Thursday, February 09, 2006
Veyron Joke, as (impliedly) promised
In my recent post on the Bugatti Veyron, my closing thought, I observed, reminded me of one of those few jokes that I always remember. When I lived with the Enas family, the kids loved to ask me for a joke, and I’m sure I told this one at least a couple times :) So anyway: What was the first thing that went through the mosquito’s mind when he hit the windshield? Can you guess? His rear end, of course.
ofTen??
In a recent post, a friend of ours asked her readers to submit lists of “top fives” (see Catherine’s Feb. 4 post). One such list was of pet peeves. I will admit that, though this probably makes me a geek (or nerd, or something – I always get them confused) a number of my pet peeves have to do with grammar and pronunciation. For example, misuse of I and me – especially the use of I as a direct object (it should be, “she gave Alaina and me some candy,” not “she gave Alaina and I some candy” – just like you wouldn’t say “she gave I some candy”).
But the one about which I set out to write – when people say often and pronounce the t. It just shouldn’t happen. How do you say “soften,” or “listen”? I’ve never heard anyone pronounce the t in those words. I learned this from Gary S. several years ago, but didn’t know the why behind it until recently, when I discovered the following usage note on Dictionary.com:
Usage Note: During the 15th century English experienced a widespread loss of certain consonant sounds within consonant clusters, as the (d) in handsome and handkerchief, the (p) in consumption and raspberry, and the (t) in chestnut and often. In this way the consonant clusters were simplified and made easier to articulate. With the rise of public education and literacy and, consequently, people's awareness of spelling in the 19th century, sounds that had become silent sometimes were restored, as is the case with the t in often, which is now frequently pronounced. In other similar words, such as soften and listen, the t generally remains silent.
I concede that this gives some support for the proposition that pronouncing the t in often is now becoming more frequent. Nevertheless, I agree with Gary that it should not be, just as you would not pronounce it in chestnut, listen, or soften. So I wonder, are there other similar words where it is not pronounced?
Finally, a word to those of you reading this who practice these pet peeves of mine: as far as your grammar around me goes, don’t change a thing for my benefit :) I don’t want you walking on pins and needles around me, and certainly don’t want you to avoid me because of a foolish pet peeve on my part! Furthermore, I’m not perfect, and make similar mistakes myself, so am in no position to judge!
But the one about which I set out to write – when people say often and pronounce the t. It just shouldn’t happen. How do you say “soften,” or “listen”? I’ve never heard anyone pronounce the t in those words. I learned this from Gary S. several years ago, but didn’t know the why behind it until recently, when I discovered the following usage note on Dictionary.com:
Usage Note: During the 15th century English experienced a widespread loss of certain consonant sounds within consonant clusters, as the (d) in handsome and handkerchief, the (p) in consumption and raspberry, and the (t) in chestnut and often. In this way the consonant clusters were simplified and made easier to articulate. With the rise of public education and literacy and, consequently, people's awareness of spelling in the 19th century, sounds that had become silent sometimes were restored, as is the case with the t in often, which is now frequently pronounced. In other similar words, such as soften and listen, the t generally remains silent.
I concede that this gives some support for the proposition that pronouncing the t in often is now becoming more frequent. Nevertheless, I agree with Gary that it should not be, just as you would not pronounce it in chestnut, listen, or soften. So I wonder, are there other similar words where it is not pronounced?
Finally, a word to those of you reading this who practice these pet peeves of mine: as far as your grammar around me goes, don’t change a thing for my benefit :) I don’t want you walking on pins and needles around me, and certainly don’t want you to avoid me because of a foolish pet peeve on my part! Furthermore, I’m not perfect, and make similar mistakes myself, so am in no position to judge!
Classical School of the Medes
A few days ago I was checking out George Grant’s blogs, one of my favorite blogs (I love the fascinating and often unknown stories from history he recounts, and often applies to our situation today). Anyway, I was intrigued by one of his links – to the Classical School of the Medes. What in the world (as well as, where in the world) is that, I wondered. So I checked it out. So should you. As I have learned from Michael Yon’s online magazine, as well as from other sources, I know that many good things are happening in Iraq, but these schools are one of the most encouraging things about which I have heard. So much of what is happening, while urgent and important, relates to the here-and-now, helping make life a) possible and b) easier now. These schools, it seems to me, should really help make a difference in the long term.
