A Lunney By Any Other Name...

Have you ever noticed the resonance and disonance that can exist between a name and its bearer? Some people seem so well dubbed that another name would be impossible, whereas others wear their appellations like second-hand shirts. I have, on rare occasions, had great difficulty speaking the names of very close friends because they were so ill-suited to the person. The most notable example was an old boyfried whom I called by another name entirely, and one which turned out to be the childhood pet name his father gave him.

In any case, this man seems utterly suited to his name, and inspired by this notion, I charge you with a game: submit examples of names that fit and those that don't. It will be like our Sounds Like endeavor of '06 and the successor in '07.

I wonder if you'd think my name seems like me?

Extra, Extra

Why is this news?

Better off dead

I have been putting off having a much needed garage sale for a couple of weeks now, because truthfully they fill me with dread. It is so annoying to be haggled down by misers who show up an hour before the posted time, rifling through your stuff, trying to buy while you are still setting up, and ultimately nickel-and-diming you over brand new things you are selling at twenty percent of their original value. I resent the fact that it regresses me back to middle-school behaviors, like eye-rolling. Frankly, I find it depressing.

And if that weren't bad enough, now I've come to understand that among the many compulsive, odd, and ill-socialized sorts who frequent the neighborhood flea markets are folks like this:

(on Craigslist)

If you are having an estate sale you'd better be dead!! (Towards The Light!)

Date: 2008-05-06, 8:58AM PDT

Otherwise it's a yard sale...or a garage sale...or an apartment sale...house sale...or even an alley sale...if that's where it's taking place...but if it's an estate sale...that means you are NO LONGER of this earth...hence..you have an estate ( read...items owned by the deceased!!! ) If you are having an estate and moving sale...you should be moving to the great beyond! I'm tired of misrepresented sales...List honestly!!

Or what, exactly, does he propose to do about it? Send the proprietors Towards the Light? Does that not sound like a New Age cult to you? And is it actually possible to run a sale from The Great Beyond? If I die, do I still actually own my junk? I was under the impression that we leave our earthly possessions behind, but I am positively thrilled to know that I will be kickin' it* old school, King Tut style!! Thanks, you total freak, you have given me hope.

Still, here's an idea, Buddy, hunt down a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. Three dots are not connectors; they indicate an omission. They cause us to read between the lines. So unless you want us to think that what you aren't saying is some sort of homocidal rant or that you are inviting us to a game of MadLibs, LEARN TO USE ELLIPSES PROPERLY. Because misrepresentation is misrepresentation.

Anyway, I confess I have no garage.

(* 'it' being The Bucket.)

Wherein the Blog-mistress posits a grammar question and bores her readers

Maybe you can clear something up for me. All through my brief stint in Academia, I was taught that when incorporating a quotation into a longer sentence, one is meant to put the necessary punctuation inside the quotation marks, so long as it doesn't change the essential meaning intended by the original speaker/writer. For example, try this sentence:

Roosevelt's aphorism, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," marks him as a forerunner of the New Age Movement.

You might consider that statement absurd, funny, or even annoying, but you cannot deny that the presence of the comma does nothing to adulterate the meaning of his words, though my editorializing might. Were I to insert a question mark before the end-quotes we would have a problem, and you might think FDR a big sissy-man.

Maybe that is why people are having some sort of aversion, because nowadays, I see sentences like this happening:

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", would not have been punctuated thusly in FDR's time.

Was there a conference on this? I don't remember signing any petition... Did we vote on it? I don't see the need for it, and it just looks messy.

Because really, there are no guarantees

Which is why I feel these two belong together:

Your Moment of Zen

I don't even know what to say, this is so amazing.

We have secretly removed your memories and replaced them with a set of new and improved ones.

She landed in Bosnia under sniper fire. That's what happened, says the former First Lady, and that's why she's got better experience than her opponent.



Even if it were true, it doesn't show me her "toughness," rather it demonstrates poor decision making. Why would she bring her daughter into the line of fire? What's that little braided girl doing there? Sheryl Crow, the talentless do-gooder? I would have lied about being there at all given that musical line-up.