Letter to heathens

Dear Godless Redditors, Thank you so much for reading my post about same-sex marriage. Before last Tuesday, I didn’t even believe you existed. After a friend of mine submitted a link to my work to your group on Reddit, you visited the post in droves. I posted that item Monday night. Before I went to [...]

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Moving status update: Another letter to Dad

Dear Dad*, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is you’ll be able to see your grandsons more than once a year because we are not moving to Saudi Arabia. The bad news is that Eddie and I are divorcing (which is OK under Deut. 22:13-21 because, well …). In [...]

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Moving day approaches: A letter to my dad

Dear Dad, I hope you and Katherine are doing well. Eddie and I are fine, except we are going to have to move. Now that President Obama is “leading a war on traditional marriage,” we are investigating other countries to inhabit. (I am so glad Rush Limbaugh pointed out Obama’s transgressions to us. You know [...]

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A letter to @APStylebook

Dear AP: I don’t know if I can continue in this relationship. I trusted you, but you betrayed me with that trollop, “hopefully.” You know how I feel about that word. How could you do this to me? Your change of heart was swift — much quicker than your decisions about “email” and “website.” How [...]

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Freaks like me

About 400 people have linked, emailed, tweeted or otherwise made me aware of this cartoon: I love the cartoon, and I love that people thought (think) of me when they saw (see) it. (That’s indeed how I feel on a regular basis.) While most of my friends and family know me as the grammar guru, [...]

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Signs of the week (weak?)

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Thank you for being a friend

One of the bad aspects of Facebook is that grammar/punctuation mistakes are out there for friends to see. It’s good for a grammarian like me, though, who can use mistakes as fodder for her blog. Here are three mistakes I’ve seen too often in the past week.* “Awe” Many people write this when they mean [...]

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You might be a redneck if …

… you have a portalet on the back of your pickup. My neighbor might be a redneck. I’m not sure if I am becoming one, or am one already, but I certainly live next to some. With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, here’s my take: Your neighbor might be a redneck if … He doesn’t own [...]

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Procrastination by parasite

Procrastination takes many forms. With me, it takes the form of a dive into the information vortex. Specifically, a vortex swirling with images of bed bug-infested mattresses, STD outbreaks, Meth Mouth and bad plastic surgery. This week’s topic is (drumroll, please) Awful Parasites. (Yes, I do love the show “Monsters Inside Me.”) Here are my [...]

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Dreaming of past tense and pronunciation

The following tweet and resulting class discussion prompted today’s post: The discussion concerned the use of “dreamt.” Should he have used “dreamed” instead? Both are correct, but “dreamed” is standard American, while “dreamt” is a British thing. So #Ross can use “dreamt” without raising an eyebrow, along with “regards,” “towards,” “spilt” and “learnt.” Americans drop [...]

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