\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One expression that keeps making the rounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d usually because someone in print or on television uses it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is “the lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve even used it here, at the Optic, this bastion of correctiquette. Recently we used it to mean the largest part, the greater portion, as in “the chamber got the lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share of the funds.” Invariably, some groups and organizations are left grumbling because they only got a mouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Aesop, the fabulist who lived in Greece around 600 B.C., wrote a number of fables, including “The Lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Share.” Well, originally, the lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share was all of the booty. But custom and usage have led to the alternate definition appear in dictionaries, and all of the booty only applies to people like me. Remember, lions don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t share, or at least they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t used to.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One story has it that Aesop was carousing around Thebes in the pre-Christian era, painting the town red, committing debauchery and downing quarts of Michelob. When he got home to an angry spouse who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been waiting up for him, she said, “Aesop, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been out late again. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve told you XXVIII times I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like being kept waiting.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0He of course made up a cock-and-bull story about staying up with a sick friend, and how his cell phone kept dropping calls and how he would have sent her an email or a text message, but he was out of range. To which his wife answered, “That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a likely fable.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0By definition, a fable, which generally includes lions, foxes, geese and meese, is a tale with a moral. It attempts to present a larger truth, even if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re conditioned to equate “fable” with the fictitious.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0At the Optic, when Managing Editor David Giuliani tells Don Pace to write a story about Highlands, for example, I cringe. By “story” he means “article,” and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entirely different thing. Wikipedia, the popular online dictionary, defines “story” as a narrative, a piece of literature, also known as a tale, a novel, short story, fable, fairy tale or tall tale. Way down in the definitions is “urban legend,” which most of us think of as a creation, usually passed on by a friend of a friend who swears that this woman who went to several tanning salons in one day actually microwaved herself, from the inside.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0So the credibility factor for “story” is shot because it too often connotes something made up. Maybe one day David will instruct Don to write a “totally truthful account” of something.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Along these lines, then, I often need to explain to readers of Work of Art that my stories are not science fiction or urban legends. As I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve explained before, I have a good memory for things that use to happen during the days when we use to eat dinosaurs. The Totally Truthful Accounts I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written about obviously are not examples of spinning yarns.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Which leads me to the “Teatime with Oldtimers” program scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the CCHP on Bridge Street. The program, spearheaded by Petey Salman and Editha Bartley, will feature five old-timers, including the organizers, who will tell stories of early Las Vegas.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But because by their very name \u00e2\u20ac\u201d stories \u00e2\u20ac\u201d they imply not Totally Truthful Accounts. This unrehearsed 90 minutes of recollections, we hope will trigger dormant memories about some of the people and events of Las Vegas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 past. Because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unrehearsed, I only have a vague idea of the topic(s) I will discuss. I assume the fellow participants, Ernie Quintana and Molly Garcia, who also grew up in the Meadow City, have TTA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s of their own, totally devoid of fiction. And if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine too.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0My childhood friend and I.C. Schoolmate, Cris Martinez, use to tell about the times when residents of Rociada would camp out in the woods and fall asleep around a campfire after an oldtimer told stories, usually entirely in Spanish. Never having had that kind of experience I wish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been in on some of these outings, as I love listening to others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stories. Now I never asked Cris whether these stories the viejitos told were true, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. I still believe having the pleasure of hearing these accounts would have been enriching.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited about the chance to discuss yesteryear as a handful of us tell our tales. Part of the plan, if the storytelling succeeds, is to rotate the participants, each time inviting an oldtimer-newcomer or two to join the group and to allow one or more original members to sit the next one out.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Editha Bartley, who lives close to where Cris and his family grew up, has written a regular column for the Optic for several months. Most are about interesting and true events that occurred in her childhood. I hope she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saved some good TTA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for Tuesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s program. So if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re voracious for something veracious, come join us.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0___
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00ef\u00bf\u00bd
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Did anyone notice the careless use of “use to” and the improper placement of “only” in this column? My TTA of this phenomenon is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of a scientific experiment which Lucille Van Horn turned me on to last week. The results of the “use to” and “only” experiment will be released in a later column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One expression that keeps making the rounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d usually because someone in print or on television uses it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is “the lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share.” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve even used it here, at the Optic, this bastion of correctiquette. Recently we used it to mean the largest part, the greater portion, as in “the chamber got the lion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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\/16"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}