Subjunctive
God save the queen. We are surrounded by uses left over in our language of the subjunctive that was once a large component of our grammar. Yet no one seems to know we have an archaic subjunctive left to us nor that it was ever a part of our language. How is this? How do [...]
Quote Of The Day
Many big people were chasing me. I didn’t know what to do. So I thought I would surprise them and throw it. Garo Yepremian, Miami placekicker, after a disastrous attempt to throw a pass in the Super Bowl. This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. I’ve taken it from Paul Graham’s [...]
Auditions, Complexity, Homes
It’s now official: I’m trying out for Marigold. If, after the audition, they want to take me and I decide that I want to join, I’m going to have leave Spain indefinitely. I’ll move back in with my parents in New Jersey. It’s partly a wonderful situation. It’s partly an awful situation. There’s no doubt [...]
Built Up
It’s funny: a new thing starts and there’s no one interested in it. After a few years, it’s built itself a fanbase and new things like it start off with a pre-built fanbase requiring no effort. Christian rock is a perfect example. Strongarm went nowhere despite being the best metalcore of all time. Now Tooth [...]
The Best Of All Possible Worlds
Who can call this world fundamentally good? Who can say this is the best of all possible worlds? For an intelligent man to say such things seems to me only the absence of conscience — no more and no less. For seeing our world’s many evils, I cannot but feel that anyone with a functional [...]
What Is A Christian?
What is a Christian? Probabilitistically, a person who has never read the Bible. Quite possibly, a person who has only scorn for the ideas contained within it. Indeed, the term “Christian” in America reduces to no more than a word used to state, politely and without danger of ostracism, that one believes in the existence [...]
Ignite
Ironically, I think listening to the new With Honor album has increased my appreciation for Ignite. When I was younger, I wasn’t very interested in them, but lately I’ve been listening to A Place Called Home a whole lot. It’s got some great moments. Sixteen years old and live at home. In front your friends [...]
Punctuation’s Purpose
Punctuation serves but two purposes: to make clear one’s meaning where there could be multiple interpretations and to indicate timing and intonation to the reader. (The latter, of course, demands that we bear in mind that the written word is meant to be an embodiment of the spoken word and not wholly removed from it.) [...]
Don’t You Want Stability?
A: “Don’t you want stability?” B: “For what? I have neither children nor a wife. For them, a man should want stability — as maintaining a relationship and raising children requires it in some degree. The calm and constancy of a family life is stability at its best: a suit of armor that protects — [...]
Pretentious Language
The error most properly called pretentious language is inconsistency of tone and diction. In writing with this fault, the register of one’s words changes suddenly and randomly because archaic and intellectual words and syntax are mixed haphazardly and without plan with modern and colloquial words and syntax. The result is like jumping octaves mid-melody — [...]