My Prior Point Was…
The prior post/story/events all happened, because I was trying to use Adobe Express to create a new, post-able image for Instagram. I have a little bit of drawing ability, but I'm not overly artistic or creative in the ways I wish I were, so I looked around at templates to help. I’m especially untalented with colors. My drawings are always black and white – or just drawn with regular pencils. If I attempt to add color, I ruin the images. So I went looking for something with some pop, as they say.
I came up with this:
It's a little insane, and it’s not very me, but I do kinda like it. And I enjoyed the process of making it – except when one minor adjustment would send all the pieces into disarray, a skill I needed to master in order to not scream…. 😅
The advantage of making these is two-fold: they give me art to post on Instagram/Threads (and perhaps elsewhere), and they are fun creative outlets. I'll post the next one, which looks a bit less flier-like and a lot more insane, in a few days.
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i Took a ‘flier’
When I was trying to make graphics (a logo, etc.) for this site, I added Adobe Express to my Adobe (“Creative Cloud”) account. There’s a month-long free trial, so I took advantage of that.
Adobe Express has templates for all kinds of images – business cards, logos, newsletters, fliers, standard graphics, and others I can’t think of right now. They can be used wholly or partially to make needed images. It's really finicky, but a lot of fun to play with.
A few days ago, I was looking for something I could work with and then post to Instagram. I started thinking about fliers (rather than more of the lifeless images I had been posting), and that got me thinking about the word “flier” (USA; “Flyer” outside of the United States).
This caused a long detour where I had to figure out how to get a new library card via the Internet (rather than flying to America and walking into an actual library) so that I could create a free Oxford English Dictionary account. (Without a free account, the OED is painfully expensive!) It took a long time, but it worked. And here’s what I found:
fli·er [FLY-er] (I'm American....)
Origin: 1874-1889; presumably derived from fly + -er
noun
A handbill, fly-sheet; single-page document, typically (if not always) an advertisement.
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I thought fliers (office-paper-size advertisements, typically) got their name because, if thrown, they’d be carried by the wind – ie, they’d fly away. But the word may come from printing: pages were (maybe still are) moved via the metal fingers of printing machines, which push the pages forward – called flyer-fingers.
Regardless of its origin, the word seems to have come directly from fly-sheet, the name for those irritating advertisements that fly out of magazines or newspapers. Similar to these stupid things (which I’ve only ever heard called “subscription cards”, but perhaps these are more specific, and more modern):
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It’s Blue for a Change
The orange started to seem really intense. I’ll go back to it, because I love orange, I just needed a cooler, calmer color, for a break. 😅 Plus, I needed some motivation to do a couple things. Messing with this site’s design helped with that.
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‘May’ Oui
Someone wondered about the difference between “can” and “may”, so I replied with this:
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"May" refers to permission.
You may borrow my laptop, sure. It’s fine with me.
You may not borrow US$1,000,000 from me, because I don't have that much money.
“Can” is related to ability.
You can hold a conversation in your native language. – you’re a native speaker, after all.
You cannot fly to the Moon. (Probably….)
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"Can" and "may" are often confused, even by native English speakers. But if you remember that "may" = permission, and "can" = ability, it will help you avoid making this mistake. (If either of them could be used logically, choose the one that makes more sense.)
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A popular correction/joke made by teachers (and hated by students) goes like this: If a student needs to use the restroom and asks, "Can I use the restroom?", the teacher will respond, "I dunno – can you?"
The grammatically correct question the student wants to ask is, "May I use the restroom?" – the student wants permission to leave the classroom. However, by using "can", the student is asking the teacher if he or she (the student) is physically able to use the restroom. (Basically the student is asking: "Do I know how to use the restroom?")
"Can I have some of your chocolate?" has the same problem. Sure, you're able to. You just pick it up and eat it. We do this all the time, at every meal. It’s easy; we don't even need help. But the question should be: "May I have some of your chocolate?"
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Or you can say nothing and just take the chocolate....
終
Get Back
Also from my Dad, years ago:
I learned today that the word "retaliation" equates more with "vengeance" whereas "retribution" equates more with "justice" — I had thought "retaliation" and "retribution" meant the same1.
Here are facts:
re·ta·li·a·tion [re-tal-ee-AY-shun]
Origin: 1575–85; retaliate (again, of a similar kind) + -ion (an instance of this)
noun
the act of retaliating; return of like for like; reprisal.
