Sunday, July 01, 2007

That John Denver was full of...

That felt like an eternity to me. But mostly because it was spent in central Minnesota. Far away from the pretty stuff. And now I'm in Nebraska. *sigh*

My hands are covered with pen marks and chicken scratches reminding me of the usages I've heard the last few days that might makes interesting topics. Listening to several hours of radio and Buffy I'm sure to come across some language oddities. Then throw a trip to the northwestern Midwest and a father in law that grew up in Texas but has lived in Minnesota since his twenties and there's all sorts of interesting stuff scrawled on my hand wrist arm...and receipts.

We'll start slow today with no real discussion (Tuesday is an early day--I have an appointment at 6:30am. Under most circumstances I'd just stay awake till then--but good blood pressure could make the difference between 1500 dollars and none so I need my sleep).

Rebecca Ford of Oxford University Press writes announcing a new column to be written by Ben Zimmer: From A to Zimmer. That's my kind of title.

Ben Zimmer contributes regularly to Language Log and I'm sure his column will be excellent. Here's his first contribution. Go read it.

2 comments:

  1. It's funny how right Hamlet was about the relative nature of everything: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Which is to say, it's funny how Indiana can seem like a geographically diverse place with interesting scenery compared to Nebraska.

    I've found that my blood pressure tests about 5 points lower if I can time it so that I'm exhaling (slowly) at the time the nurse stops "taking my blood pressure" -- you know, that moment when she pulls her stethoscope off and lets all the pressure out of the sleeve. But it involves a little guesswork as to when the nurse will finish...

    Good luck.

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  2. We'll see how it went. My blood pressure should have been all right because they had me lie down on a comfy comfy bed for 5 minutes before measuring.

    Oh yeah...It was today (Monday) that this all happened. I'm not sure why I was thinking Tuesday.

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