Earlier this year I read The Owl Service by Alan Garner, and I had many many thoughts about it, and I enjoyed it a huge amount even if I wasn’t sure if I got everything that was going on. I will reread it at some point. But then I was ordering books at work and […]
Tag: language
Oh happy day
Peoples, prepare for some rejoicing, for I have wonderful news. That’s right. I am giving you reason to head out and party on this slightly chilly November morning. Are you ready for this spectacular event? It really is great news. Because, you see, the word meh is all growed up and has taken its rightful […]
Royal Escape
Set after the execution of Charles I, this book tells the story of Charles II after his forces lose the Battle of Worcester[1] and he is forced to try and escape the country and go into hiding in France. To be honest there isn’t much of a plot to this book. Okay, so we have the would-be king riding about the English countryside, or sometimes walking, trying to escape. But we all know that he does, escape that is, I mean we have all heard of the Restoration[2] right? So the book is more of a character study of Charles II
There are many apostrophe’s
Yes. I know. No need to say it. I’m well aware that the plural does not take an apostrophe. But I don’t think anyone told the ad designers for Mexico’s tourist campaign as plastered across many many of Dublin’s buses is the slogan “There are many Mexico’s”. hmmmm.[1] Oh, and in case you were wondering […]
Either I’ve been missing something or nothing has been going on.
2008[1] hasn’t been so great for me and the regular blogging, has it? at least so far. All that may change, for everything changes, so some one once said, somewhere. But who knows if yo[2] was telling the truth or not. Maybe nothing changes. Maybe everything stays the same but we just can’t cope with […]
Lady in the Water
This is an odd film. A very odd film.
Ever since The Sixth Sense Shyamalan has been known as the “twist guy” for his film endings; I don’t think that is a fair description. And while you can say that Unbreakable, Signs and The Village all had twists to their endings, the twists weren’t all that important. The films were stories about people, truth, and finding out who you are. The Lady in the water continues in this vein, but at the same time it is a very different type of film. As Shyamalan has said, it is a bedtime story. A fairy tale, for children. So it is, of course, going to be more simplistic and yet at the same time it is more complicated than that.
Armed with the rules of grammar and punctuation
Sometimes you find the bestest[1] things on the interweb. You know when you correct[2] your younger siblings’ pronunciation or spelling or accent[3] And they moan about how “sure you knew what I totally meant like dude”[4] Well now you can feel totally justified, and you can go further and correct their punctuation. After all, one […]
Hand me the fucking keys, you cocksucker, what the fuck?
You’d think that I’d have enough of catalogues and that sorta stuff at work, wouldn’t you? But you’d be wrong. A while back I stumbled across Library Thing, but didn’t use it that often. But I’ve recently returned, and have been busy adding my books. Only I don’t have too many in Dublin, many, many […]
Unspeak
ISBN: 0316731005 A long time ago in China, a philosopher was asked the first thing he would do if he became ruler. The philosopher thought for a while, and then said: well, if something had to be put first, I would rectify the names for things. This is a book all about language, and how […]
How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?
When I came into work this morning there was a bio of Shane MacGowan on the desk. You know yer man from The Pogues and Fairytale of New York. Everyone’s favourite xmas song. So i figured I take a look at it. For the record it is London Irish Punk Life & Music … Shane […]
If Cruise and Katie Holmes wed, each of his wives will have been eleven years younger than the last.
Another lesson in the importance of proofreading[1] And once again this lesson is courtesy of the free newspapers available on the streets of Dublin. This time from the Metro. Because, however mental Tom Cruise may appear jumping about on couches, I doubt that he is insane enough to actually say[2] to a newspaper source, what […]
If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions
Is this, or is this not one of the worst sentences you have ever read? No, not the sentence you’ve just read, this one, here, look where I’m pointing, that I’m quoting from today’s Herald AM. The Leesides took the lead though a Colin O’Brien goal after 33 minutes before shortly into the second-half Shels […]