And:
re·tri·bu·tion [re-trih-BYOO-shun]
Origin: 1350-1400; retribūt (restore, give back) + -ion (an instance of this)
noun
- requital according to merits or deserts, especially for evil.
- something given or inflicted in such requital.
- Theology: the distribution of rewards and punishments in a future life.
Me again: This is a fascinating nuance. If asked to explain it, I would've said "retaliation" was more immediate, "retribution" more intense. But that otherwise they were basically interchangeable.
A loud Word
Searching for some things to blog about, I looked back at some e-mails to and from my dad. This isn't the happiest way to spend time, but it’s moving to hear his voice again, to read his writing. I miss him. Anyway, this is from an e-mail he sent many years ago about a word he discovered late one night:
ster·to·rous [STUR-ter-uhs]
Origin: 1795–1805; stertere (to snore) + -ous (much)
adjective
Especially of breathing: sounding like snoring, heavy
Related forms:
adverb: stertorously
noun: stertorousness
Pugs breathe stertorously. And so did Tony Soprano. This isn't a word anyone needs (except maybe doctors). But it’s a fun word to know and probably never use….
this is also cool
I found this here, but I'm not sure where it's originally from. I pasted the text in this blog to make it easier to read. And I changed a couple examples for clarity.
Punctating dialogue
"This is a sentence."
"This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end," she said.
"This," he said, "is a sentence split by a dialogue tag."
"This is a sentence," she said. "This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized."
"This is a sentence followed by an action." He sat down. "They are separate sentences because he did not speak by sitting."
She said, "Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning."
"Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote," he said.
"Unless there is a question mark?" she asked.
"Or an exclamation point!" he answered. "The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it's not truly the end of the sentence."“Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations."
"Hey!" she shouted, "Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations." However, if it's not dialogue exclamation points can also be "outside"!
“Does this apply to question marks too?" he asked.
If it's not dialogue, can question marks be "outside"? (Yes, they can.)“This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express–"
"–Interruption" — but there are situations where dashes may be outside.“My teacher said, 'Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue."
"Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker," he said.
"The readers will know it's someone else speaking."“If it's the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
"This shows it's the same character continuing to speak."終
Hidden meaning
I've always loved dictionaries. When I was young I would read them both for fun (hobby) and to waste time (pasttime). As I said before, words are cool little time-capsules, meaning one thing to one people, and sometimes evolving to fit new needs as the years and circumstances pass.
Each time I look up a word (for any reason – to check its meaning or to confirm its spelling), I mark it somehow. With a physical dictionary, I add a dot or a star next to the word. With dictionary apps, I use whatever feature is allowed. I do this for future-me, marking where I've been and, sometimes, admonishing myself for not having remembered or learned.
A couple/few weeks ago, I looked up "camouflage", a word I can never remember the proper spelling of. (Does the U come after the O? After the A? There is a U, right? Where does it live? Dammit! – Every time.) Tired of looking it up maybe once per year, I hoped to find something my brain could connect to in the word's history, its etymology. Something that would help me remember how to spell the stupid thing.
I didn't find it (I had to check again while writing this post), but I did find something almost beautiful in its history.
First, if you don't know, this kind of thing is camouflage:
It's typically a pattern that makes something more difficult to see from far away. It's often used by militaries to protect their members, who wear clothing designed like that (clothes they call "camos") or to protect war-making equipment, like tanks. (The poeple are "personnel"; the fighting equipment is called "matériel" – like "camouflage", another cool word that comes to English from French.)
You can use it metaphorically, to mean "to hide or obscure something", but generally the word is used to mean things patterned like the image above. And, spelled the same, it can be a verb, meaning "to hide/conceal something by using patterns like those above".
But here's the part I loved: camouflage may have come (in part) from the French word "camouflet", which is (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) a "whiff of smoke in the face".
Smoke blown into a face – which, if it happened to you, would prevent you from seeing clearly, just as camouflage does.
Patterns or smoke, the effect is the same: details fade, things are hidden, advantages are lost.
Members’ area
This morning, I added a members’ area, where you can find a couple nice benefits. Over time, I’ll add more as I think of them. Feel free to recommend ideas, if you have any in mind.
A link to the member’s area will be sent to new members as they join – so join!
