Arlene Miller's Blog, page 9

The Whole Enchilada!

Image by Jessica Vargas from Pixabay

Have you ever noticed how many idioms, sayings, and similes are about foods? I have gathered some here (not all of them for sure). I was trying to get some for each letter of the alphabet. Some I just couldn’t find. If you happen to come upon any that have foods beginning with letters I couldn’t find, please send them along in the comments!

A

apple of my eyebad appleshow do like them apples?

B

bun in the ovenspill the beansgo bananasbring home the baconbutter someone up

C

smart cookieit’s a piece of cakecool as a cucumber

D

hot diggety dog? Not very good. Got one????

E

the whole enchiladaput all your eggs in one basketegg someone onyou’re a rotten egg

F

the whole kettle of fishbigger fish to fry

G

your goose is cookedon the gravy trainthe rest is gravysour grapes

H

you’re a real hamsweet as honeysell like hotcakes

I

the icing on the cake

J

In a jam. Wrong kind of jam. Got one???????

K

Got one??????????

L

That car is a real lemonWhen life gives you lemons

M

don’t cry over spilt milkcan you cut the mustard?

N

that’s it in a nutshellyou are nutshard nut to crack

O

compare apples and oranges

P

you’re a real peachthe situation is a hot potatoplum joblike two peas in a podflat as a pancakein a real pickle

Q

??????????????????? Yeah! try that one! Quince? 

R

blow a raspberry (not great)

S

from soup to nutssalt of the earthsugarcoat somethingtake that with a grain of saltthose were the salad days (good old days)

T

not my cup of teaI am warm as toast

U

???????????????????

V

she is full of spit and vinegar (perkiness)

W

water under the bridge. Meh….got a better one?

X

????????????????????

Y

?????????????????????

Z

?????????????????????

 

“I” Before “Me” — U-su-ally

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

I still hear it everywhere, and  I am sure you do too. Confusing I and me — still! It is mostly the I used instead of me that really gets me going. I am so used to people using me for a subject by now that it doesn’t have the impact it used to: “Me and Jimmy are going to the bar.” You wanna say it like that? Fine. Not my business. Well, actually it is my business…

But using I when it should be me because you think you sound so erudite — NO! 

1 Between you and I, I think they will break up.

2 He split the pizza with her and I.

3  She gave my sister and I some of her clothes.

All of those I’s should be me’s.

“Grammartologically” speaking, me is used for the object of a preposition, or the object of a verb. I is a subject.

“Non-grammartologically” speaking, because usually the subject goes at the beginning of the sentence and the objects come later, I will come before me:  a pronoun nearer the end of the sentence will usually be me, not I.

In example 1 above, it is the other way around. The first I should be me because it is the object of the preposition between.  The I after the comma is the subject. 

Example 2 is another example of the object of a preposition: the preposition with.

Example 3 shows indirect objects of gave. No one would say, “She gave we,” or “She gave I.” No different when there are two objects.

So now we all know.

 

 

“Myself”: Don’t Bother With It!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“Rachel and myself agree on this topic.”

“I remember myself taking the stage.” 

“The conference speakers will be Joe and myself.”

“Myself and my whole family are taking the cruise.”

STOP! DON’T! ICK! WRONG! 

I hear myself used incorrectly everywhere, mostly on television by people whose job it is to speak. Myself is a pronoun. However, it is an unusual pronoun because it is not a subject, and it is not generally a direct object. Actually, the second example above is probably okay, but it sounds weird to me. It is a direct quote I heard. You could leave out the myself entirely there.

Here are some correct uses of myself:

“I am proud of myself for accomplishing that.”

“I myself ate the whole pizza.”

“I did the whole puzzle by myself.”

“I put myself to sleep reading this boring book.”

What do you notice? Yup. The subject of each sentence is I — because that is how myself is used. It either intensifies I (as in I myself), or it reflects back to I (I am proud of myself), which is why the self pronouns are called “reflexive” and/or “intensive.” Those are the only uses of self pronouns. 

So, the answer is YES. When you use yourself, the sentence subject is you, and so on.

“You must be proud of yourself.”

“She can now ride a bicycle all by herself.”

“They themselves proved their point in the debate.”

But the whole -self thing can generally be avoided by omitting or rewording. Then the chances of using those incorrectly are greatly reduced!

“You must be proud” is probably good enough.

“She can now ride a bicycle” is probably good enough.

“They proved their point in the debate” is probably good enough.

