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26 July 2006
God DAMMIT!→[More:]
It's not pronounced "ON-REE" it's "ORN-REE"!
It's not pronounced "SO-GEE" it's "SHO-GEE"!
Jesus christ, you stupid people!!!
And if you eat my leftover sandwich by mistake, SAY YOU'RE SORRY!
But I see your point. I bet these people couldn't spell those words right, either. Which almost excuses their ignorance.
I love how, in Joan Baez' Christmas album, the one with Peter Schickele arrangements for baroque instruments, how in "I Wonder as I Wander," she sings, "poor or'n'ry people like you and like I...." I remember being a ten year-old, and being like, what? Me, ornery? It's Christmas!
Though I sympathize about the grating quality of certain accents, I am hesistant to discourage the use of the threatened word 'ornery'. Like 'reckon', another of my favorites, it may be endangered within a generation.
Come join me by the water cooler specklet.
I currently feel like Rorsharch at the beginning of Watchmen.
"The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the spammers and PHB's will look up and shout, ‘Save us.' And I'll look down and whisper ‘No.'"
the car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
and a dark wind blows
the government is corrupt
and we're on so many drugs
with the radio on and the curtains drawn...
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I figure "dammit" is an attempt to not blaspheme; when "God" is put in front, "damnit" should be used, as the blasphemy is already present. I have no problem with "dammit" used by itself. I should say, I have no problem with any of these usages, I just couldn't miss the opportunity to point out a possibly contentious usage in a post decrying others' usage.
Then again, I'm just a big contrary asshole, and I don't mean anything I say in any bad way, however it might seem otherwise. And I still love Specklet like a brushfire.
Hugh, I love that album. It's the only Christmas album I own, because listening to it is the only thing that truly says "Christmas" to me. My mother used to play it every year when we decorated the tree.
And "I wonder as I wander" is probably my favorite song on that album.
Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it, occhiblu? Her voice is perfect for that kind of thing (actually, I think it's her best work: I think Joan Baez' voice is better for doing madrigals and such than it is for folk). And it always amazes me that PDQ Bach did all the arrangements.
Ditto on the tree-trimming accompaniment. It's the ultimate Christmas album.
Once I left my Eddie Bauer lunch bag in the department lounge and didn't remember it was there until the next day. By then someone had stolen a falafel sandwich and a package processed cheese cracker snacks right out of the zippered bag. But they had left the apple. I got really mad and shouted "Somebody stole my sandwich and crackers but they left my apple! I HOPE THIS JERK DIES OF MALNUTRITION!" People looked at me like I was crazy.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
