Your thought for Friday

"English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them down, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar and spellings."

Addendum: Guy Haas has given me the source for this: James D. Nicoll.

The proper quote is actually this:

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

Your thought for Friday

Sick and cranky :(

I've a cold of some kind today. I've been snuffling and feverish yesterday and all day today. I'm bulling my way through writing for work, as I'm close to finishing up the draft of a reference appendix and I'd love to be done with it.

Sick and cranky :(

Thought du jour for Wednesday

Kit Brown uses a wonderful quote in her sig that I wanted to share with y'all.

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." --Winston Churchill

Thought du jour for Wednesday

Thought du jour

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

Thought du jour

A story from some years ago

(I wanted to relate a story about cover letters. I wrote this up to pass on to someone and figured I'd add this to the blog as well.)

Back in the early 90s at one job where I had a couple dozen writers working for me, I had been talking to someone at the local STC chapter who wanted to work for me. A few months later, I had a slot and said "Now's the time! Send your paper in." He did, with a cover letter, that opened with the line (including the bold as I've shown it):

"Dear John:

Enclosed, please find my resume for consideration for a position as a Tecnical Writer."

I stopped reading right there. He's a great guy who would've been an addition to the team, but, yuh know, I just couldn't.

I showed it around to a bunch of the staph. They thought that that was pretty good, too. I phoned him that afternoon and explained that I was terribly, terribly sorry but I just couldn't hire him right then but that I wanted him to reapply. He was much chagrined but he understood.

The rimshot on this is that I called an old friend who was the Tech Pubs Mgr at our direct competitor and related the story (without names, of course). She told me about one that she'd gotten a few years before for an editing slot that contained the immortal line

"And, in addition, my poofreading skills are excellent."

Apparently, that letter went up on their departmental bulletin board for a couple years for all to admire.

A story from some years ago