“I am proud of accomplishing that” is probably good enough.

“I ate the whole pizza” is probably good enough.

“I did the whole puzzle” is probably good enough.

“I fell asleep reading this boring book” is probably better.

You want to use myself? Fine. Just don’t use it as a subject, and don’t use it anywhere in the sentence (of course, I am sure there are exceptions) unless the subject matches the pronoun.

Drag, Drug, and Such….

Image by Mike from Pixabay

This past week, I twice heard drug used as the past tense of drag by those who should know better – a TV host and a politician. (Yeah, I know, but we should have well-spoken politicians!) The exact words in one of these cases:  “My mother drug me around the store.”

Drag is a verb, and the past tense is dragged. It is a regular old verb that adds -ed  to make it a past tense —  although some people in some regions still use drug.

Drug can be its own present tense verb. You can drug someone, in which case the past tense is drugged. Another regular verb that adds -ed on the end for the past tense. Oh, and of course drug is often a noun.

You can dress in drag. I guess that usage would be a noun, so no past tense to worry about. 

Drag can also be an adjective: drag race, drag queen. 

Oh, and then something or someone can be a real drag: a noun again, so we don’t have to worry about verb forms. 

Phrasal verbs:  You can drag something out — or extend the time of. So in the past tense, you dragged it out.  

You can drag someone down (figuratively). If you did it yesterday, you dragged them down.

Something can drag on – to last seemingly forever. Or dragged on if it already happened.

Hmmm. You can also take a drag on a cigarette. That is a noun. 

I could probably drag this on and on, but I wouldn’t…..so you wouldn’t be able to say the blog post just drug on and on.

 

 

Lady Mondegreen

Image by Esa Riutta from Pixabay

Since yesterday (February 9) was the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, it seems appropriate to talk about song lyrics today.

The word mondegreen, meaning a mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric, was coined by the writer Sylvia Wright.

As a child, she heard the Scottish ballad The Bonny Earl of Murray and though that one verse went like this:

Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands
Oh where hae you been?
They hae slay the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

Poor Lady Mondegreen, thought Sylvia Wright.  Years later, she discovered that what they had actually done was slay the Earl of Murray and lay him on the green. Wright then memorialized her Lady Mondegreen with the new word.

Here are just some of the popular mondegreens:

ELTON JOHN – Rocket Man

Lyrics: Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone  Mondegreen: Rocket man, burning all the trees off every lawn

JOHN COUGAR – Jack and Diane

Lyrics: Changes come around real soon, make us women and men Mondegreen: Changes come around real soon; naked swimming in bed

ROBERT PALMER – Loving You

Lyrics: I’ve got a bad case of loving you Mondegreen: I’ve got a backache from loving you

ZZ TOP – Sharp-Dressed Man

Lyrics: Everybody’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man Mondegreen: Everybody’s crazy ’bout a shot glass man

U2 -Bullet the Blue Sky

Lyrics: I can see those fighter planes Mondegreen:I can see those spider veins

QUEEN – We Will Rock You

Lyrics: You’ve got mud on your face, a big disgrace Mondegreen: You’ve got mud on your face, front disc brakes

ELVIS PRESLEY – Jailhouse Rock

Lyrics: Everybody in the whole cell block Mondegreen: Everybody in a wholesale frock

THE POLICE – Message in a Bottle

Lyrics: A year has passed since I wrote my note Mondegreen: A year has passed since I broke my nose

MICHAEL JACKSON – Billie Jean

Lyrics: Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one Mondegreen:Her heavy head turned to ice cream, being the one

ROBERTA FLACK – Killing Me Softly

Lyrics: Strumming my fate with his fingers Mondegreen: Stuffing my face with his fingers

ERIC CLAPTON – Forever Man

Lyrics: Won’t you be my forever woman? I want to be your forever man Mondegreen:Won’t you be my bald-headed woman? I want to be your bald-headed man

PAT BENATAR – Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Lyrics: Hit me with your best shot Mondegreen:Hit me with your pet shark

BEATLES – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Lyrics:The girl with kaleidoscope eyes Mondegreen: The girl with colitis goes by

DEEP PURPLE – Smoke on the Water

Lyrics: Smoke on the water, fire in the sky Mondegreen: Slow walking Walter, the fire engine guy

and this oldie but goodie!

