Happy 47^th Birthday Barack Obama. And happy 80^th birthday to some little old lady named Barbara Hermione Oliphant…

A comment  I left at the Anchoress’ place on a post about Pelosi and the Dems content to do nothing:

I could try to affix solar panels to my Yukon, but to get enough on the vehicle to do any good, I would be worse than one of those “wide load” vehicles. Perhaps I could turn the necessary solar panels into a wing and try to fly.

I could also try to affix a sail to the Yukon to try to harness the wind, but unlike lakes or the ocean, roads are fixed in place and I don’t think that people would like me cutting across their property because that’s where the wind took me. Buildings are also a hazard…

And at Betsy’s on a similar post – Democrats don’t care about saving the planet:

Back in the seventies, we were going to run out of oil in 20-30 years. Well it’s now the “oughts” and we’re finding more and more oil. Technology is also allowing more and more oil to be recoverable.

I have a theory. They say that oil is non-renewable, but I think it might be. Like a kidney produces urine 24/7 and is slowly filling the bladder even when the bladder is being emptied, oil may be more renewable than previously thought. After all, there’s been a lot of organic material since the dinosaurs that could be a source for the earth to produce more oil.

I’d been thinking about writing on these points and couldn’t really decide on how. So this will work.

Scallops wrapped with bacon, pan seared. Served with sauteed asparagus spears and halved grape tomatoes and a lemon Bechamel sauce.

Scallops with asparagus and grape tomatoes

click to embiggen

This was on MSNBC today:

Screen Shot MSNBC Headline - click through to story

I pray for the family of the actual victim and the real story is bizarre to say the least.

But this story sounds as though someone killed a bus and then ate its flesh.

Canada bus killer ate victim’s flesh.

We were discussing how the killer killed the bus. Did the killer chase the bus down? Did the killer note the bus’s habits and track it down? Did the killer ambush the bus?

How did the killer eat the bus’s flesh? which flesh? The steel skin? The naugahyde seats? The rubber tires?

The boys, just chillin’ on the floor.

Chillin' Nikita (dog) and Duncan (cat)

I’m wondering why some in congress are so vehemently against vouchers and school choice.

They say it’s because they don’t want to drain money from the public school system.

But they send their children to private schools.

I had a nasty thought, but I think there could be some truth in there…

They don’t want vouchers and school choice because then children who would otherwise go to public schools could be going to the very same private schools that they send their children to.

The schools they insulate their children with.

I have a little advice for John McCain.

Don’t announce your choice until the convention. If you must announce sooner than that, wait until after the Democrat Convention when Barack Obama will be forced to announce his choice.

Keep all your options open and take Obama’s choice into account.

Even though all the MSM wants to know your pick now, do not give in to them. They’ll know in a month and there is really no need to know any earlier.

Besides, even though Barack Obama is the presumptive Dem nominee, it ain’t over until the weight challenged, kind and polite woman performs her aria….

Okay, some more peeves:

Rain/Reign

Rain: falls from the sky, usually water, but near a volcano could be fire. The children played outside in the warm, gentle rain. Lyrics: “It’s raining men, hallelujah, it’s raining men, Amen.”

Reign: sovereignty, under the dominion, sway, or influence. England prospered during Queen Elizabeth the First’s reign.

Blog/Post redux

And we’re adding in comments here. Comments are not posts. They are not blogs. Comments are just that, comments. The comments are generally on the post’s topic, or as a response to another commenter.

Some comments are spam and some are from “trolls” and some are completely off topic.

But again: comments are not posts and comments are not blogs.

Affect/Effect

For this I will quote from Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (an invaluable reference that should be on every writer’s bookshelf):

In ordinary usage, affect is always a verb; it means “to influence; to have an effect on.” Effect as suggested by its use in that definition, is primarily a noun meaning “result” or “consequence”. To affect something is to have an effect on it. But as a verb, effect means “to bring about; produce.”

Accept/Except

Accept: to receive – “She accepted the offer of a job with ABC Corporation.”

Except: to exclude – “She likes all the flavors of Bertie Bott’s jelly beans except earwax.”

I have seen this misuse in a business letter. The author wanted to accept a contract item, but wrote except instead. That changed the whole tenor of the letter and was, in fact, the opposite of what he intended.

Its/It’s

This one is a little different. It’s easy to confuse them, especially since one is a possessive and the other is a contraction and both usually call for an apostrophe to be used.

The easy way to remember proper usage is to ask this question: Can I substitute “it is” and have the sentence sound right?

The company held its annual summer picnic on the first Saturday in August. It’s usually well attended and a good time is had by all.

irregardless – IS NOT A WORD!

Caring less

Often seen around the web is the phrase “I could care less.” That means that the speaker could, indeed, care less about the subject than he or she does at this moment in time. The correct phrase is “I couldn’t care less” meaning that the speaker could not care any less about the subject than he or she does at this moment in time. The speaker’s “careability” level is as low as it could possibly go.

Any more?

Did you ever play the “who is this baby?” game at work? You know, the one where everyone is supposed to bring in a baby picture and a number or letter is assigned to it and you and your coworkers are supposed to guess which baby is which coworker? There were prizes for the person who got the most correct and the person who nobody could guess. Well, the person below the fold never, ever won the “nobody can guess who I am” prize…

Continue reading →

I got the Happy Flu from James Joyner at Outside the Beltway. If you have a blog and want to see where this goes (and this is the first place you saw it) click on Spread It below and post an entry with your own new code…

There are many peeves that find manifestation amongst the inter-tubes… I have listed only a few here. Please add more in comments and we’ll get them added to the post. (updates below)

Blog  – the web log itself, at the main address. This one is musing-minds.com.

Post (noun) – an entry on the blog. The address for this one is musing-minds.com/2008/07/21/peeves/

Post (verb) – the act of publishing a post on the blog.

There/Their/They’re

There: location. The nearest Starbucks is over there.

Their: belongs to them. Sarah and Jane got their lattes at Starbucks.

They’re: A contraction of they are. They’re getting their lattes at that Starbucks over there.

Sight/Cite/Site

Sight: One of the five senses. Looking at or seeing. The witness could not testify as to the actions of the suspect once the suspect was out of sight.

Cite: to quote by way of example, authority, or proof <cites several noteworthy authors> (Merriam Webster)

Please cite your sources.

Site: a place, can be in either physical space or cyberspace. A work site. A website.

Loose/Lose

Lose: Loss. One loses a game, an election, one’s wallet.

Loose: not contained. Loose change. Someone left the barn door open and the pigs got loose.

Choose/Chose

Choose: make a choice. I choose the red one.

Chose: made a choice, past tense. I chose the purple one.

teh for the

is just annoying…

Venomous Kate says:

Your/You’re

Your: possessive. Your peeves mirror my own.

You’re: a contraction of “you” and “are”. You’re as picky as I am.