word wednesday: homophone confusion

I was crazy embarrassed when a friend of mine expressed such disdain for people who confuse discrete and discreet. I thought for about two-and-a-half seconds whether I should just scoff with her or to honestly say that I was one of those people. So I hid my tail between my legs and asked, "...What is the difference?"

Getting [*some] homophones mixed up is excusable, especially since a lot of what we read on the internet these days mixes them up anyway. So how are we supposed to learn them correctly? [*But absolutely no one should get you're, your, their, there and they're mixed up after fourth grade.]

My friend told me about the difference between discrete and discreet:

• discrete means individually separate or distinct. For example, in my assessment class, we were learning about discrete-point test items, where a student is tested on one specific content point, like changing present-tense verbs to past tense. 
• discreet means careful and circumspect in one's speech or actions. Like I might discreetly tell a friend that she has a booger.

I went on my new favorite website Grammarist to find out about some more homophones that get confused a lot.

wont vs. want

• wont means accustomed or given or likely, like " 'Texas forever,' as Tim Riggins is wont to say."
• You guys know what want means.

ascent vs. assent

• ascent means the act of rising or an upward slope, opposite of descent.
• assent means agreement or acquiescence.

bologna vs. baloney

• bologna is a sausage.
• baloney strictly refers to nonsense or foolish talk. Even though people pronounce baloney and bologna the same, never use baloney when you're talking about sausage.

complacent vs. complaisant

•  complacent means self-satisfying, smug or contented to a fault. This is a word people might use a lot at church. o_O
• complaisant is a loan word from French which means cheerfully obliging; tending to go along with others.

Do you guys know the difference between compliment and complementary?

comic sans

The word "mandatory" doesn't seem so menacing and threatening when it's written in the Comic Sans font. And in light purple.

I've been emailing back and forth with my boss about meetings and tutoring students, but sometimes I feel like I'm writing to a pre-teen girl with the font and color she uses. I guess it's not quite as bad as a coworker I knew who didn't know the difference between then and than and stuck commas everywhere, but still! The font thing is such an easy fix! Click and click! Who looks at the Comic Sans font and thinks, "This looks professional. I think I'll let this font be the way potential clients and employees make their first impressions of me and my company."

Are there ways that coworkers you know write emails that make them seem unprofessional?

Photo source.

music monday: "freedom park" by marah

If you accumulate mp3s on your iTunes without knowing it like I do, your shuffle function is probably one of your closer friends. I came across this song that I already have the other day, and I was just blown away. Really blown away.

First it was the childhood chant "shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rock!" that served as a refrain that caught my attention. Then it was the Bruce Springsteen-like vocals and a melody and instrumentation that screamed "Americana." I liked the carefree, summertime feel...

Then I read the lyrics.

Without listening too carefully, you'd think he's reminiscing about the greatest memories from his hometown, kinda like Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" (but cooler). But if you read the lyrics, you'll see that the happy, breezy tone of the song is total irony. It's about going back to where you grew up (Philly, for these guys), and seeing "broken bottles, broken glass / $5 baggies on the ground" and revisiting "a swing set / where a little girl got shot."



(And yes, that's me - I was the one who uploaded the song onto YouTube! I couldn't find a full-length song to link to, so I made one myself! That's how much I love this song!)

I think I've stumbled into...greatness.

So whoever gave me this mp3, thank you!

basil blight

Check for mildew on your outdoor basil plants!

I heard this story on NPR the other day: Basil Downy Mildew Threatens Basil Plants. Apparently the mildew is in full force in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Ohio. But it's a "community disease" which means that it spreads fast.

Look for a yellowish tint on the top of the leaf. You'll know for sure if you've been hit by the mildew if you turn the leaf over and you see a grayish, almost purplish dusty growth. (Gross!)

Cut the leaves off immediately and carefully - you don't want the spores to fly off and get into other people's gardens. Since the rest of your plant is probably not going to last, harvest the leaves and make a pesto or a crazy huge caprese salad. Because it's over.

Speaking of basil, ours has been going strong for a few months now. But I swear that it's not growing! I feel like it's been the same height for weeks now, but Cyrus is sure that it is growing. We'll see.

music monday: lullabies

After a hectic Friday, a tiring Saturday and a wonderful but busy Sunday, I'm in the mood for a calming lullaby. Here are some of my favorites!

1. "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," by Billy Joel. This is the song I want to sing to our future child. Beautiful piano, beautiful lyrics, timeless! It's such a gorgeous and meaningful song. "Someday your child may cry and if you sing this lullaby / Then in your heart there will always be a part of me." Tear! :*)



2. "If You Can't Sleep," by She & Him. Zooey Deschanel was taking a risk with this one, and I'm glad she did. Really good vocal arrangement and simple lyrics. It makes you feel like you're sleeping on clouds!



3. "Lullaby," Jack Johnson and Matt Costa. From the very cool Curious George soundtrack. Kinda weird that he's encouraging the child to sing the lullaby to himself. But I love Jack Johnson's harmonies and echoes here.



4. "Farewell and Goodnight," by Smashing Pumpkins. This one might only appeal to Pumpkins fans and is found on their masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It's the only song I know of that features vocals of most of the former Pumpkins bandmembers. I don't know how soothing Billy Corgan's voice might be to a child... :)



Here's to a sleepy Monday.

word wednesday: mondegreen

Mondegreens are misheard versions of common phrases and expressions. An interesting tidbit: the term mondegreen is a mondegreen itself. There's a Scottish ballad that read: "the hae slain the Earl o' Moray and laid him on the green," which was misheard as "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray and Lady Mondegreen."