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER – Bad Moon Rising

Lyrics: There’s a bad moon on the rise Mondegreen: There’s a bathroom on the right 

 

Thank you for the mondegreens! Here are some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoonerisms, Knorks, and Fives

Image by ha11ok from PixabayNah! Spoonerisms have nothing to do with knorks and fives — or forks and knives. A spoonerism  is a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect, for example, ” You have hissed the mystery lesson,” accidentally said instead of what was intended:  “You have missed the history lesson.” Here are a few more:Bunny phone instead of funny boneBelly jeans instead of jelly beansIt is kisstomery to cuss the bridebad salad instead of sad ballad What is the origin of the word spoonerism? William Archibald Spooner (1844 – 1930) was a British clergyman, most notable for his absent-mindedness, and for supposedly mixing up the syllables in a spoken phrase, with unintentionally comic effect. Such phrases became known as spoonerisms, and are often used humorously.  Is spoonerism related to dyslexia? In a study of a group of university students both with and without dyslexia, it was found that participants with dyslexia underperformed their peers in all phonological measures, including spoonerisms. 

What are mondegreens, and are they related to spoonerisms? A mondegreen is the result of  hearing something incorrectly, and thinking it is correct. Often, they happen with music or poetry. We will be talking about mondegreens later this month.

What are eggcorns, and are they related to spoonerisms? Yup. It is a really funny name.  Similar to mondegreens, eggcorns occur when a common phrase is changed to another similar sounding phrase: “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes”  (pretty much the same as a malapropism).

The term egg corn (later becoming one word — eggcorn) was coined by professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum in 2003 in response to an article by Mark Liberman on a group blog for linguists. In his article, Liberman talked about a woman who had used the phrase egg corn for acorn, and he noted that this specific type of substitution lacked a name. Pullum suggested using egg corn itself as a label.

Children’s author Shel Silverstein’s book Runny Rabbit: A Billy Sook is a collection of kids’ poems based on spoonerisms. This one is called “The Kungle Jing”:

“Oh I am the Jing of the Kungle,”

Runny roared to one and all

When he wore his cion’s lostume

To the Walloheen bostume call.

But there he met a leal rion

Who said, “You’d best cake tare,

And do not start believin’

You’re the costume that you wear.”

  Thank you Wikipedia for some of the info.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

Image by Александра from Pixabay

As usual, I have been soaking up the books — because don’t they provide the answer to everything? Songwriting? Music theory? Law of attraction? Manifesting? AI? Chord progressions? I have books on all of those topics from Kindle Unlimited on my Kindle. I get most of my books from the library (I rarely buy books anymore) — both print (and large print LOL) and Kindle. However, when I want some fairly new information on something, I look to Kindle Unlimited. But you really have to be careful in these days of self-publishing, when everyone thinks they can write and publish a book. I look for books with a rating of four stars of more and a decent number of reviews. And if they turn out to be duds, easy to just return them and get something else. There is usually quite a large variety of choices.

But mostly I do read fiction — and mostly newish bestsellers. Here is what I have read lately. As I have told you before, once I read the last page of the book and close it, I rarely remember what it was about even if I really liked it.

The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin — I am currently reading this one. It is from 2023 and is another one of the World War II books set in Poland featuring young women. So far, I am really enjoying it. 

Shelter by Harlan Coben — I don’t know where I heard about this one, but I must have heard something because I had to take out an interlibrary loan to find it (I have no idea why; he is a very popular author).  I don’t think I have ever read Coben before, and apparently this was his Young Adult novel debut. I didn’t realize it was Young Adult when I got it, but who cares? It was written in 2011, and I would recommend it. It is a thriller type, which I generally don’t read.

The Storm We Made — This is one of the most anticipated books of this year. It is a historical novel set in World War II Malaysia. It is both a spy story and a love story. Great book.

The Everything Songwriting Book — Well, this is one of my Kindle Unlimited books, as I have been wanting to dig out my old lyrics (from decades and decades ago, when I was a mere child). A very comprehensive book, which made me realize how difficult songwriting is!

Peyton’s Choice by Kimberley Johnson — I read this because Kimberley is an acquaintance of mine. It was written in 2016, and unfortunately, women no longer have the choice that Peyton had. Good book.

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History — Found this one at the library when I was perusing music books. It is a five- or six-volume set. I already read (skimmed) the beginnings of rock and roll through the 50s. I am now reading volume 2, which is my favorite era, the early and mid 60s. I may not read any more of the books, since I am not so into those eras. I guess I could skim them to find out all I don’t know. They are very comprehensive books. Hardcover.

