Cranky Bits - Diana Being Completely Pedantic

Snoopy

A very cross sculpture near Tourism Mackay

More beautiful flowers

Cranky again

I have been uncranky for ages, maybe I am maturing. My crankiness at the moment relates to books which clearly do not pass the eye of an editor and instead of normal speech, everyone says "I would not know", "I could not tell you".

I hadn't realised how much contractions, wouldn't, can't, shouldn't etc., make a sentence flow. Reading my present book, which is about to be dumped, I am constantly annoyed and, what is worse, I am returned to the present day when all I want is to be swept along by the book, even if it is England and it is raining.

Oddly enough

Having written the above paragraphs I realise I am totally perverse because in day-to-day conversation there are certain contractions which I consider to be an abomination. For instance that word bub, and then there is hubby, not to mention telly, brolly etc. I use the word 'cardie' on purpose as this reflects my love of Fawlty Towers.

Talk about a distraction!

There are numerous e-mails doing the rounds at the moment which show some beautiful photographs of animals, how sad then, that the text on the photographs appears to be baby talk. They would be equally amusing if correct English was concerned. Below are two examples.

Here is another one

Starting off 2010 with....

Intersectoral.

This abomination flies around government and community agency areas. It is NOT a word.

And the other one I heard just a few days ago which totally turned my stomach, spade-ready. What does this mean? Perhaps it relates to cadavers which are beginning to smell. It relates, apparently, to operations which are about to begin.

A December 2009 annoyance

During the past month Mackay's local newspaper has begun to use the word 'tasked' when referring to rescues, as in the service was tasked to attend a man who was involved in an accident etc. This terminology is new however I hope it ceases very quickly.

A phrase which has upset Diana since she went on-line almost a decade ago

And that phrase is 'Forgot Password?'

Surely it should be 'Forgotten Password?'??

In the early days of Hotmail I sent them an e-mail regarding this, not realising that the people at Hotmail would never answer.

And I still incensed whenever I walk down Peel Street in Mackay where there are two signs and both spell that word as 'accomodation'. If I remember rightly, one of the signs is fluorescent. All the better to agitate me.

Two more words which upset Diana on February 16, 2009

Two more words that I happily, so far, only find in novels which are written by people from the United States, are crib and burb. One crib was fine, it made a change for the word 'bed', or 'home', but when it appeared every thirty or so pages it became most annoying. Now I find it over and over and it jumps out at me and brings me back to reality which I don't necessarily want.

And the other word, burb, is short for suburb, in much the same way Americans say hood for neighbourhood. I fail to see what is wrong with writing the words out in full, unless, of course, writing burb and hood is cool. In which case people are overdoing it and could catch cold.

Words which upset Diana in 2008

There are two sayings which drive me to distraction. I have never spoken them aloud, I go deaf if I hear them spoken and I skip them if I find them in printed matter. They are, of course, 24/7 and 9/11.

I do wonder, on occasion, what happened on November 9th. No one has the answer.

Forgot about this one, "Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned". I don't think I have ever heard or read that one quoted correctly. Written by William Congreve in 1697 in his play, The Mourning Bride.

All that GLISTERS is not gold. The word is NOT glistens or glitters. It is glisters, a simply beautiful word and one which is under-utilised.

This is where I can write the following: ACCOMMODATION, not acommodation, not accomodation.

Where I can write "There are DRAWERS in a cupboard, a person draws, one will never find draws in a cupboard."

And after all that whinging here are some beautiful roses to cheer you up.