I can think of a few:

- A lot of people say "I could care less" when they actually mean the opposite, correct phrase: "I couldn't care less." (Wow, someone actually made a diagram for this one!)
- A staff writer at my high school newspaper hilariously wrote "took it for granite" when he meant "took it for granted."
- If you look at the internet long enough, you'll find tons of people writing "per say" when they really mean "per se" which means "by or in itself or themselves; intrinsically" (I thought it also means "necessarily")
- A line in Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" is sometimes heard "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" when it's really saying, "Hold me closer, tiny dancer."
- And you can't forget precious Sydney's Pledge of Allegiance: "I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the I don't belong to America."

Here are a couple that I don't really use but I've seen them used incorrectly all the time:

far be it for me

This is a mondegreen. The correct phrase is far be it from me, which means "I don't want to presume..."

for all intensive purposes

This is also a mondegreen. And it doesn't even make sense! The correct phrase is for all intents and purposes which, the Grammarist says, is a totally useless phrase anyway. It says that sentences work perfectly well without it. Hm! Good to know!

very, very expensive

New York is so expensive! I can't believe how much it costs just to apply to get a teaching certificate there! Here's the breakdown: 

Three certification tests: $294
Two trips to New York via BoltBus: $50
Fingerprint processing: $96
Getting my fingerprints done: $30
Certification application: $100


Grand total: $570.

Getting certified to teach in New York: NOT PRICELESS. VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE.

music monday: awesome cover songs

I didn't know what a cover song was until college because I was too young to know whether a song was an original or a remake!

I wonder how artists feel when the cover is actually better than the original. Jeffrey Gaines said in an interview that he spoke to Peter Gabriel after he heard the cover of "In Your Eyes." Peter Gabriel loved it so much that he said something like "This is how I intended the song to be. You captured it." How gracious is that??

Anyway, here are some cover songs that I think the original artists should approve of.

"Free Fallin'" originally by Tom Petty, covered by John Mayer

I love how the chorus just soars, even with his falsetto and the changed melody. The breakdown section is also awesome.



"Under Pressure" originally by David Bowie and Queen, covered by The Used/My Chemical Romance

The original version of this song totally rocks, but I like how The Used and My Chemical Romance sped it up a little and made it a little more relevant to the 00s. I also love the "ba-da-dee-da-deh!"s



"In Your Eyes" originally by Peter Gabriel, covered by Jeffrey Gaines

I mentioned this song in a previous post, but I just can't get enough of it. I love what he did with the build-up into the chorus, love his thick voice and the sound of that guitar. Mmmm.



Can you suggest any others?

i actually kinda like sports

I think I'm actually starting to care about sports. Maybe my own desire for the Celtics to win is mixed in with Cyrus's desire for them to win... Or maybe I'm associating good feelings with sports because we usually watch games with friends we love... But even aside from all that, I think something is actually happening here!

I still can't stay awake through a whole basketball game (half-time through the end of the third quarter is nap time for Ina), but I think I actually do care when the Celtics win or lose. They work so hard! And when they lose? Oh, the heartbreak! I guess you can say that about any team, but I'm following the Celtics here, okay? :)

So here are some of the things I think have helped me to like sports a little better:

- Cyrus has been patient with me. I think if he were more forceful about trying to get me to like sports, it would probably have the opposite effect.
- Cyrus tells me about the players and their different characteristics. I don't know if this was on purpose, but it brings out the drama in the game for me.
- Cyrus lets me fall asleep.
- Cyrus answers all my questions.
- I've been watching more games. In the past, I've only watched the finals/Superbowls/World Series games, so I don't know anything about what it took a team to get there. But now that I've been following some teams for a little while, they're starting to mean a little more to me.

So when Cyrus asked me if I'd be willing to watch tonight's game after a long day of errands and tutoring, I was excited to say yes!

Let's go Celtics!

word wednesday: nerve racking vs. nerve wracking

Which is correct? I thought I knew, but it turned out I'd been using the wrong one my entire life!

That doesn't beat a high schooler's misunderstanding of "took it for granted" when he wrote "took it for granite" or my very good friend's use of the abomination "kinda've," but this one's a confusing one that I had no idea about!

Apparently the correct usage is "nerve racking" according to grammarist.com, my new favorite website. One definition of rack is to torture with a rack (a Medieval torture device). So when we use the word rack in reference to the brain, it means that we're thinking so hard about something that it's like torture ("I had to rack my brain to remember...").

Similarly, when we talk about the phrasal adjective nerve-racking (I almost typed "nerve-wracking!"), we're describing something that tortures the nerves ("What a nerve-racking experience!").

FYI!

when it's time to leave the gym

Sometimes it's difficult to know how hard you should push yourself. Sometimes that decision is made for you.

Last week I was running on the treadmill, and I was doing okay at minute 16. I could go on, but I didn't really feel like it. I usually make goals for myself ("One more minute!"), and I was wondering what my new goal would be. But before I could do it, something made up my mind for me.

The sweat from the guy next to me splashed on my leg.

That's when I knew it was time to leave the gym.

Gross.