The Crazy Language We Speak - No Wondered We All Struggle

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted.
But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?

One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends, but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?



Anita www.anitaphilmar.com

Can You Get UP? so Many Meanings

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,

for now my time is UP,

so........it is time to shut UP!

I know this has been seen before but I find it fun to read,

Anita
www.anitaphilmar.com

Playing in the Writer's Sandbox by @AnitaPhilmar

Why don't we fill out the form and see what we get?

1. Character

a. Who is this scene about? Anita, a beautiful single woman, who is turning thirty

b. What is the relationship of the characters in the scene? Anita starts the scene alone on the beach

c. What is the emotional impact to the character? She's come on vacation alone to discover herself and decide what she wants out of life. She has a great career as an interior decorator but hasn't had time for herself, not with growing her business.

d. What does the character want? (Long-term and short-term goals)
Long-term she wants to grow her business but have the ability to take more time off to enjoy her family and friends.

Short-term to relax and enjoy a beautiful beach and paradise.


e. What are the obstacles in the way? She only wants to read her book and enjoy the sun - so there is no way she is open to meeting someone new.

2. Setting

a. What season is it? (Time, day, year, past, future) middle of the week on a quiet beach
October, 2011
b. Description of the place (house, boat, office, city, country)
a seaside resort with plenty of water, sun and sand.

c. Special items (gun, knive, pills, items needed for the plot)

cherries, a better than sex drink and suntan lotion


d. Senses (see, hear, smell, taste, feel)
hear the waves crashing on the shore, smell the salty sea air, taste the tart juice flavor of cherries, feel totally relax, until the man Anita least wanted to see, shows up

3. Event

a. What’s happen in the scene to drive the plot forward? Someone has to interrupt this lady

b. What does the reader learn for this scene? that the world is much smaller than we would like to believe.

c. What are the characters doing? (the physical action or character movement) Anita is lying on a towel enjoying the sun and her book.

d. How does the event occurring affect the character?

When who should stumble over her but the guy she had a crush on in high-school? Exiled from his job for a few weeks, Darren is happy to lie on the beach beside Anita and sleep off his drunken stupor.

Anita is thrown from her comfort zone into the past, the awkward adolescent years.

So what do you think will happen next. Feel free to share.

Anita Philmar