Practical Intuition by Laura Day —  Another of my Kindle Unlimited books, since I am in a intuition, synchronicity, law of attraction, manifestation phase. I remember the book was OK, but even though I recently finished it, I don’t remember a thing!

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders — Like weird stuff? This book was recommended by a friend who does (so do I). It is a good book but a little hard to read. It is about Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie, who died as a child. It is fiction and the author’s debut novel (2017). The characters are both fictional and invented. The bardo is the state between death and rebirth. Try it. You might like it. 

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney — Really good book. Well written and easy to read.

Manifesting — I don’t even know the title of this one, but it was another manifesting book. They are all pretty much the same!

The Human Stain by Philip Roth — This book was recommended to me. I have read Roth, and I thought I may have read this one before, but it didn’t seem familiar at all when I read it. Roth is a great writer. This one is about racism and secrets. It is the third book of three in Roth’s American Trilogy.

 

 

 

Malapropism: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

A malapropism is the incorrect use of a word in place of a word with a similar sound, either unintentionally or for comedic effect.

For example, if you stop something at its beginning, you have “nipped it in the bud.” However, you may have heard people say “nipped it in the butt.” Or, if someone takes the blame for something they didn’t do, they are a “scapegoat,” not an “escape goat.”

Philosopher Donald Davidson has said that malapropisms show the complex process through which the brain translates thoughts into language.

Malapropisms are sometimes called Dogberryisms.  “Dogberryism” comes from the 1598 Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing in which the character Dogberry utters many malapropisms to humorous effect.

The word “malapropism” (and its earlier form, “malaprop”) comes from a character named “Mrs. Malaprop” in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 play The Rivals. Mrs. Malaprop frequently misspeaks by using words that do not have the meaning that she intends but which sound similar to words that do. Sheridan chose her name in humorous reference to the word malapropos, an adjective or adverb meaning “poorly placed.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of “malapropos” in English is from 1630, and the first person known to have used the word “malaprop” specifically in the sense of “a speech error” is Lord Byron in 1814.

Though Shakespeare was an earlier writer than Sheridan, “malaprop/malapropism” seems an earlier coinage than “Dogberryism.”

Malapropisms tend to maintain the part of speech of the originally intended word.  Likewise, substitutions tend to have the same number of syllables and the same metrical structure – the same pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables – as the intended word or phrase.

Here are some examples of malapropisms from plays, movies, TV, etc.:

The fictional Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The Rivals: “Illiterate him quite from your memory” (instead of obliterate), “he is the very pineapple of politeness” (instead of pinnacle), and “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (instead of alligator).

 

William Shakespeare used them in a number of his plays, almost invariably spoken by comic ill-educated lower-class characters. In Much Ado About Nothing, Constable Dogberry tells Governor Leonato, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons” (i.e., apprehended two suspicious persons).

 

Malapropism was one of Stan Laurel’s comic mannerisms. In Sons of the Desert, for example, he says that Oliver Hardy is suffering a nervous “shakedown” (rather than breakdown), calls the Exalted Ruler of their group the exhausted ruler, and says that he and Oliver are like “two peas in a pot” (instead of pod).

 

Emily Litella, a fictional character created and performed by American comedian Gilda Radner used malapropisms to entertain viewers on the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, including one skit in which she was puzzled over the hubbub surrounding the “plight of Soviet jewelry” instead of Soviet Jewry.

 

Ring Lardner used malapropism extensively for comic effect. For example, in his short story The Young Immigrunts, the four-year-old narrator repeatedly refers to a bride and groom as the “bride and glum.”

 

Archie Bunker, a character in the American TV sitcom All in the Family, used malapropisms frequently: he refers, for example, to “off-the-docks Jews” (Orthodox Jews) and the “Women’s Lubrication Movement” (rather than Liberation). Intending to refer to the medical specialized field of gynecology and to a specialist in that field as a gynecologist, he would mispronounce the words as groinecology and groinecologist. (Oh, those were the days!!)

Here are some unintentional malapropisms from media, sports, etc.:

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott once claimed that no one “is the suppository of all wisdom” (i.e., repository or depository).

 

Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach of Ireland, warned his country against “upsetting the apple tart” (apple cart) of his country’s economic success.

 

Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley referred to a tandem bicycle as a tantrum bicycle and made mention of “Alcoholics Unanimous” (Alcoholics Anonymous).

 

Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra was well known for corrupting speech, such as “Texas has a lot of electrical votes,” rather than electoral votes. 