One of the exciting aspects of the program is that you can help support one of the children in the schools. That’s something we can do to actually help make a tangible difference, both now and in the long term.
One of the exciting aspects of the program is that you can help support one of the children in the schools. That’s something we can do to actually help make a tangible difference, both now and in the long term.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
You Know It's Been a Long Week When...
Last night I was driving home from work about 9:45 and calculating in my head my hours for the week. I figured I had worked about 13 or so yesterday, and was trying to determine whether I had worked 10.5 on Monday and 11.8 on Tuesday or vice versa. I was about three or four miles down the road before I realized, wait – this is Tuesday, so obviously there was only one work day prior to the one I had worked yesterday, not two. That took me a while to figure out . . . Needless to say, I feel like I have been working a lot. It’s great for my billable hours, but not good at all for the home improvement projects started this last weekend. And, judging by the paucity of my posts recently, it hasn’t been good for blogging. I think this will be my first post before midnight in quite some time! :)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Weekend Projects
Have you ever gotten into a project that seemed like a great idea, only to find it’s a bit more complicated than you thought? Andrew and I are re-doing our bathroom. I planned to paint over the weekend and we did it together, which was great. We love the color, but we didn’t love the carpet on the floor. We decided on Saturday to take out the carpet and place tile…ourselves. We made a couple of calls and it really didn’t sound complicated, so we headed to the tile store. We forgot our paint chip (of course!) and so only had the paint that was still on my hands. After checking out lots of tile and finding that our favorite options were $6-9/sq. ft., we opted for a much less expensive but nice tile. The man at the counter asked us about the tools we would need and as we responded with a negative to just about every single tool, he added it to our bill. Yeah, the project ended up being a bit more than we originally thought…also typical of last minute projects. :) We went home and pulled up the carpet and pad, removed the staples, nails etc., and thought we would be able to do more. Not so. Andrew realized that the floor isn’t quite level. So now, we are trying to determine how serious this is. I think he’s got a plan. :) So, we have a ripped up bathroom with beautiful paint and a bedroom with all of the bathroom stuff in it. I love weekend projects! :) Now which weekend will it be done?
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Highly Recommended Link . . .
I’ll quickly add one more thought before calling it a night. You all should definitely check out Michael Yon’s online magazine (there is also a link under “Andrew’s Favorites”). Mr. Yon is embedded with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (commonly known as the “Deuce Four”). He is a first-rate author and photographer. While so much of the news coming out of Iraq is politicized and, most often, bad, he tells it like it is, and often it is good news that he reports (and he’s certain we’re winning, despite the terrible costs he witnesses first-hand). Mr. Yon doesn’t sugar coat his reports, so they are stark and poignant, but also very interesting and refreshing.
My New Dream Car, and Reflections Thereon
Let me see; it has been more than a week since I last wrote here, and Alaina has six or seven posts. Meanwhile, I have started and nearly completed at least four or five posts in my head, and pondered many more, but unfortunately none of them have flowed through my fingers onto this virtual page.
This is hardly the most significant post I could come up with, but with the amount of time I’ve spent mulling it the last few days, it certainly deserves some space. Somehow in recent days I came across a blurb about the new Bugatti Veyron. From the first picture of the Veyron I saw
(see photo nearby), I was hooked. Its color scheme, and my instant fascination with it, brings to mind a 1990 or 1991 Raleigh Peak mountain bike I discovered in an ad in Bicycling Magazine and drooled over for several years. I never received / purchased the Peak. I am afraid that’s not a good omen.
Definitely intrigued by the color scheme, unusual style, and the few tidbits of information I quickly picked up, I did a little research. Here’s a quick overview from Down Under. The article says that few will make their way to Australia; that’s a shame, as it would appear that in its vast open spaces the Veyron would have some room to run . . .
I found a more entertaining and fascinatingly informational review, however, here. The test driver/author has a sense of humor as well as style, and goes into some detail about how the car was designed and developed to actually achieve the sought-after speed (400 kph!) (note especially the part about the side view mirrors acting as “spoilers”). It begins:
When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually becomes blurred. Almost like you’re trapped in an early Queen pop video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished reacting before they’re being asked to do something else. The result is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing double vision. This is not good when you’re covering 300ft a second. . . .
