Everyday

The word 'everyday' is hardly ever used correctly.  Some of the few people who do use it in the appropriate way, are those who wear special clothes for particular purposes.

When I was growing up, my mom would insist that I wear 'Church clothes' to church, 'school clothes' to school, etc.  There were Play clothes to play in, party clothes, shopping clothes, and so on.  So now, if you visited a friend, and discovered that their mother was celebrating a special birthday, you're in a fix.   You did wear visiting clothes, but not special party clothes.  "I'm sorry; I just have everyday clothes on!  I didn't know it was a celebration!"

Here everyday means non-special.  Everyday clothes are those you wear every day, so non-special.  You wouldn't wear those to a party, or celebration.  Of course, your friend's mother would take you by the arm, and say: "Oh, you look perfectly fine.  This isn't a serious party, Kay, it was just an impromptu thing the kids decided to do."

In this instance, you just can't use every day for everyday; the meanings of the two expressions have grown apart for too long.  Nor can you use everyday for every day.  If you want to describe the coffee you drink every single day, it had to be every day.

There are other words like that, which started off being phrases:

Hereafter. 

Anymore.  Anyway.  Anyhow.

Undergone, underdone, undertone.  Underweight.

Overwrought.  Overeat.  Overweight.  Overcome.  Overdo. Overheard.  Overhead.

Pickup.  Dropout.

Pocketbook.

Look them up in a dictionary.  They're difficult to explain!

Kay

P.S. Hey, what's with using apostrophes to denote plural's?  Just stop it, ok?  :)

Alternation

There are two words that are easily confused.  One is alternatively, and the other is alternately.

If you have an arrangement where you meet in one location one week, a different location the next week, and back again to the first location the next week, and so on, you would describe it as meeting in those two locations alternately.  That's a clumsy example, but I guess it works. 

On the other hand, if you choose to do something one way, but have a different idea of how to do it, that's an alternative.  To do something alternatively is to do it in a different way.

Both words involve two ways of doing things, or more.  But—it seems to me, anyway—if you say alternately, it implies doing something repeatedly; one time one way, the next time, the other way.  This is called strict alternation.  The use of the word alternative simply indicates different available choices.

Kay

Racism Still Rules Us

A sad conclusion from the events of last year is that one of the most major factors in deciding presidential races is racism.

During campaign season, I look at each candidate, and I ask myself the question:  can I visualize this candidate as the president?  I think that that determination, more than other, more important determinations such as

• Is this the best choice for the country and the world?
• Is this person the one who will work the hardest for economic prosperity?

are secondary.  So I must conclude that, for other voters as well, in fact, for the majority of voters, this is the major factor.

If they can only visualize a powerful orator in the Oval Office, that's the only sort of candidate they're going to vote for.

If they can't visualize a short person as president, only a tall person will get their vote.

If they can't imagine a woman as president, a woman isn't going to be elected president.

Most of all, if it is repugnant to them to imagine a non-anglo president—in particular, a black president—in the White House, they will not cast their vote for a non-white candidate.

Some of the best candidates for the last few decades have been women; it's becoming clear that none of them stood a chance.  This is perhaps the reason why neither 'major party' wants to risk fielding a woman.  In contrast, I am convinced that the present woman president of Mexico will do better for that country than any current male candidate. 

It is a great shame that president Obama is likely to be the last black US president for a long time; in fact, all presidential hopefuls are likely to be crooked men.  Crooked white men!

Kay

April 19th

Today was supposed to be a huge demonstration across the nation.   Everyone was expected to go to some place in their town, and show the administration about how widespread the dissatisfaction is, and how angry the people are.   Motorbike gangs of oath takers and proud boys were supposed to be intending to disrupt the gatherings!

Well, I did go down with friends.  It was a good time; I read all the placards; they were insightful and wonderful.  One little kid, about 10 years old, had come along with her older sister, who was probably 12.  The little one's sign read: Please Save My Library!

These are not the signs, and these are not the sorts of rallies that will impress or frighten the extreme Republicans who control the government.  Essentially decent people have made the government decent and gentle for decades.  But the stern face that some people have wanted the US to show the world has been conspicuously absent.  The same with our demonstration. 

Meanwhile, Trump has been showing a tough face to China.  But not being consistent, many are not taking it seriously.  This will prompt Trump to do various knee-jerk, poorly thought out, extreme retaliations.  His Fox News friends will admire him, thinking: ah, that's subtle.

The time of subtlety has passed; today, actors who want to be noticed make big, bold, crude moves.  We're in sort of a crude age.  Clever, and high-tech, but crude.

Kay

Getting Meaning From This Cat

OK, I'm back in the house with the animals!  Not babysitting, this time, just hanging out. 

The cat was so happy to reconnect with me!

Communicating with animals—inter-species communication—is an incredibly fascinating thing.  With some sorts of animals, it can be done exactly; you've probably read about the gorilla who learned sign language, and could actually talk to humans.  There are dogs that actually know words, about a hundred or more, and they often know what you want to say before you finish saying something!

Some dogs, I have read, listen intently, their heads tilted to a side—you know, in that listening attitude—and then respond intelligently!

The cat tries to communicate, by blinking ("Hi!"), jumping up on my lap ("I want something!  You have to guess!")  Purring, miaowing, standing in a special place, etc.  The only thing is, she doesn't try very hard.  Dogs won't quit, but the cat quits fairly soon.  It's amazing that it tries at all.

In their own home, the cat is allowed to go out.  If she stands near the door, it means "I want to go out."  If she's doing that, but I don't see it, she just walks off, and does something else.  No wasted effort. 

There's a cat I know, who keeps howling until someone responds.  That's annoying; but that's a very young cat.  This cat (I'm tempted to call her my cat, but she isn't, though) sometimes jumps into my lap.  I say "What do you want?  Go outside?" And she jumps off, and walks to the door.  Then I know: she's wanted to go out, but I wasn't noticing her, so she jumped on my lap, to get my attention!  She hardly ever cries, so she gets my attention by jumping on me, or jumping on the arm of the chair I usually sit on. 

Kay

Plurals

Most of the time, you just add an 's' at the end.  That's all!  One cashier, two cashiers!

With certain names, you have the option of doing something extra:  'The Joneses have invited us over!'  That's because, the name Jones ends with an 's' anyway, so people have done plurals this way for a long time; and you pronounce it that way, too. 

'Count all the 3s, and ...'   Well, today it's not considered too strange to write 'Count all the 3's, and ...'  Did you notice the apostrophe?  It's not required, but it makes the sentence look a tiny bit less strange.  Same rule applies to sentences about decades.  You are allowed to write 'The 1970's were an ...' whatever. 

Kay

New Pair of Words to Not Confuse Under ANY Circumstances

I recently read a really sweet story about a newborn calf that had disappeared from a pasture.  The title said that its mother cow had been 'balling' furiously for hours, or days, or whatever.  (The little guy had fallen through a sinkhole, and was later rescued.)

As it happens,'Balling' is a word that means screwing, having sex!

Clearly, this poor mother cow was not enjoying herself; the intended word has to have been 'Bawling,' crying for the missing calf.  Mothers are usually like that.  Also, as it happens, she was trying to show the farmer exactly where the calf had disappeared. 

I'm guessing that the confusion arose from a combination of Voice-To-Text software, and an AI routine that was obviously trying its best.  If you use V-T-T, check your text carefully.