odds and ends: no, really, this one is odds and ends

See the next post for why I'm doing this, but here are several half-written posts that have been sitting in my "drafts" folder for awhile now.
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Some word pairs that were going to be in a future Words on Wednesday post:
-hoard (a verb, meaning to save stuff up, usually a bit excessively) and horde (a noun meaning a group of people, usually used pejoratively to describe a mob or a dangerous, threatening group)
-prostrate (an adjective meaning lying down, prone; or a verb meaning to lie down)(which, for those of us who grew up going to too much church, immediately calls to mind "let angels prostrate fall") and prostate, which is a gland of the male reproductive system.
-seminary which is a school, usually for preparation for a career as a minister or rabbi (but not always, it is also an old-fashioned word for schools for young women) and cemetery, which is a place where people are buried.
-cavalry (a horse-mounted military unit) and Calvary (the hill where it is traditionally believed Jesus was crucified)
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I've been feeling at loose ends lately. For a long time, school was my motivator--getting papers written, making decent grades, writing that damn thesis. Then I was recovering school, and then I had those classes to prepare for. But for the past couple of months, I've been adrift. Entirely too busy doing various different things, but I felt adrift, because I was just doing whatever was next on my to-do list.

So, and I hope you will be able to laugh with me about this, when Rick Warren's uber-bestselling The Purpose-Driven Life showed up on my recommendations feed at Amazon, on a whim, I thought why not? And if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it right. So I've actually been following directions. I read a chapter every morning. I started on May 1st.

I've joined the ranks of millions--for awhile there, just about everybody in our small town was in a PDL group. I hate being part of the crowd. I'm doing it ten years later than everybody else, but still it is a cliche before I even start talking about the book.

But you know, I have to confess. Even though there were times I was so mad or conflicted about what he was saying that I had to put the book down, he asks good questions, and he makes some good points. He has inspired me to think, and of course it has also helped me wade through some further layers of Dealing With My Past. Reading it was good timing. Even when I disagreed with him--and I often did--it was still good food for thought.

I realized something while reading PDL, though. I think I am done with my obsessive reading of Evangelical books. I've been doing it off and on for years now under the guise of "dealing with my past," and it occurred to me as I was reading the last 30 or 40 pages of PDL that I'm done with that. Not dealing with my past--I don't think you ever entirely get over that--but I'm done with mining Evangelical authors to get there. I think it's time to move on to reading more progressive authors, authors who can help me look forward instead of looking back. I'll let you know what I find. (And if you have any recommendations, pass them along.)
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After a discussion with a friend, I've been thinking about spiritual boldness. I think it's under-appreciated.

Job is the best example. Job loses everything because of what is essentially a wager between God and Satan. He is outraged that the God he loves and trusts would treat him so badly. He sits upon his ash-heap and laments loudly, questioning God's fairness. Some of his friends join him, telling him all the standard platitudes about how God is bigger than we are, we can't understand God's design, we have to trust God no matter what. But Job is hurt and angry and he continues to pour out his frustration.

Eventually at the end, God appears to Job in a whirlwind. He tells Job basically the same thing his friends have been telling him--you are a human peon, you are nothing compared to God. But this time Job gets it. He experiences the hugeness of God and he finally understands. At the end, God rewards not the friends, but Job. God didn't want the platitudes, the easy answers given by the friends. God respects Job because Job was honest. He didn't pretend to say something he couldn't mean. He expressed his anger and his frustration, and he didn't turn away. He kept going until he understood, until he found answers that satisfied him down to his core, not just the glib theology. Even though the glib theology turned out to be pretty much the same thing as the real answer.

And Job isn't the only one. Time and again Moses stood before God and questioned his decisions or demanded that God act. David sinned hugely and yet in Psalm 51, he bares his heart before God and is forgiven. Peter stumbles and screws up and denies Jesus, but he is the cornerstone of the church.

It's clear God doesn't want us to go through our lives doing the right thing out of habit. God doesn't want robots. It isn't going to hurt God's feelings if we're honest and say exactly what we think.

for the love of Mike, it's Words on Wednesday

I'm working on a list of words that look like they're spelled wrong. Feel free to add to it in the comments.

tendinitis (base word is tendon)
maintenance (base word is maintain)
restaurateur (base word is restaurant)
fiery (base word is fire)
memento (which we've talked about before)
pronunciation (based on pronounce)

And then there's supersede with an 's', but precede, recede, accede, and exceed with a 'c.' Dang it.

"Sacrilegious" always gets me because it seems like it should be based on religious, but of course it's based on sacrilege, which oddly, I don't misspell.

And even though I know the i-before-e rule, I still always get weird and niece wrong. "Weird" is the exception, obviously, but the word is weird-- It should be an exception. Not sure why I can't remember that. "Niece" fits the rule, but I always have to think it out in my head when I'm typing it.

After googling around for words other people find hard to spell, I am now thoroughly confused and probably won't be able to spell words I previously didn't think about: rhythm, colonel, sergeant, acquire, daiquiri, license, maneuver, business, bureau.