But once you go past 200mph it isn’t just the suspension and the tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At 100mph it’s relaxed. At 150mph it’s a breeze. But at 200mph it has sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough.
At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you aren’t even able to steer round whatever it is you can’t see because of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And that’s just mad — 252mph means that in straight and level flight this car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane.
You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And anyway it really isn’t in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.
This latter link also includes, on page 2, a link to a slide show with lots of cool shots. By surfing the net, I found this awesome shot, which is now (at least temporarily) on my desktop both at home and at work. Have I “peaked” your interest? :)
Well, before you decide to go out, buy one, and drive it home, you might want to save your pennies for a while – a long while. You’ll need about 130,000,000 pennies, in fact. (According to this site, that would be about 40 tons of pennies. I don’t think the dealer or the realtor would accept payment that way. [Correction: That should read 400 tons of pennies. Thinking about it on my way to work this morning, I realized my calculation was off by one zero!]) As one of my co-workers commented, he can’t imagine a house this expensive. Well, he and I could imagine such a house (such as this one), but not owning it. And Alaina and I agree – if it comes down to owning a nicer home versus nicer cars, the house definitely wins (not that we’ll be moving up any time soon!).
The possibilities, however, of owning one intrigue me. Let’s say that I need to go to Atlanta next week to review some documents (I do). It’s about 533 miles from here to there. Driving normally, mapquest.com estimates it would take me eight hours and 25 minutes to get there. A flight would take about an hour and a half, but I would need to allow for at least another 45 minutes (conservatively) spent at the airports on each end, for a total of three hours. But if I were driving a Veyron, even at less than top speed of 250 mph – say 220 – I could make it in two hours and 25 minutes. That cuts six hours off the normal commute! Of course, you’d have to allow time to fill it with gas a couple times, but it’s still less than the flight/airport time. Now, don’t you think a Veyron is a great idea? If only I can persuade Alaina.
And yes, there’s other little problems, like cops with radar guns (no, I doubt they could catch me, even with a chopper, but running over stop sticks at 200 mph would not be fun). Even worse would be the terribly slow traffic. Think about it. If I were to come over the crest of a hill at 220 mph and rear-ended another hot-rod going, say, only 90 mph in the same direction, that would nevertheless be like running into a parked car while I was going 130 miles per hour. I wouldn’t have time to say, “Uuh ooh” or even “ouch.” That makes me think of a funny joke, but I don’t have time for that now.
This is hardly the most significant post I could come up with, but with the amount of time I’ve spent mulling it the last few days, it certainly deserves some space. Somehow in recent days I came across a blurb about the new Bugatti Veyron. From the first picture of the Veyron I saw
(see photo nearby), I was hooked. Its color scheme, and my instant fascination with it, brings to mind a 1990 or 1991 Raleigh Peak mountain bike I discovered in an ad in Bicycling Magazine and drooled over for several years. I never received / purchased the Peak. I am afraid that’s not a good omen.Definitely intrigued by the color scheme, unusual style, and the few tidbits of information I quickly picked up, I did a little research. Here’s a quick overview from Down Under. The article says that few will make their way to Australia; that’s a shame, as it would appear that in its vast open spaces the Veyron would have some room to run . . .
I found a more entertaining and fascinatingly informational review, however, here. The test driver/author has a sense of humor as well as style, and goes into some detail about how the car was designed and developed to actually achieve the sought-after speed (400 kph!) (note especially the part about the side view mirrors acting as “spoilers”). It begins:
When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually becomes blurred. Almost like you’re trapped in an early Queen pop video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished reacting before they’re being asked to do something else. The result is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing double vision. This is not good when you’re covering 300ft a second. . . .
But once you go past 200mph it isn’t just the suspension and the tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At 100mph it’s relaxed. At 150mph it’s a breeze. But at 200mph it has sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough.
At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you aren’t even able to steer round whatever it is you can’t see because of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And that’s just mad — 252mph means that in straight and level flight this car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane.
You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And anyway it really isn’t in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.
