I Think I'm Getting Dumber As I Age
I was not the smartest kid in school, but I could hold my own pretty well. As an adult I've been able to make it to 36.5 without dying a Darwin Award-worthy death.
But I swear to you that I'm stupider than I used to be.
As I read back through this blog I see that I am mixing up the their/there/they'res and the its/it's thingies. I keep wanting to type "half to" instead of "have to" and only very occasionally do I get lay/lie correct.
But now, today, just this afternoon, I fell asleep during an educational program. I have the "Thanksgiving wasn't all it's cracked up to be" special from the History Channel on TiVo, and have saved it for a day when I had some handwork to do in front of the television. I normally love these historical things, where the kindly Lord Vampire/Grandpa Gillmore walks us through the high points of history with his gentle voice and some SCA team gets to fulfill their long-standing wishes of portraying people in corsets in front of a national audience. It's interesting.
But today, not so much. My first thought was "this is like a movie we'd have to watch in High School." My second thought was ZZZZZZZZZ.
It makes me want to do a crossword puzzle or something to prove myself.
posted by Kat Coble @ 3:01 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I don't hold myself accountable for the stuff that gets mixed up between my brain and fat fingers.
If I've typed you're instead your or vice versa once...
My to's (to, two, too) come out in the wrong places.
I have a total brain cramp that absolutely prevents me from being able to spell - 'Received'. I will do it wrong 99 of 100 time.
I've also lately been mixing hominyms, their/there like you mentioned and the you're/your like S&F mentioned. There have been some others as well, just can't remember now what they were. Another thing I've been doing a lot lately...forgetting things.
I've seen plenty of posts (elsewhere) that had exquisite grammar, perfect spelling, yet expounded some very, very stupid ideas.
If it makes you feel better, we could create some kind of verb conjugation or sentence diagramming meme, pass it around, and keep everybody on their toes. :)
BTW, not all documentaries are created equal(ly?). Some are great (Ken Burns' Civil War), some not so great (anything on Discovery lately besides Mythbusters).
So it may not be a lack of intellectual curiosity on your part, maybe the show just sucked.
BTW, I know CEOs who can't get affect/effect or except/accept right.
Yes, I'm getting dumber too. Recall is slower, grammar worse. I never remember when I'm supposed to use "she and me" or "she and I" and my snobbo in-laws deride me for these stupid little slips. (They are my punishment for hypergamy.) It could be worse, however. I had a graduate student last night accidentally mix up "circumspection" and "circumcision" when she delivered her book critique. She had no idea of why her classmates were laughing fit to pee themselves.
I've been writing it's for its all week long. Stupid papers for of all things, communications class. Arrgh.
Time to go and watch Medium.
Grammar aid:
"I" before "E" except after "C"
(or when sounded as "A" as in "neighbor" and "weigh").
Bridgett, it would usually be "she and I" or "her and me."
For the folks who get confused, and find themselves saying such things as "The flowers were given to my cousin and I," one really good way to find out if the sentence is correct is to remove the confusing bit to test it: "The flowers were given to {....} I;" you can tell that that sentence isn't correct. You'd say, "The flowers were given to me." Therefore, you'd say, "The flowers were given to my cousin and me."
"She and I went to the grocery store." Well, "She went to the grocery store" and "I went to the grocery store" both work as sentences. Let's try the other: "She and me went to the grocery store." "She went to the grocery store" works. "Me went to the grocery store" - not so much.
See if that helps.
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