Then there are the ones that are confusing because of double letters: occurrence, embarrass, accommodation, recommend, necessary, occasion. And threshold, which seems like it should have a double 'h' in the middle (thresh-hold) but doesn't.

And ophthalmologist. That one's just hopeless.

I used to be really good at spelling, but as my brain cells die off, I'm becoming more and more reliant on spell check. Hey, there's something I'm thankful for-- spell check.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the USA, and since I know at least two of you live in countries that don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I wrote a regular post for tomorrow, not the traditional (here in the U.S.) list of all the things I'm grateful for. Even though there are lots of things I'm grateful for.

Foremost among them are my two children, affectionately known here at AB3 as PellMel and MadMax, so I thought I would tell you about the origin of their blog names--not how I picked them, which is extremely boring (it's just what popped into my head when I first decided they needed blog names)--but where the phrases came from. (I didn't use PellMel until recently, but it is the original name I thought of for her.)

"pell-mell" is an adjective (or adjectival phrase?) that describes moving with great haste, or sometimes chaotic disorder. It comes from French pêle mêle, which means about the same thing as the English version. My Pell-Mel used to love to run very fast when she was a little girl. Now she runs a little slower because she is pacing herself for long distances. The chaos and disorder part of it doesn't really apply, but she definitely does brighten up any dull situation with her vibrant, friendly personality. She works very hard and she is amazingly loyal and warm-hearted.

"MadMax" comes from the name of an Australian post-apocalyptic film from 1979 that starred Mel Gibson. There were a couple of sequels, too. I've never seen any of them, so I have no idea why that name popped into my head when I was thinking of a blog name for my son. I can't even tell you whether or not the name fits, because I don't know much about the character. My MadMax is a steady, dependable guy, kind-hearted (though he wouldn't want you to know that), a bit on the cautious side, and really dedicated and conscientious when he picks a goal. Also, he makes me laugh.

And that's all for this installment of Words on Wednesday. I thought up the post title back when I was going to do a whole bunch of idioms this week, but I decided not to, and then couldn't think of a better title, so it stayed.

Words on Wednesday: Beads! Bees? Beads! Bees?

So it's B week here at AB3, and here we go. This week's tricky words:

bait/bate/abate: 
abate means to lessen, moderate, or restrain. In contemporary usage, though, you rarely see/hear it. Usually "bate" is used instead. In my own reading, the main way I've seen "abate" is in its negative form--unabated. Their enthusiasm continued unabated (they were still enthusiastic).

bate is a shortened form of abate, and has the same meaning. So, when you're worried about something, you wait with bated breath to see what happens--i.e., you're barely breathing, practically holding your breath (not baited breath. seriously.). Although various sites I checked also list "bated enthusiasm" and "bated hopes," I think "bated breath" is by far the most common use of this word.

(just in case you're interested, the earliest use recorded in the OED is in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice when it is used with breath: "With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this; / 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last; / You spurn'd me such a day; another time / You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies / I'll lend you thus much moneys'?")

bait is what you use to lure someone or something in. You bait your fishhook with worms or cheese or marshmallows (if you're eight). You bait a mousetrap with cheese or peanut butter. In suspense novels, sometimes a person will be used as bait to lure in a murderer.

bear/bare
bear when used as a noun is an animal, usually brown and furry (teddy bear, brown bear, grizzly bear), sometimes not (polar bear, panda bear). We've got this one, right? Fun fact: in the Western States, a "black bear" is usually brown. Bear is also sometimes used metaphorically to describe something that is difficult: That physics test was a bear.

bear as a verb means to endure (bear the pain), support or hold up (bearing weight), or bring/carry (we come bearing gifts). He returned from the kitchen bearing a tray of snacks. How is he bearing up under the strain? I can't bear the sight of my children in pain. We can't move that wall because it is weight-bearing.

bare, on the other hand, means uncovered, without adornment, or minimal. She only brought the bare necessities. That is the bare truth. As a verb, it means the act of uncovering: She bared her soul to her teammates. He bared his chest so they could see his scar. 

So there you go. When I was in high school, I had a college-aged friend who was also a word addict. We decided that the b-z words were our favorites: bizarre (strange or weird), byzantine (complicated, convoluted), abysmal (really, really bad), berzerk (crazy violent), bazooka (a rocket launcher, but also the best bubble gum). We really needed something to do. :-)

Have a beautiful, bodacious, breathtaking, brilliant day.

Words on Wednesday: he dived right in, or was it dove?

So here is one that has always confused me: is the past tense of dive "dove" or "dived"? Turns out either is correct. Dived has the slight advantage of being the traditional version, but according to several sites I checked, dove has been in use for more than two centuries now (probably because of comparisons with drive/drove, weave/wove), and is also considered correct. So there you go. He dove into the water, and she dived in after him. ;-) Although I suppose you probably wouldn't want to use both of them in the same sentence.

