The Games We Play

 English Class Pop Quiz: What's wrong with this sentence?
When you've paid all that money for a weeks’ vacation, you don’t want to spend two or three days recovering from jet lag.

It seems that most couples have their own private games they play. I don't mean those games. I mean the games that somehow got invented during the relationship and are unique to this particular couple. The Hillbilly and I have our own favorite pastime called Guess What Word I'm Thinking Of. The Hillbilly gives me clues, and if I can guess, I win. We play it A LOT!

Hillbilly: Do you have a bottle of that stuff?
Me: I have lots of bottles. Which bottle?
He rubs his fingers together on one hand.
Me: Lotion? Hand Sanitizer?
Hillbilly: Hand sanitizer.
I WIN!

Now understand that the game is never announced. It just begins with no warning.

Hillbilly: You know that singer from Oklahoma?
Me: Blake Shelton?
Hillbilly: Yeah. He did a duet with the gal from Missouri.
Me: Sara Evans?
Hillbilly: Yeah.
I WIN!  Now the only reason I know those two is because that's how The Hillbilly always describes them.

Hillbilly: He reminds me of the guy from that one show. The show with the cops and the lawyers.
Me: Umm...
Hillbilly: It has SVU.
Me: Umm...Oh! Law and Order!
Hillbilly: Yeah, that's it.
I WIN!    

And this:
Hillbilly: You know those little animals? They're like possums on the half shell.
 Me: ???
Hillbilly: They get run over all the time.
Me: ???
Hillbilly: ....Armadillos! That's it.
Me: ...POSSUMS ON THE HALF SHELL??
Sorry. There was no way I was winning that one.

So do you and your family play this one? What's the craziest description you ever got? I'll bet you can't beat possums on the half shell.

Pop Quiz Answer: Weeks' should be week's. We're only talking about one week and the vacation that belongs to it. If the apostrophe comes after the s, it indicates that the noun is plural. We discussed this in a previous post.

Memorize This!

Stasha over at Northwest Mommy runs a nice little weekly link-up called The Monday Listicles (It's a list. It's an article. It's a listicle!). This week's list is 10 things I've memorized.

I've memorized lots of things, some interesting, some not. Some of them were memorized when I was young, some more recently. Some of the early ones I still remember, but others I've forgotten.  Let's take a look, shall we? Well, of course we shall, or else I don't have anything to blog about this week. Here we go:

1. Countless phone numbers. Interestingly, with speed dial on our cell phones, it's been years since I've actually memorized a phone number. Like most people, I'd be lost if my cell phone died. I don't even know my daughter's phone number! What was the most recent phone number you actually memorized?

2. The address of the house I lived in until I was twelve: 313 N. Cooper Dr., Santa Ana, CA. 92703. Yes, I even remember the zip of the house we left 42 years ago!

3. Those countless little things we all memorize: addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, my ex-husband's girlfriends' names. You know. The routine stuff. 


4. When I was very little, I went to Vacation Bible School one summer. We memorized, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelation 3:20

5. We also memorized "Even the winds and the sea obey him." I didn't remember where that was located, so I looked it up. Mark 4:41

6.My high school locker combination: 10-34-4

7. This list of helping verbs: is am are was were be being been should would could may might must do does did have has had can will shall

Source

 
8. In the sixth grade we had to memorize two poems. One was 
"El Dorado" by Edgar Allan Poe. I still remember the first stanza:
          
          Gaily bedight
          A gallant knight
          In sunshine and in shadow
          Had journeyed long
          Singing a song
          In search of El Dorado

You can find the rest of the poem at this link. 


9. The second poem was "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. I still remember most of it. Let's give it a try and see how I do. I'll write it from memory and then make corrections in red.
 

Drawing by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the momeraths, outgrabe. 

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son.
The jaws that bite! The claws that snatch!
Beware the jub jub bird and shun  
The fumeous Bandersnatch." 

He took his vorple sword in hand  
Long time the manxome foe he sought
Then So rested he by the tum tum tree
And stood a while in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood
The jabberwock with eyes of flame
Came whiffling through the tulgy wood
And gurgled  burbled as he it came.

One two! One two! and through and through
His vorple sword went snicker-snack.
He left him it dead, and with his its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day!   Caloo, calay!"
He chortled in his joy. 

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the momewraths, outgrabe.
 
Except for misspelling a lot of the nonsense words, I did pretty well. You can check it out here.  What did you have to memorize for school?


10. Sometime in college I tried to memorize Shakespeare's 18th sonnet. I didn't do so well. All I ever remembered (and still remember) is this:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

It's really a beautiful sonnet. Be sure to read the whole thing.

So that's it for me. What interesting things have you memorized?

Which Came First: The Inference or the Implication?

English Class Pop Quiz: Fill in the blank with a form of the word IMPLY or INFER.

1. She had not meant for her statement to ______ that he was lying.
2.  A lot can be ______ from these statistics.
3.  The high level of radiation in the rocks ______ that they are volcanic in origin.
4.  From the evidence we can ______ that the victim knew her killer.

Answers at the bottom of the post.

 Okay, this is the part of the post where the Wicked English Teacher usually lambasts you for not having paid attention in school where you should have learned today's lesson. You can relax though because the Wicked English Teacher understands. No one gets the difference between imply and infer. Certainly not those of you who were busy making plans for decorating the windows in the downtown shops for homecoming when you were supposed to be diagramming sentences. Well, one diagram is as good as another, right? WRONG!

I know, I know. The Wicked English Teacher promised to go easy on you this time, so let's just get started. 

The words imply and infer are frequently misused in one another's place. Reasonably intelligent people in all lines of work make the same mistake. I actually had to grit my teeth through last Sunday's sermon because of it. No, Preacher. I'm sorry, but the text does not infer that. The text is not capable of inferring. Nothing you have ever read ever inferred anything at all.

Let's look at the definitions of the two words:


Imply: to suggest that something is true, without saying this directly
Infer: to form an opinion that something is probably true because of information that you have


So  first you have the speaker or writer who makes you think something without coming out and saying it. That person implies something. Then you have the listener or reader who uses the information to figure out what is being hinted at. When you figure out what is being suggested, you infer.

The giver (speaker or writer) implies.
The receiver (listener or reader) infers.

Sometimes, the "giver" is just a set of facts, such as the evidence at a crime scene. The receiver would be whoever observes the facts. Still:

The giver (set of facts) implies.
The receiver (observer) infers.

So let's look at that pop quiz together:

1. She had not meant for her statement to imply that he was lying.
2.  A lot can be inferred from these statistics.
3.  The high level of radiation in the rocks implied that they are volcanic in origin.
4.  From the evidence we can infer that the victim knew her killer.

 I hope that little lesson helps. Now go forth and sin misuse these words no more!