Posts by Mrs Skin
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JLM - ladybirds feed on insects that tend to get sprayed into oblivion at the first sign of their appearance - aphids, scale & the like. It may be that you've been living in areas where there's not much of a food source for them.
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Bees: Yes! I saw the first one last week & got so excited that I spent 15 minutes following it around, swiping at bumblebees in it's vicinity & yelling at them to fuck off & leave the pollen/nectar for My Precious... Saw another one today, big fat healthy-looking one too.
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Would this be an opportunity to mention the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women?
Indeed it would. Thank you, Stephen.
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It’s good grammar, therefore you should learn it, because it shows you know good grammar.
That was certainly my grandmother's perspective. But I just like good grammar. I don't think it has anything to do with showing that I know good grammar but I can't explain, even without three beers for lunch, why it feels good when I see it.
It's a bit like the difference between seeing someone wearing a well-made jacket and someone wearing one from Hallensteins. It doesn't make the slightest bit of practical difference to my life whether a person is wearing special clothes or more ordinary ones, but seeing the good jacket somehow makes my day a little sweeter. And good grammar does that to me too.
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Id be happy to see apostrophes die. Theyre a relic of grammatical forms that dont exist any more and in English at least, their raison d'etre is long gone.
When I'm listening I can distinguish between apostrophicised (that's a word, right?) singular words and plurals, but I process written and heard information differently and lack of a written apostrophe can temporarily trip me up. Perhaps that's just habit. In some cases apostrophes inform sound (Id, I'd) which can inform meaning and I think I'd find it difficult to adjust to a missing sound cue. I certainly have that trouble in textspeak. Don't know why I need a sound cue for a written word, but I do.
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The truth is that people who have learned how to use apostrophes have a vested interest in maintaining them. Its like correct grammar. Learning all those rules has to mean something doesnt it?"
I see why people feel this way, but good grammar sings to me in the same way that, say, a well-tailored suit does. Yes, really. I don't think I have a vested interest because my own grammar is fairly poor. I don't know why I can recognise it but not implement it.
Just to push things along a bit, who finds themselves compelled to use actual sentences with proper grammar and spelling when mobile texting?
The iPhone has helped me a lot in this ...I tend to write for my txt audience. My dad gets the good spelling and grammar, my friends get whatever I'm can be bothered writing, my daughter gets the ur in sooo mch trbl yng ladi.
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If you're responsible for legislation, regulation or have access to tax dollars to run this or that program, getting it right, doing exactly what you intend to do and not just chucking ideas up and hoping is why I we need precision and accuracy... which includes a fair whack of pendantry (in formal briefs which are only part of the process of course).
O god yes! As someone who has to read/interpret that legislation & apply it to real life I infinitely prefer not to find myself thinking 'wtf?'. This happens more frequently than you'd expect.
Having said that, my own punctuation is frequently over-comma'd and each attempt to learn the correct usage leads me further into confusion. Somehow I was better at it when it was purely instinctual.
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Although I think a slideshow of LOLCats in Te Reo might have something to recommend it...
How about in Russian? (With English translations).