Caring Less

I usually don't make a habit of correcting other people's grammar ...I get really miffed when someone presumes to correct me.

HOWEVER!!!!

People are always saying "I could care less". The expression is "I couldn't care less". Think about it. If you "could" care less about a particular situation, then that means you do, in fact, care about that situation to some extent.

What you mean is that you care so little about the situation in question that you "couldn't" care less.

It's one thing for an individual to misused this expression. It's misused all the time, and it's so easy to just repeat what you've been hearing. Besides, everybody knows what you mean. But when I hear it broadcast over the airways, in movies, and even in print, I have to wonder, don't these people proofread the copy? Considering the bucks they're getting paid, you'd think they'd have a better handle on the language. But what do I expect? People, even myself, misquote all the time. Consider what comes out of the mouths of some "public speakers", people you'd think would get it right.

My favorite misquote is when Dan Quayle said, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful." HA-HA-HA Even now, years after the fact, I laugh out loud whenever I think of it. And don't get me started on what comes out of Bush's mouth.

I know this tirade is waaay out of proportion, but this, the misuse of this one particular expression, is one of my major peeves. I almost have a conniption whenever I encounter it ...and I do encounter it a lot. I find myself audibly chastising the radio, TV, movie screens, and magazines. And yes, I've even seen it misused in the newspaper. I'm on a mission to get the world to use this one expression correctly. Everyone's looking for their purpose in life ...their "raison d'être. Perhaps this is mine.

Sometimes a word or expression is misused so often, it becomes an accepted part of the vernacular. That really bugs me since I'm such a perfectionist and so resistant to change ...but that's my cross to bare.

In all fairness, I have to concede to my own shortcomings. I profess perfection and yet I take great liberties with the misuse of the language, (punctuation in particular).

The main thing that comes to mind is my [mis]use of the ellipsis (...). Properly used, the ellipsis indicates missing words, that part of the text that's been omitted. But in addition to that, I use it to indicate an added or afterthought, or a snide comment. It seems perfect to indicate that pause or to suggest that wink, that sly glance, that comment made in a lower voice, etc.

Another infraction is the punctuation ending a sentence. If the sentence ends in a quote, this punctuation should go inside the ending quotation mark. However, I feel that if the punctuation is not specific to the quote, then it shouldn't be included within ...and I place it after. This is grammatically wrong and yet I consistently do it because I think this is the way it should be.

And I always start sentences with "and" or "but", because that's the way I think and speak. My mind is never quiet and I never shut up.

So yeah, I know. Who the hell am I to criticize? But then, this "is" my blog and that's what it's for. So there! However, I do offer apologies for any offense.

PS: An excellent source for these "grammatical rules" is the little red book entitled "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk, Jr.

Quote of the Week: "Never miss a good opportunity to shut up."

Killer Clean

The Winter storms are mostly behind us. The temperature is climbing and on some days has reached the balmy mid 70s. The natives have donned their warm-weather attire ...or lack thereof. The skies are clear with nary a cloud in sight. It may be a little premature to start celebrating but Spring is in the air. On one such spring-like day, I threw open [wide] all the windows to give my place a thorough airing.

The first thing that came to mind was spring cleaning. Now for someone like me, who doesn't necessarily do something just because it needs doing, -- (like laundry, I hate doing laundry and will procrastinate doing it until...) -- anyway, when I get these flashes of motivation ...like house cleaning... it's important for me to to act on the impulse while it's there, since I don't know when it'll again present itself.

Side note: I'm a very neat person. In fact, it's a defining character trait. I'm neat to the point of obsession. But my being "neat" is all about order and appearance. It doesn't necessarily translate as "clean". I have no qualms about "sweeping the dirt up under the rug", as long as it looks neat ;-)

So, when I get a genuine urge to do something domestic, I usually take advantage of the motivation. Which brings me to the title of this post. The well-know humorist, Erma Bombeck, once said, "Housework, done properly, can kill you". Truer words were never spoken.

In all my enthusiasm, to do a thorough job (in my usual obsessive manner), I pulled all the furniture out from the walls to clean behind it, took all the blinds down for cleaning, did the windows and all the glass in the myriad wall-mounted frames, flipped the mattresses, removed all the books and whatnot from the shelves and cases for dusting, scrubbed the kitchen floor, scrubbed the bathroom floor and all the tile, and so on... When all was done, I was ready for the proverbial "white-glove" inspection, and I would've passed.

But when I awoke the following morning, I could hardly move. I felt like I'd been hit by a Mack truck. Every muscle in my body was stiff and sore and [I suspect] bemused by the sudden assault. They don't get this kind of workout on a regular basis. I had this killer headache that seemed to be laughing at the inconsequential effect of the ibuprophen.

However, I am glad I did the house-cleaning. Like I said, who knows when I would again be inspired to do it so thoroughly ...beyond the usual vacuuming that only involves traffic areas and places reachable without moving anything.

Wouldn't it be great to have servants? I know there are cleaning services, but, aside from the expense, they don't really do a good job ...not to my satisfaction. That's the curse of being such a perfectionist. You have to do everything yourself if you want it done your way.