I cited some grammar sites in that paragraph, which brings us to the next tricky word combo of the week: sight/site/cite.

sight has to do with vision, seeing things. Although she hadn't seen him in years, she recognized him at first sight. The sight of the sunset on the mountains brought tears to her eyes. We sighted an owl in the trees behind the house. Don't let that toddler out of your sight. And if you live in Montana, most of the guys you know go out in the fall and sight in their guns before hunting season starts, which means they shoot at some known target (like a bale of hay) to see if the scope on their gun is accurate. Not kidding. It's a major male bonding ritual around here.

site is a locale, the physical location of something, or when referring to an internet website, it is the virtual location of something. They reached the site of the event in plenty of time. She checked the site of the wound for infection. Their client visits the construction site every day. The Smiths camp at the same campsite every year. He created a new website to increase his internet exposure. The files for this project can be downloaded from their FTP site. Welcome to the Geeks on Steroids Site!

cite is to refer to something, usually something that backs up your opinion, or gives an example of what you're talking about. He cited his mother-in-law's dementia as an example of the need for long-term care.  Eleanor cited sixteen journal articles to back up her argument.  When you are citing academic texts in a paper or article, they are known as citations. The citations page often takes more time than writing the rest of the paper. Citation can also be an official acknowledgment of something--good (a citation for service to the community) or bad (a citation for drunk driving). 

This week's weird words: (thanks to a post on Huffpo for the first two)(see? I cited the Huffpo site)(OK, shutting up now.)

sprunt (obsolete) an old Scottish word for "chasing girls around the haystacks after dark." I love this word more than I can say.

fudgel (obsolete) is a verb from the 18th century meaning "to look like you're working when really you're doing nothing." We should definitely bring this one back.

people is an amorphous blob of human beings. According to Strunk (of The Elements of Style fame), since people can't be counted (you can't have "one people"), you shouldn't use "people" with numbers. So, six persons instead of six people. That sounds a bit pretentious to me, but that's what he says. Which brings up the question: if half the crowd leaves, do you have less people or fewer people? fewer sounds right to me (which is how I make most of my grammatical decisions), but few is for things that can be counted.

Hunh. This site (site!) says exactly the opposite: according to the Grammar Curmudgeon, "people" is the plural form of "person" (one person, two people), so therefore it is correct to say "fewer people" instead of "less people," although "less people" is common enough that it is colloquially acceptable. Interesting. Fortunately, I can't even remember the last time I had to write about half the crowd leaving, so I'm ignoring this one.

And there you go. More than you wanted to know. Again.

Piqued by their teasing, she peeked up at the peak

I hesitate to post on the topic of frequently misused words, because lord knows I'm not perfect on this one. When I'm typing fast, I'm just as likely as the next person to type "their" when I mean "they're," or "lose" when I mean "loose."  I know the difference, I'm just typing fast and not really paying attention and things slip by me.

But I've read so many typos/errors/misused words recently that I'm practically in rant mode.  I read a book by a New York Times best-selling author from a major publishing house where twice in one book a character left a room in high dungeon.  The first time it made me laugh, because it's obviously a mistake and it's kind of cute (how can you leave a room in a dungeon?).  But the second time you have to at least consider the possibility that maybe they really didn't know that if you are bummed about something, you leave the room in high dudgeon.  *shakes head* *thinks gloomily about the future of western civilization*

And then there's peak, peek, and pique (spelled differently but all pronounced the same).  I've seen all three of them misused in the past couple of weeks, but at least it has mainly been in blog posts and self-pubs.  So just for the record:

peak is the apex, summit, or highest point of something.  You climb a mountain to its peak (and if you live in an outdoors area, you hear people say they are going to bag a peak). Or: Gas prices peaked at over $4 a gallon.  Or: Whitney Houston was at her peak in the 80s.

peek is to look at something briefly, or through a small opening.  You can peek in the oven to see if your muffins are done. Or a child can peek out from underneath the covers.  (which will inevitably lead to playing peek-a-boo).

pique is to enhance or stimulate--The lecture about spelunking piqued my interest in caves. Or: their constant chatter about the movie star piqued my curiosity about her movies. Or pique can be used to describe being irritated or angry.  She was piqued by the ceaseless rain.  After the insult, he stormed out in a fit of pique.

Then there's "feeling peaky" which means feeling slightly out of sorts, but not really sick.  And there's "feeling peckish," which is another thing entirely and means "hungry."

Are we clear?  Although I have to confess, I thought there were "peek-toe shoes" because your toes peek out, right?  But they're not peek-toe, they're peep-toe.  According to freedictionary.com, "peep" can mean the same thing as "peek" sometimes (other times it means to utter a soft, high-pitched sound like a baby bird).

Oh, and PRIMROSE when used as a color is a shade of YELLOW.  Seriously, people.  It sounds like it should be pink because it has "rose" in it, but it's yellow.  Look it up if you don't believe me.  In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus's treacherous friend Buck Mulligan is often associated with the color yellow, and he wears a primrose waistcoat.

This may turn into a series, but that's all for now.  What is the mis-used word that irritates you the most?  Ha--that piques you the most?

I sound disturbingly like an English teacher.