This is the color of Kansas in winter.
Muted brown.
Sprawled atop laced grays --
Patches of dull green.
The air slides above
The lumpy squares,
Tracing the movement of the glaciers
That tore away at the land.
They carried off the rock, the points and ridges,
To crush us.
Newspapers don't report
The wilting plots and leathery trees.
Only mad dashes
Made by those inside taped cardboard boxes,
Hiding from the winter colors,
The glacier
Spreads its way
Across the street.
This is the archived edition of a blog kept from Nov. 24, 2002, to
Feb. 29, 2004, by Clay Wirestone.
The original description: "From the overstuffed mind of writer,
editor, cartoonist and crank Clay McCuistion comes a blog full of
-- well -- stuff. And things."
Saturday, January 4, 2003
Long haul
Whew.
It's the day that never quit. I've been up since 4:30 a.m. (Not to harp on the time issue, since others doubtless get up then -- my mother, for one -- but it was tough).
I was searched at an air security checkpoint. The guard was very nice, and the lady who searched through my luggage looked at it all with kind incomprehension.
I heard a host on the Delta in-flight radio use the word "iconoclast" to mean "iconic." (This will be a style file entry very soon. Don't you worry).
Picked up the final bit and pieces of my stuff from the former roommate in Lawrence. It was good to see him, but I was with my father on possibly the longest car trip of my life or any other. No joke. We were in the car for six hours plus. This is including the five-hour plane trip. Death to commutes!
Bought a cup of coffee in Henry's, my beloved Lawrence coffeehouse. (Note: Two years ago, I wrote a piece for the University Daily Kansan about the area's coffee hot spots. Henry's won hands-down. The link goes to that article.)
Was not able to see Nathan W., one of my best friends since middle school. I may be able to see another such person tomorrow or the day after, though.
Was able to spend some sustained time at home and show my mother, father and sister an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. They were vastly amused.
And I got cool Christmas stuff. List to come.
Otherwise, I'm really, really tired.
It's the day that never quit. I've been up since 4:30 a.m. (Not to harp on the time issue, since others doubtless get up then -- my mother, for one -- but it was tough).
I was searched at an air security checkpoint. The guard was very nice, and the lady who searched through my luggage looked at it all with kind incomprehension.
I heard a host on the Delta in-flight radio use the word "iconoclast" to mean "iconic." (This will be a style file entry very soon. Don't you worry).
Picked up the final bit and pieces of my stuff from the former roommate in Lawrence. It was good to see him, but I was with my father on possibly the longest car trip of my life or any other. No joke. We were in the car for six hours plus. This is including the five-hour plane trip. Death to commutes!
Bought a cup of coffee in Henry's, my beloved Lawrence coffeehouse. (Note: Two years ago, I wrote a piece for the University Daily Kansan about the area's coffee hot spots. Henry's won hands-down. The link goes to that article.)
Was not able to see Nathan W., one of my best friends since middle school. I may be able to see another such person tomorrow or the day after, though.
Was able to spend some sustained time at home and show my mother, father and sister an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. They were vastly amused.
And I got cool Christmas stuff. List to come.
Otherwise, I'm really, really tired.
Friday, January 3, 2003
Itinerary
Tomorrow, I will rise at approximately 5 a.m. I will then travel with the significant other to the Tampa airport.
I will then fly (takeoff is approximately 6:45 a.m.) to Dallas, Texas. After switching planes, I will fly into Wichita, Kansas. I'll meet my father there, then drive to Lawrence, Kansas.
In Lawrence, I'll retrieve several boxes of my college belongings from my former roommate. The parental unit and myself will then return home to the family compound in El Dorado, Kansas.
Whew. At which point I will begin to interact with siblings, parents and pets. Whoo hoo. Itenary
I will then fly (takeoff is approximately 6:45 a.m.) to Dallas, Texas. After switching planes, I will fly into Wichita, Kansas. I'll meet my father there, then drive to Lawrence, Kansas.
In Lawrence, I'll retrieve several boxes of my college belongings from my former roommate. The parental unit and myself will then return home to the family compound in El Dorado, Kansas.
Whew. At which point I will begin to interact with siblings, parents and pets. Whoo hoo. Itenary
Cut-up
A piece made from random phrases from The Professor and the Madman.
Biographical Notes
Assembled by yours truly, from Simon Winchester's text.
The great librarian for the next century-and-a-half was engaged with the Celtic, and am at present engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian.
Heaven had ordained their creation, each word, offering its biography, as it were. It is important to know just when a word was born , the simple fact that they had been sent to him in the first place.
For a while, at least, he seemed truly happier. Had anyone chosen to ponder further, he or she might have wondered at the strange symmetry.
The truth, however, turns out to be the first lines of a brief penciled note that lurks anonymously among the scores of papers that measure out the trivial details of the life.