This latter link also includes, on page 2, a link to a slide show with lots of cool shots. By surfing the net, I found this awesome shot, which is now (at least temporarily) on my desktop both at home and at work. Have I “peaked” your interest? :)
Well, before you decide to go out, buy one, and drive it home, you might want to save your pennies for a while – a long while. You’ll need about 130,000,000 pennies, in fact. (According to this site, that would be about 40 tons of pennies. I don’t think the dealer or the realtor would accept payment that way. [Correction: That should read 400 tons of pennies. Thinking about it on my way to work this morning, I realized my calculation was off by one zero!]) As one of my co-workers commented, he can’t imagine a house this expensive. Well, he and I could imagine such a house (such as this one), but not owning it. And Alaina and I agree – if it comes down to owning a nicer home versus nicer cars, the house definitely wins (not that we’ll be moving up any time soon!).
The possibilities, however, of owning one intrigue me. Let’s say that I need to go to Atlanta next week to review some documents (I do). It’s about 533 miles from here to there. Driving normally, mapquest.com estimates it would take me eight hours and 25 minutes to get there. A flight would take about an hour and a half, but I would need to allow for at least another 45 minutes (conservatively) spent at the airports on each end, for a total of three hours. But if I were driving a Veyron, even at less than top speed of 250 mph – say 220 – I could make it in two hours and 25 minutes. That cuts six hours off the normal commute! Of course, you’d have to allow time to fill it with gas a couple times, but it’s still less than the flight/airport time. Now, don’t you think a Veyron is a great idea? If only I can persuade Alaina.
And yes, there’s other little problems, like cops with radar guns (no, I doubt they could catch me, even with a chopper, but running over stop sticks at 200 mph would not be fun). Even worse would be the terribly slow traffic. Think about it. If I were to come over the crest of a hill at 220 mph and rear-ended another hot-rod going, say, only 90 mph in the same direction, that would nevertheless be like running into a parked car while I was going 130 miles per hour. I wouldn’t have time to say, “Uuh ooh” or even “ouch.” That makes me think of a funny joke, but I don’t have time for that now.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Another Audition
Recently we enjoyed yet another American Idol audition in the office. This time someone gave us a rendition of…actually, I’m not sure what. It was quite unidentifiable. She was singing to the dentist with her new dentures. Must have been a proud moment for her. Evidently, this was the first thing she’s really ever said in the office. How exciting for her to finally feel comfortable enough with her mouth! That’s a huge part of dentistry…making people feel more confident with her mouth and smile.
Pippi
Well, today I’m going to return to the topic of our dog, Pippi. Right now, she is making happy, deep throat noises, lying on her back, and playing with a toy. Seriously, I’ve never seen a pet that loves toys so much!
Last night, I was re-organizing all of our Christmas decorations…yes, I deemed these worthy of keeping. :) Pippi (mostly wanting my full attention) tried to “help” but instead pulled out an ornament and took off with it down the stairs. I chased her down there feeling frustrated and annoyed. She was in the living room and I told her to drop it – did she obey like a good little dog? Of course not; that would be too easy and would certainly attribute too much to our skills as pet owners. Every time I got within a few feet, she would bolt. I was pretty mad by this point…she was looking straight at me and clearly knew what I was requesting. Finally, I bribed her. This is a horrible thing, I know, but I was beyond dealing with her and was afraid she was going to break the ornament. Too late for that. She dropped it in favor of the Cheerio treat and I retrieved the broken ornament.
She spent some quality time in her crate to think about her actions (yes, I had to bribe her to get in there, too). She was glad when Andrew finally came home and let her out. :) She ran upstairs and settled on my lap for a nap…yeah, I love her and can’t stay mad for long!
Last night, I was re-organizing all of our Christmas decorations…yes, I deemed these worthy of keeping. :) Pippi (mostly wanting my full attention) tried to “help” but instead pulled out an ornament and took off with it down the stairs. I chased her down there feeling frustrated and annoyed. She was in the living room and I told her to drop it – did she obey like a good little dog? Of course not; that would be too easy and would certainly attribute too much to our skills as pet owners. Every time I got within a few feet, she would bolt. I was pretty mad by this point…she was looking straight at me and clearly knew what I was requesting. Finally, I bribed her. This is a horrible thing, I know, but I was beyond dealing with her and was afraid she was going to break the ornament. Too late for that. She dropped it in favor of the Cheerio treat and I retrieved the broken ornament.
She spent some quality time in her crate to think about her actions (yes, I had to bribe her to get in there, too). She was glad when Andrew finally came home and let her out. :) She ran upstairs and settled on my lap for a nap…yeah, I love her and can’t stay mad for long!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)