Thursday 15 May 2014

A Ramble Around my Brain



 A piece of pedantry

I nearly entitled this post ‘A Ramble Round my Brain’ but then I realised that GB, my pedantic brother, (possibly et al) might pick me up on whether it should be ‘round’ or ‘around’.  I settled for ‘Around’.  Views on a postcard to The Pedants’ Society, please.


Recently I stumbled across a reference on the internet to forming a Pedants' Society.  It ran thus.
    "I've realised there are enough people on here who appreciate proper English and who pay attention to detail. Send a private message to me or post here to join. If we get enough people we'll become a proper society and then we'll change the world."
    The only responses were -
"Shouldn't that be whom?"
and
    "Also, ‘we will’ would be technically more acceptable..."

In fact, there is already such a Society.  (Should that be a Capital S or as lower case s?)    In the book ‘This is Craig Brown’ by Craig Brown the title of the existing Society (ditto as above in brackets) is made clear.




It’s been a long short day
"(Lizzie said) ’You know, it's been a long short day!  Or maybe a short long day.  You know what I mean, right?  One of those days where it's a long day, but you don't get anything much done that you had wanted to get done.’  That is precisely what the day was -- a long day, with a lot done, but not the stuff you wanted. 
…  From now on, on the days when everything happens and nothing planned gets done, I'm going to remember that line.  It's a long short day.”  Messymimi

Well, yesterday was just one of those long short days.  I set out to do some gardening – it poured down.  I put a wash on; I put the washed clothes into the dryer; I dried the clothes.   Somehow that process managed to go on all day.  I made some lunch for Partner-who loves-tea. I read a bit of my Val McDermid book.   I wrote one postcard.  I read the various postcards and letters I received.  Hello, it’s bedtime. Where on earth did that day go?

So many letters and cards
I love snail mail.  There is something so exciting about hearing the postman (I’ve never seen a postwoman on our round in ten years) chuck things through the letterbox. Almost invariably nowadays there will be at least one postcard or personal letter amongst the dross of bills, adverts and the like. On a day when there is no such personal mail I feel quite let down for a while until I realise it gives me a chance to catch up on sending mail.

Yesterday was quite spectacular so far as the receipt of mail was concerned.

First of all there was a typed letter from Marcheline.  When did someone last take the time and effort to restore an antique typewriter and then type you a letter?  I loved every single word of it.  Thanks ever so much.


Then there were two cards from postcrossers – one in troubled Ukraine and one in the USA.



DawnTreader sent me another envelope full of goodies.  There was a postcard, a book of stamps with the story of Stanley Gibbons and a prodder.  OK, I know that’s not the proper name for it but I’m not sure what its correct title is. A rubber-ended-thing-that-helps-you-press-the-correct-letters-on-a-phone-or-tablet-screen.    GB gave me one last year and now I have another – that means my phone and tablet don’t have to share any more.


 A French postcrosser with whom I swap cards sent me some of Tuscany (and an ancient map of great Britain)
My Chinese student friend (or I should say one of my two Chinese student friends), Tatia, not only sent me an envelope full of cards but enclosed a  bookmark as well.  Have I ever mentioned I collect bookmarks?  I must show you some of them some time.



Well, the sun is shining and I can hear the garden calling – there’s work to do…  Bye.

18 comments:

  1. This was first posted on Wednesday. Then it disappeared. Then it reappeared this morning - Thursday. Then part of it turned blue. Does that mean it's come in from the cold?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love all your 'real' mail.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw it on my dashboard yesterday and wanted to read it, but it said "sorry, but this page does not exist" (or something along those lines). Now the post is back, but yes, some of it is blue. Maybe you could warm it up in the dryer.

    That prodder-thingy is sometimes called a stylus. At least that's what the manufacturers of tablet computers and other handheld devices called it when I was still selling the stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Meike, I knew it must have a proper name!

      Delete
  4. Me? Pedantic? Surely you have the wrong fellow in mind. Mind you that which one might consider pedantry another might simply consider a means to being more easily understood without dubiety.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a pity Blog comments don't have a 'Like' button as Facebook ones do. This would be a double click on that button for me!

      Delete
    2. On second thoughts, to be pedantic, double clicking would take it to 'Like' and then back to 'Unlike' so I really mean single click...

      Delete
    3. A 'Like' button is something about which I have thought. I actually researched it and tried to implement that which I found. As you can see if you look at my blogs I was unsuccessful.

      Delete
  5. My sister bought me a 'prodder' and it's exactly like yours only it's blue. I would surely like to know why your blog doesn't show up on my blog reading list regularly -- or at least when it is posted. This is the first I've seen in more than a month.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad the sun is shining there too. It was hot here yesterday, and promises to be the same today. Gardening for me too I think, xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Now there it is again. I read it on feedly on my phone yesterday morning, then when I tried to go back later on the computer to comment, it had disappeared. I thought you had rescheduled it yourself. Weird. I see that while it was away it has also managed to double the image of 'my' things. (They are of course Your things now.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not going to try to take one of those photos off - who knows what might happen to the whole post if I do...

      Delete
  8. ,,, and I really like that quote about a long short day (or short long one). I seem to have a lot of those!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't worry about proper English as much as I should. But I do love good snail mail and it is short supply now. I once went to an excellent art show that was collage all done with mail.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You? Pedantic? Never! Erudite? Interesting? Absolutely!

    I share your passion for snail mail. And I love Marcheline's "new" typewriter and have been enjoying reading about her adventures cleaning it up and getting it "running" again. In fact, she made me want to rush right out and buy a typewriter! Who knows, maybe I will. I do have one, circa 1925 that belonged to my father, but it needs a new ribbon and so far, I haven't been able to find one. Plus, it clunks when you type, which is actually a pretty satisfying noise.

    More anon... love, Carol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know how you feel. I also can hardly stop myself from looking on Ebay to see what sort of price typewriters fetch nowadays. The thud as the key goes down, the ding at the end of the line, the satisfying clunk as you send the carriage back to the start....

      Delete
  11. Those long short days can be quite annoying sometimes....but come in quite handy for accomplishing things on the To Do List that are far far down on the list.
    Loved that photo....makes you look like a close cousin of John Lennon.

    ReplyDelete

Hello - thanks for dropping by to leave a comment. Your comments are much appreciated even if I don't always reply. They will appear as soon as they have been moderated.

Blog Archive