 

Texas governor Rick Perry has been known to commonly utter malapropisms; for example, he described states as “lavatories of innovation and democracy” instead of laboratories.

 

World heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson, upon being asked about his next plans moments after losing in a world title fight with Lennox Lewis, declared that “I might fade into Bolivian” (oblivion).

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a common meme format was introduced where Internet users feigned malapropism by substituting the word “pandemic” with similar sounding words (such as panorama, pandemonium, or panini).

 

United States congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has used malapropisms in both communications directed at her base as well as when she communicates with the rest of the world, including references to: “peach tree dish” (petri dish), “gazpacho police,” (gestapo), and “fragrantly violated…” (flagrantly), among others.

 

During the lead-up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker was mocked online after claiming “this erection is about the people” (election). 

I think that is as good a place to stop as any!

Thank you, Wikipedia and Bruce Blakely!

Remember Math?

Image by Helga from Pixabay

I think it was Barbie who said, “Math is hard.” (That is before she became enlightened.)

If you are just out of school, you probably remember math. For those of us who have been out of school for  a while, math is a distant (good or bad) memory unless we have chosen an occupation where you need it. I never needed it in any job, but I liked math in high school. I got through calculus and did pretty well. But I stayed as far away from the sciences as I could in college. I needed a couple of courses  as requirements so I took nutrition and astronomy. I might have dropped astronomy because I was failing for the first time in my academic life. Who knew it was a difficult math course?  Maybe I got it confused with astrology (LOL)

Thanks to my friend Don Grohman (who is a math and science person and former teacher) for much of the information in this post. (And please excuse the errant quotation marks. I copied and pasted and cannot seem to get rid of them.)

Binomial
This one might ring a bell from the days of algebra class. A binomial is a mathematical expression with two terms connected by a plus or minus sign. It looks something like this: 3×2 + 2y2. The word originates from the terms “bi,” meaning “two,” and “nomos,” meaning “part.” In contrast, a monomial has only one part, while a trinomial has three parts.

Exponent
In math, exponents are also called “powers.” An exponent describes how many times to multiply a number by itself. For example, in the case of 54, the exponent is the numeral 4 — meaning five is multiplied by itself four times. Using a term such as “exponent” is a shorthand in math. Saying “five to the fourth power” or “five with an exponent of four” is a lot quicker than listing out “5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 625.”

Fractal
This is a geometry term that indicates a complex, never-ending pattern. Everyday, recognizable items such as snowflakes, lightning bolts, plants, leaves, crystals, and tree branches can be fractals. This relatively new mathematical term was coined in the 1970s by Polish mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot from the Latin root fractus, which means “broken.”

Hypotenuse
In the 1879 Gilbert & Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance, the modern major-general celebrates knowing “many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse” by bursting into song. But what is a hypotenuse? Quite simply, it’s the longest side of a right triangle, which is found directly opposite a right, or 90-degree, angle. The word comes from the Greek terms hupo, which means “under,” and teinein, which means “stretch.”

Integer
An integer is just a whole number; it’s not a fraction or decimal. In other words, 1 is an integer. So are 205, 6,784, and -32. But 6.75 and 8½ are not integers. The word comes from the Latin terms in, meaning “whole,” and tangere, meaning “to touch.” It has similar roots to “integral” and “integrity.”

Polygon
One of the first things children learn about in school is the concept of shapes, and that’s what a polygon is — a figure with at least three straight sides and angles. Simple polygons include triangles, squares, pentagons, and even stars. However, shapes such as circles, hearts, and moons are not polygons because they have curves. The word “polygon” comes from the Greek term polugōnos, meaning “many-angled.”

Quadratic
A quadratic equation involves unknown variables with an exponent no higher than the second power. It looks something like this: ax2 + bx + c = 0. This equation can strike fear into the hearts of beginning algebra students, but learning how to solve this unlocks a world of mathematical power. The basic formula is used across almost every field of engineering, science, and business. The name comes from the Latin word quadraticus, meaning “made square.”

Theorem
While students (and adults) can get lost in a sea of numbers and symbols, math has always involved logic and reasoning, and theorems are the base of that. A theorem is a general proposition that can be proved by a chain of reasoning. Mathematicians use proofs that are previously accepted truths to logically establish that a theorem is correct.