My aches and pains (and the headache) eventually subsided, and I planned a dinner party so I could show-off my sparking clean digs. And when someone makes the comment ...and someone will... "You really keep a clean house", I can shrug and pretend that it's just the norm.

Addendum: This post was originally written last weekend. I didn't submit it then in favor of the previous post in recognition of Valentine's Day. Since then, the Spring weather has abated and Winter has returned for an encore. This past week has been very cold, and rainy ...with intense snow storms [in some areas]. But Spring will get here and, when it does, my cleaning will have already been done.

Quote of the Week: "Nature abhors a vacuum ...and so do I."

For Valentine's Day (14th)

Yes, I know that Valentine's day is a superficial holiday made up by the greeting card and candy companies, florists and jewelers. However, I like to use Valentine's day as the opportunity to do a little nicety for certain special friends. It may be something as simple as a personally-designed and crafted card or it might be little something else that I created myself.

In a previous year, it was a CD. I went through my music library and gathered up some of my favorite songs all having to do with love ...actually, those songs containing the word "love" in the title. The music bridges several decades, and covers several genres including jazz, rock, blues, R&B and pop.

In celebration of Valentine's Day, I'm featuring the tracks from that CD.

The following links [to these tracks] are temporary, since the [web] space needed to contain them is being borrowed from the usual playlist featured on my "Music Page". The tracks themselves will only be available for the week or so coinciding with the date of this post. After that time, my music page will revert to its usual content. (I'm not making these tracks a part of my [music page's] normal playlist since they're only relevant to this post.)

	Save Your Love For Me - Al Jarreau
	Where Is Love - Irene Kral
	At Last (My Love Has Come Along) - Etta James
	My One And Only Love - Sting
	Love Song - Elton John
	If Only You Knew (How Much I Love You) - Patti LaBelle
	All Is Fair In Love - Carmen McRae / Cal Tjader
	Sweet Love - Anita Baker
	Old Love - Eric Clapton
	I'm Not In Love - Dee Dee Sharp
	I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding
	I'm In Love - Aretha Franklin
	And You My Love - Chris Rea
	Love For Sale - Mel Tormé
	If You Love Me - Van Morrison / B. B. King
	Love She Can Count On - Smokey Robinson / Miracles
	Love Hangover - Diana Ross
(Note: These tracks are all in .wma format so you'll need the "Microsoft Media Player" to access them.)

Quote of the Week: "One cannot find love by searching for it. It comes to us unbidden when we give it to others."

"Sweet Thing" Rediscovered

Some time ago I saw the movie "Moonlight Mile" (Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon). The song played over the closing credits was Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing". I was greatly moved both by the song itself and by the way it capped the movie, allowing the emotional element of the final scene to play out. Sort of the way you [should] drink wine. After you swallow, you appreciate the way it "finishes" ...you don't just immediately shove something else in your mouth ...or in this case, jump up and rush out of the theater.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Van Morrison's music. In fact, I have more discs (vinyl and CD combined) by him than any other single artist. I can't say that I have all of his music because he's too prolific to keep up with. Every time I go to buy one of his new releases, I always find one or two disc there in the bin that I was previously unaware of. And yes, I grab them up. He's one of the few artists whose music I automatically buy whenever it's available (not having heard it in advance). Sure, there have been a few projects that didn't resonate with me, but to some degree, I can get into almost anything this man does. And so much of what I really do like has nothing to do with his "hits". There's so much of his music that doesn't even make the mainstream playlists. Pity!

Anyway back to the movie soundtrack. I immediately went to Amazon to check out the soundtrack for this song. I was distraught to find "Sweet Thing" wasn't even on the soundtrack. It was such a perfect ending to the movie, that to not include it on the soundtrack was just wrong. I did a search to find what [obscure] album might contain this song; what album [he] had realease that I'd overlooked. Guess what? The song is on "Astral Weeks". Damn! I already have "Astral Weeks". I've had "Astral Weeks" for over thirty-five years. I immediately delved through my countless vinyl albums and pulled out the disc to find "Sweet Thing" sitting right there. How had I missed it for all these years?

Thing is, when I get a new disc, I listen to it completely through. There are always those songs that resonate more than others. I guess back in 1969, when I first heard it, for some reason I can't explain, it didn't click and in future playings of the album, I just skipped it.

Because this was back before the random access of CD players, and playing only selected tracks from a vinyl disc was cumbersome, I tended to put my favorites tracks on tape and just play the tape, thereby lessening my chance of "rediscovering" those lost track that would appeal to me later...when my sensibilities had changed or I'd had some experience to make the song more relevant.

But now that I've rediscovered this great tune, I still have to re-buy the CD since my vinyl disc is, well you know, it's experienced considerable wear. This was from back when I was less appreciative of the vulnerability of vinyl discs and how valuable they would be [to me] in the future. Fortunately this album has been re-released on CD and, since it's an [old] release, the cost is really not bad ...only nine bucks. This is not the first ...nor will it be the last ...album I have to re-purchase on CD because my vinyl copy is in less than pristine condition. Too bad the vinyl version is unavailable. I really do prefer vinyl, the sound is warmer.

Quote of the Week: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."