But Dr. Brawyn said no.
It was those naked village girls Minor remembered most. The volunteer's duties were simple enough. The normal practice was almost certainly followed in his case.
A most splendid thing indeed, in Victorian London.
Biographical Notes
Assembled by yours truly, from Simon Winchester's text.
The great librarian for the next century-and-a-half was engaged with the Celtic, and am at present engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian.
Heaven had ordained their creation, each word, offering its biography, as it were. It is important to know just when a word was born , the simple fact that they had been sent to him in the first place.
For a while, at least, he seemed truly happier. Had anyone chosen to ponder further, he or she might have wondered at the strange symmetry.
The truth, however, turns out to be the first lines of a brief penciled note that lurks anonymously among the scores of papers that measure out the trivial details of the life.
But Dr. Brawyn said no.
It was those naked village girls Minor remembered most. The volunteer's duties were simple enough. The normal practice was almost certainly followed in his case.
A most splendid thing indeed, in Victorian London.
Thursday, January 2, 2003
What's the deal?
I had no idea there were so many varieties of Triscuits, In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "What's the deal?"
I saw reduced fat Triscuits, low sodium Triscuits, garlic flavored Triscuits, garden herb Triscuits, parsley rosemary and thyme Triscuits...
Who needs all of those Triscuits? They're woven crackers. That's it.
I saw reduced fat Triscuits, low sodium Triscuits, garlic flavored Triscuits, garden herb Triscuits, parsley rosemary and thyme Triscuits...
Who needs all of those Triscuits? They're woven crackers. That's it.
Wednesday, January 1, 2003
On quotes
With that out of the way, on to important matters. From the mind of a twentysomething copy editor, straight to you, it's time for:
Style File -- Quotes
Words such as:
Gonna
Shoulda
Gotta
Should be changed to:
Going to
Should have
Got to
In quoted material. In these cases, people people are speaking in a contracted way, often without knowing it. People don't mean to say "gonna" or "gotta" in sentences such as:
"I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind. I gotta do it!"
The copy editor's job isn't to reproduce every person's dialect. I hope that's obvious. If text truly duplicated what people sounded like, it would be difficult to read -- and ludicrous, to boot.
But here comes the tricky part.
What about a work like "ain't"? Take the example:
"I ain't gonna stop doin' dat, even if ya axe me."
How would you revise that? Here's what I would do (provided the reporter decided the entire quote should be included).
"I ain't going to stop doing that, even if you ask me."
Awkward, I know. But "ain't" is a deliberate word choice, and a recognized slangy way of saying "am not" (which has no contracted form anyway).
"I ain't going to stop" is intrinsically better and more honest than "I am not going to stop," which is correcting the speech to the point that the quotation marks should be taken off.
A newspaper shouldn't go out of its way to make people look dumb. It's not as though most writers and editors are smarter.
But sources have to choose their own words. If they say:
"I'm not gonna do nothing"
We shouldn't fix that double negative, or contraction. Those are choices the speaker made in expressing herself.
"I am not going to do anything." No.
Instead: "I'm not going to do nothing."
There's a fine distinction here. One that risks making us look ridiculous. But we also risk making out sources look ridiculous, if they all speak like English aristocrats. We must report the truth, as accurately as we can.
It's crucial.
Style File -- Quotes
Words such as:
Gonna
Shoulda
Gotta
Should be changed to:
Going to
Should have
Got to
In quoted material. In these cases, people people are speaking in a contracted way, often without knowing it. People don't mean to say "gonna" or "gotta" in sentences such as:
"I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind. I gotta do it!"
The copy editor's job isn't to reproduce every person's dialect. I hope that's obvious. If text truly duplicated what people sounded like, it would be difficult to read -- and ludicrous, to boot.
But here comes the tricky part.
What about a work like "ain't"? Take the example:
"I ain't gonna stop doin' dat, even if ya axe me."
How would you revise that? Here's what I would do (provided the reporter decided the entire quote should be included).
"I ain't going to stop doing that, even if you ask me."
Awkward, I know. But "ain't" is a deliberate word choice, and a recognized slangy way of saying "am not" (which has no contracted form anyway).
"I ain't going to stop" is intrinsically better and more honest than "I am not going to stop," which is correcting the speech to the point that the quotation marks should be taken off.
A newspaper shouldn't go out of its way to make people look dumb. It's not as though most writers and editors are smarter.
But sources have to choose their own words. If they say:
"I'm not gonna do nothing"
We shouldn't fix that double negative, or contraction. Those are choices the speaker made in expressing herself.
"I am not going to do anything." No.
Instead: "I'm not going to do nothing."
There's a fine distinction here. One that risks making us look ridiculous. But we also risk making out sources look ridiculous, if they all speak like English aristocrats. We must report the truth, as accurately as we can.
It's crucial.
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