Probably the most famous theorem is the Pythagorean theorem (a2 + b2 = c2), which is at least as old as 500 BCE. In this theorem, “a” and “b” are the lengths of the two legs of a right-angle triangle, and “c” is the length of the hypotenuse. When any two of the values of the theorem are known, the other can be calculated; and many other values can be determined, based on the Pythagorean theorem.

Here are some other “weird” math terms:

Fibonacci sequence
Named after an early Italian mathematician, the Fibonacci sequence is a string of numbers where each number in the sequence is the sum of the two preceding numbers. For example, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.

Chaos theory
Chaos theory studies how tiny changes in parts of a system can create enormous differences in the overall behavior of the larger system. The most famous representation is the so-called butterfly effect, which imagines that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on one continent could trigger a chain of events that lead to a tornado on another continent.

Asymptote
In math, asymptotes can be vertical, horizontal, or slanted lines that graphs can approach, but can never touch. It’s the mathematical equivalent of walking toward a fixed object at a pace that gets gradually slower and slower. Although the object gets closer and closer, the person doing the walking will never actually reach it.

Wiener measure (yes, really)
Size matters in math too. But the Wiener measure, named after American mathematician Norbert Wiener, who died in 1964, is an indication of how likely it is for a continuous function (think of a graph showing daily fluctuations in stock prices) to lie within certain limits.

 

And Three Months Are Over…

Image by Mohamed Hassan from PixabayHappy New Year! May you all have a happy, peaceful, healthy 2024!

My three-month hiatus from The Grammar Diva Blog is over. What was I doing? Where am I now? What is next?

What Was I Doing?

Please keep in mind that this blog has now been going for 13 years! Every week —  with the exception of a few times off and some guest posts — makes about 500 posts that I have written. 

I was at the end of a big self-improvement (mostly physical) program that took up about two thirds of the year. (No, I did not get a face lift!! But I did lose at least 25 pounds.)I couldn’t think of anything more to write about grammar. The posts you seem to like most are the ones with some grammar instruction. It was the holidays, and I had some family here from Canada from mid October to mid November.My darling granddaughter was in the hospital with RSV for her first birthday in early December.  She is OK now.I was reading a lot and steadily increasing my coffee intake (much of it decaf). Last spring I went off coffee completely for three months. Forget that! But now I am probably drinking too much coffee and not enough water.  It seems that all I want to do is read,drink coffee, and shop, both online (Amazon mostly) and in stores. I have become rather complacent because my books (mostly my workbook) fortunately continue to sell.

Where Am I Now?

I was hoping that my ambition would return after the first of the year, which is now.  I have some projects in mind. Maybe I have too many projects, and that is why I am stuck.I have a romance novel that I could finish. It needs more research, some additions, and some restructuring. I am ambivalent about it, so if it is not going to sell, why bother?I have been planning to write a business writing book for years. I have collected some research materials, but haven’t done any research yet. I have decided that if I do it, it will be a workbook. Workbooks are popular.I have another idea for a book that I am interested in doing. It will be require a lot of research and is about one of my other passions: music. Should I do it? I ask myself.I want to continue fooling around with the piano until I can play with a rock and roll band! I was practicing several months ago and then stopped. I need to get going on that.I used to write song lyrics (and some melodies) when I was a preteen and teen. I still have them, and I want to look at them and see if I can rework some of them and compose the music as well.I have thought that maybe I should find a way to make more money, for example, doing that online grammar course I have been thinking about for so long. Or coaching writers….or students. 

What Is Next for the Blog?

I have been thinking for a while that I am out of ideas. I have taught pretty much everything about grammar that I know over these 13 years, sometimes two or three times. I have done other types of posts as well. So I have several thoughts concerning the blog:

I have considered doing it monthly instead of weekly, so I might have an easier time coming up with ideas.I have considered getting more guest posts (I need your help!!)I have considered writing things that don’t relate so much to grammar (no politics or religion, I promise).I have considered more variety: One guest post a month, one Best Of post a month, one original grammar-related post a month, one post with links to interesting articles a month.My daughter and granddaughter got me this program called Storyworth for Christmas. You get a prompt every week, and then you write. At the end of the year, they create a book for you with all our stories. Maybe some of them will relate to things in this blog. I did the first one, and some of it would apply here. Or maybe you could give me a writing prompt, and I will write a blog post from te prompt. Maybe more posts about writing in general. Maybe more feedback from you.

So, as you see, I would love some feedback: ideas, guest posts, what you like, what you want to see, etc. Just put them in the comments. Thank you.

It’s good to be back live!