Category: Misc
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My Prayer for 2018
May each one of us be happy, healthy, and fully engaged with others (especially those whose views and experience may differ from our own). May our country stand as a beacon for racial healing and harmony, for interfaith understanding, for economic justice, for gender equality, for commitment to science, and for borders open to all…
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May Your Nights Be Merry and Bright!
Merry Christmas, dear friends. Plus the happiest of whatever other holidays you may be celebrating this time of year, or any other time. This is a photo I took a couple of days ago of a house just down the street from the East Knoxville home Cheri and I inhabit. A fitting tribute to the…
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Alternative Facts? No — Alternative Anagrams!
Itâs official: âAlternative factsâ tops the list of ânotable quotesâ from 2017. Thatâs according to Fred Shapiro, associate director of the Yale Law School Library. He publishes this annual list, which also includes a bunch of runner-up doozies. Shortly after last January, when Kellyanne Conway left this devil-spawn baby on our lexical doorstep, I jotted…
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Two Words: Of
Not literally two words. Just the one word — âofâ — used in two different senses. Both jangling. At least to me! Recently Iâve been hearing statements like âI missed that bullseye âcause Iâm not that good of a sharpshooter.â And there was the case of a minor soap star confessing, âIâm not that good…
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Two Words: Crevice/Crevasse
These look like alternate spellings of the same word. But they aren’t. To be sure, they have similar meanings and similar pronunciations. I’ve always assumed they meant the same. I was mistaken. Here’s the scoop: The other night, at maybe 3 am, I was proofreading the all-new digital version of my 1998 book, The Metropolis…
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One Southern Word: Ratback
A few years ago, there was an upsurge of interest in âhow to talk Southernâ. You could buy books on the language, maybe listen to podcasts. Theyâd teach you things like the Southern definition of âahâ. In case youâve forgotten, âahâ (in Southern-speak) has two meanings. In one sense, it refers to yourself as a…
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Knoxville in Bloom
Hereâs hoping youâre enjoying spring as much as we are. As Knoxville gears up for its annual Dogwood Arts Festival, all our flowering trees, of whatever species, are getting into the spirit. Here are a couple of photos from our eastside Chilhowee Park neighborhood. This first one is the home of our friends, Pete and…
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Three Words: Another Think Coming (or is it “Thing”?)
Can common usage of a common word like âthingâ be wrong — even when itâs grammatically correct? This question pesters people like me, worrying as we do about whether grammar ârulesâ should be prescriptive or descriptive. For some time lately, Iâve been hearing the expression âanother thing comingâ. As in: âIf Hawkeye thinks itâll be…
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What Our Jonquils Know About Climate Change
Earlier this month (February 2017) the outdoor temperature was 77 degrees F. Even in the previous month, January, the mercury often registered above 60 degrees — and rarely fell below high 40s to mid 50s. This in East Tennessee! When I moved here in 1977, sub-zero temperatures were commonplace for January and even mid-February. (I…
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Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!
Happy Valentine’s Day 2017! To all our long-time readers, and to a host of new subscribers: We love you all! Today youâll see plenty of heart-themed features in the mainstream media. Theyâll tell you the history of Valentineâs Day. Theyâll tell you funny jokes and sentimental love stories. What they wonât tell you (but I…
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Two Words: A & Apart
The word âaâ has several notable features. It’s classified grammatically as an indefinite article. This means it refers to something of which there can be more than one. For example, we’d speak of âaâ tall building because there are lots of tall buildings. But we’d say Burj Khalifa (in Dubai) is currently âtheâ world’s tallest…
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Let’s Resolve to Aim High!
One of our recent subscribers to Notes from Stonehaven is a reader named Maroussia Roy. Since she likes anagrams, I puttered around to see what gems I might unearth from her name. Turns out the letters in âMaroussia Royâ rearrange to spell: âYour aim soars.â Perfect! How fitting might it be if each of us…