Change of Pace
March 23rd 2007 23:38
For the time being I think it’s done its dash as far as my work and the search for it goes. I’m not definitely settled in the place I’m in – I'm still called The Temp – and it’s up in the air as to whether I can stay there long-term or not, but I want to look at something different in this blog for a while.
Back in the days before the word ‘blog’ existed, I used to write what might be called a ‘pre-blog’. It was officially a column in a weekly newspaper, and I was given free rein to write on anything I fancied. That suited the editor of the time, who had a sense of humour, but not his successor, who didn’t, and who promptly dispatched me from the paper at the first opportunity. Nevertheless, I survived five and a half years, and enjoyed taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to all manner of topics.
Some of my columns can be found on one of my older sites, particularly the ones that took odd looks at the language and the way we play with it.
So I’d like to do some more play with the language, and this blog seems as good a place as any to do it.
Also on the way home from the band thing this morning, I saw a sign in the back window of a car: Say No to Didymo!
My feeling is that this could be very offensive to Didymoists, of whom there must be a few around, and to didymo itself, which no doubt, even though it’s ‘merely’ an algae, probably has feelings.
What sort of a person would a Didymoist be? Someone who cares for brown sludge? Who likes an algae that leaves trails behind it rather like the shreds of toilet paper that float to the surface if you’re toilet gets blocked? Who has a fancy for the cotton-wool feel of Didymosphenia geminata?
After all, if you look hard enough, you can always find someone who likes something that no one else likes. The world is full of perverted people – sorry, people with alternate tastes.
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Comment by bevetal
Comment by Mike Crowl
Webitz
Work Report
The article said a utility "plans to freeze its electric rates for five years, and by 2003 will allow all its customers to buy power from alternate sources." The writer almost certainly wanted "alternative," meaning providing a choice among options. "Alternate" means by turns, or every other, as in "alternate Sundays." (In a narrow sense, where substitution is involved, it can be used to denote choice of a sort, as in "alternate juror" or "Alternate Route 22.")
There you go. Now I'm all clear!