In her comment on the last post Boud mentioned a friend who referred to bras as a pair. Makes sense as most pluralia tantum consist of something that is made of two pieces. But then I was thinking about binoculars again.
The word binoculars is plural even though it has bi- at the front, like bicycle.
The English language is very confusing. Only thing it has in its favour is the fact that letters don't mutate into something else depending on what gender it is or what it's following or precedes, or when the fancy takes it. In my Welsh learning I'm still guessing. I'm right probably less than half the time, which could take us down the probability/statistics line but I won't let it.
* * * * *
Over on Facebook Mary, an old blogging friend, put up some photos of gravestones in Trinity Church cemetery in Manhattan. One of them was for former mayor of NYC, Ed Koch. The interesting thing is that Mary took this photo in 2010 and he didn't die until 2013!
10 comments:
Pre-death gravestone? Now THAT'S planning ahead!
My late husband, who had vision in only one eye, used a monocular for birdwatching. Like the telescopes used at sea in the days of sailing ships.
Ed Koch, mayor of New York, was an endearing kind of man, always asking people to rate his performance. "How'm I doing?" was his refrain.
He was a deeply closeted gay man, a decent man and mayor, no family nor children, and I'm guessing he was making sure no slurs were slid into his gravestone, in a dangerous anti-gay era, by taking care of it himself.
Or was he a timetraveller?
Okay, fair enough then, Boud. I wondered why he didn't mention family. A monocular, that's interesting.
Perhaps we should all do our own in advance, Debra. At least then we can write nice things!
I don't know the customs in other places, but around here (USA), when the first of a couple dies, s/he is apt to have a marker stone made for the pair, omitting the date of death of the later to die member. Upon death, the only thing the rest of the family need do is have that date added.
My own, dear mother had a stone made up that was large enough to not only list the data for her and my father, including date of marriage, but the names of their five children. Somewhat comically, I've had people misunderstand the listing and think that all five children were deceased. As I write this, two of us are still around and kicking.
Nope, I'm not paying for my own gravestone. I've got better things to spend my money on. After I die I suppose my kids can leave me in an unmarked grave. It really won't matter to me much .
This time, the NBA became the first major sports league with a trans referee. You can read about in my blog, www.emilyvirtualrocket.blogspot.com.Thanks very much for taking the time. Emily Shorette
I have heard bilingual French folk admit that their language is more difficult than ours.
I think most people don't take the time to read tombstones for people who aren't part of their family.
Keep your spirits up please regarding the publishers. Negative responses DO NOT negate the merit of your work. So many great authors have piles and piles of rejections prior to getting their first acceptance.
PipeTobacco
Post a Comment