Language Liberalism Freethought Birds
Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.
Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.
If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
Today is F Scott Fitzgerald's birthday, which reminds me of the Italian woman I was in a workshop with. She called him "F Scott Key Fitzgerald" and then "Key Fitzgerald"... clearly thinking it was a double-barrelled surname. So odd...
Labels: language
I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...
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3 Comments:
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At 12:49 PM, September 24, 2009
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 10:27 PM, September 24, 2009
fev had this to say...
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At 5:00 AM, September 25, 2009
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Makes me think of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. I've seen him filed in classical music stores as "Ralph Vaughan Williams", "Ralph Vaughan-Williams", "Ralph V. Williams", "Ralph Williams", and "Vaughan Williams". (And that's not even considering the pronunciation.)
I have to think that someone who links the "Key" to the "Fitzgerald", rather than to the "Francis Scott", has never heard of the eponym. On the other hand, if she was from Italy, that's not too surprising, since Key wasn't exactly a major figure in our history, nor even a major poet.
I have a hed from the Times (London) a few years back that refers to the US civil rights leader as "Luther King." Same sort of thinking as your example, I expect, and a nice illustration of the dangers of relying on common sense and "everybody knows ..."
I've heard of "Foster Dulles" too.
But my favorite is about the Aussie golfer Ian Baker-Finch who does, as you see, have a two-part surname complete with hyphen. The first time he played in Texas, everyone he was introduced to around the tournament promptly began calling him "Ian Baker", which puzzled him, since most Americans who ignore the right way to handle his surname just say "Finch". Then he found out they all thought he was Ian Baker, like Jim Bob, and were being friendly.
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