Text 143, 162 rader
Skriven 2005-06-21 08:45:18 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Ardith Hinton
Ärende: Rules...  1.
====================
How this happened; I'll launch a full investigation. I suspect the local
weather dude was commenting on another town, or district, and all I heard were
statistics about somebody else. We did not receive almost 500% of our monthly
rainfall. Perhaps, for the first eight days of the month, we scored a 500,
but... Our monthly rain totals about 400% of average as of June 19. (200.9mm
vrs. 47.9mm AHHH... Month to date! That's where 497% must have come into play.)

Anyway, Still wet as a happy fish here. The same forecaster told me yesterday,
a West district of Calgary accumulated 1500mm in a four day period ending this
Sunday. I'll wait 'til it's all over before I report any more dirt. Calgary is
under a state of emergency, with mandatory water restrictions. Our first state
of emergency ever! Kinda exciting... <G>



Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley, "Rules...  1." on 06-19-05 21:42

 AH>  Many linguists have a similar learning style....  :-)

 JB>  Please tell me you're pulling my leg.


 AH>           No... but I'm trying to avoid resorting to "psychobabble".
 AH> Would it help if I mentioned that Albert Einstein, who was
 AH> thought to be a dunce in his youth, probably did too?  It's

Resorted to psychobabble, or avoided it? <DUCK!> Turns out, Al's genesis wasn't
math or physics. He was great at imagination! 

 AH> important to distinguish between making "rules" about what
 AH> "should" happen with observing & reporting on what does
 AH> happen.  In this case I made a list, verified the
 AH> spellings, and found some more examples. Only then did I
 AH> consult Fowler, who'd collected even more examples &
 AH> organized them neatly into categories.  I'm not just
 AH> copying what some expert said.  I'm telling you that
 AH> Fowler's analysis is consistent with my own research....  :-
 AH> )

I can sleep well tonight. <G, duck and weave>

 AH>           Uh-huh.  Looking at the situation from the other side of the
 AH> desk... that's where I often felt frustrated as a teacher
 AH> too!  I'd have kids in grade eight who figured they knew
 AH> everything worth knowing about spelling & grammar, because
 AH> Miss Rule or their Dad or somebody else they worshipped
 AH> when they were in grade three had explained it *this* way.
 AH> I didn't see much alternative but to say "Now that you're
 AH> big boys & girls, you're ready to add to the concept." What

OUCH... That dagger hurt! <-:

 AH> they'd been told may have worked fairly well as long as the
 AH> material they were using had a controlled vocabulary.  It
 AH> doesn't work at secondary level... therefore I had to find
 AH> a patch which wouldn't offend anybody's sensibilities.

Like I say, I found a level playing field peachy. When a pitch is askew, and
undulates... I took advanced math classes when they were still experimenting
with them in Elementary, and the English, I suppose was continually relegated
to the back seat. I remember really trying to "get it" in grade ten. Alas, my
shining star wasn't hung on that tree.


 AH>           Language changes over time, and what's appropriate in one
 AH> particular style may not be in another... but I could say

A pitch that shifts and undulates... (I SWEAR, I'm replying to this on the
fly!)

 AH> the same about music!  I've met plenty of musical snobs.  I didn't even
 AH> realize I was interested in music when the only contacts I
 AH> had were with folks like my father... for whom it was just
 AH> another form of noise... or with those who made disparaging
 AH> comments about the error the French horn player made in the
 AH> second bar of the third movement just to prove they were
 AH> aware of such things where the peasantry (like me) weren't.

L... Our premium music venue, has delay issues, SPECIFICALLY at the French
horn's range, and especially, because they fire rearward. All the analysis, and
harmonics matched the math, but that range shifts its timing off. It's funny,
if a travelling band shows up with a tenor sax, it takes a few songs for him to
get in step with the bass/alto. Poor folks. I can imagine the debriefing.

Because it's a well known anomaly, I'm sure there's sign on the French
horn/Tenor saxes dressing room door. <Giggle>

 AH> What aroused my interest was the piano version of PICTURES
 AH> AT AN EXHIBITION... it was unlike anything I'd heard
 AH> before.  Later, when I had learned more about music
 AH> history, I understood that it was written during a time
 AH> when the Russian composers didn't really understand
 AH> European conventions.  Okay... it's program music.  But
 AH> Moussorgsky spoke to me, maybe because he was
 AH> unconventional.  :-)

Ok, we're drawing a bead on you now. <ROTF> 

I guess Rach, and Stravinsky can still float my boat. I have never listened to
a massive amount orchestral music, contemporary or classic. Choir, even the
discourse stuff rocks my world as long as it's done with passion, and verve.
Sans the stuff written so us mere mortals can follow along in church, I think
only three pieces have rubbed me the wrong was so far.

 AH>           Yes, you've got the drift!  Now... I regard this as a
 AH> generalization about a language which has grown like Topsy.
 AH>  If there are some irregularities which as yet remain
 AH> unaccounted for, please don't shoot the messenger....  ;-)

L!!! You've been following my posts on newsgroups?

Just yesterday, I told a fellow, "Technically, there *is* something wrong with
us. [RE: Chronic pain] It *is* all just in our heads. But, the head is only the
messenger. Don't shoot the messenger!"


 AH> BTW...

 AH>           I think we're on more or less the same wave length as far as

More than I'd care to admit! <Busting a gut>

 AH> "rules" are concerned.  You probably haven't seen my
 AH> diatribe about the sign at Nora's school saying "NO PICKUP
 AH> OR DROPOFF OF STUDENTS IN THIS AREA".  The sign is in the
 AH> area where the school buses pick up & drop off handicapped
 AH> students... and when we complained, we were told everybody
 AH> knows that's okay.  The taxi driver who refused to drop
 AH> Nora off there five years ago, because he assumed the sign
 AH> meant what it said, obviously didn't know.  But nothing has
 AH> changed... (sigh).

That's news to me. You'd think they could erect a handicapped zone. Heck, we
have all sorts on my residential block alone. <scratching head> I told you
about our greedy neighbours? If they can get a sign, I'm sure a school can!
Mind you, that would be an invitation for all to use it. <Sha-G>



 AH>           Did I mention that humour is a great teaching tool?  I had
 AH> some kids in learning assistance once who said "axed" in place
 AH> of "asked".  No doubt the purists would insist I was wrong
 AH> to interfere with their dialect, but I made a comparison
 AH> using "Lizzy Borden took an axe" to show them the
 AH> difference.  They found this doggerel so amusing they
 AH> recited it to everybody who would listen & it wasn't
 AH> necessary for me to say anything further about "asked"...
 AH> [chuckle].

Jimminy... You are good! Now, I'd be the kid that would start, "Lizzy Borden
looked and axed me for a date..." I wish I had the rhyme in front of me, I'd
cook something up to get a rise out-a you. <-|[


Thanks for the comic relief! <Drying eyes.>


... Do one brave thing today... Then run like hell!
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