downright humbling what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done to the language.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a song played often on local radio that refers to the ease in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Taking Candy from a Baby.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I believed that tune was attached to a commercial, but if I remember correctly, the entire song played Monday morning.<\/p>\n
But first, we shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give candy to a baby, nor take it away. Now, thanks to the miracle of radio, I have a brain worm. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tune that keep playing in my head \u00e2\u20ac\u201d sometimes for the whole day, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sometimes unsuccessful in purging it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never a song I like. My solution is to reach for my headphones and play something I like, to drown out the worm. It usually works. The absolute worst brain worm one can have is to keep replaying a song whose lyrics go something like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sara, Sa-ah-ah-rah . . . no time is the ri-ight time for goodbye.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
That tune keeps coming back, no matter how many times I try to jettison it by playing something from Les Miserables. This brain worm information was provided only as a public service. It is not intended as a training manual for developing brain worms, so please try to understand that I cannot be responsible for unpleasant tunes running through your brains.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
An Eric Auld posted these seven bar jokes online, involving grammar and punctuation:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Did you ever find yourself in a situation in which no matter how hard you try to explain, you fail to reach the person?<\/p>\n
Consider my experience last week at Whole Foods in Santa Fe. I was selecting items out of the bulk food bins, duly using a scoop and a plastic bag which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asked to mark, to identify the item.<\/p>\n
Just then a pre-teen, with a woman I assumed was her mother, reached into one of the bins with her bare hands and lifted out a piece of licorice. Well, since food increases appetite, Little Missy reached in for a different treat, this time a piece of stuck-together carob or chocolate.<\/p>\n
I spoke up, asking the girl, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you please use the scoop?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I got a glare. Her mother did the same to me. How do I dare chide a little girl who wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing any harm? Must I mind my own business?<\/p>\n
Just then, a woman who had to have been the girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grandmother got right in my face. I thought I was going to get slapped. But instead, she said, in a moderate voice, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be eating candy anyway.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well, that simply wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t my point. And my reply was that as long as Missy was using her bare hands to steal pieces of candy, she ought to be using the scoops provided.<\/p>\n
I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stick around to finish the discussion, but I still wonder why the girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother offered nothing to the discussion but an icy glare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This being my first column of the year 2015, I wish to return to my main preoccupation. Actually, the preoccupation properly expressed would be Katherine Zeta Jones. But for now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll settle for a less exciting passion: words. I was surprised to discover that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vape\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become a word to describe inhaling those electronic cigarettes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1320,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}