Occasional Tales

Did you even miss me? Thanks to one of my colleagues, I now have access to the Internet again – the whole thing and not just some declawed cat. I’m now facing my old dilemma of what to do with this blog which has been so idle for so long. My WordPress blog remains my main blog with my LJ one in the wings. Apart from those two I have a couple of others for my more specialised interests, but they need not concern anyone apart from me. The first difference I note is that YouTube videos are appearing on websites where they have, until today, been missing. It’s not that I was a massive fan of YouTube, but it is a blasted sodding nuisance to miss out on the video part of some online article because of a bunch of mean-minded, miserable sods. In fact, I’ve started calling them joy vampires because they want to suck as much happiness as they possibly can out of everyone else’s lives. I see over on Language Log, Victor Mair has posted an entry about the use of the phrase “ hurt the ...

But not the other. I missed this recent post over on Language Log. In my English, "Hurting people loved here" can only mean that the North Park Baptist Church likes to cause people pain, although I understand the other sense which is, to me, strictly American English, or the sort of inanity spouted by British journalists who seem to adopt every Americanism they hear. The church should've stuck with something like "Here to assuage the pain".

It may have its day. Yes, I know this blog remains rather quiet since I haven't posted anything here in a couple of weeks. In mid February, I got quite a few hits because of the story about Clareification, the Clare College student magazine. The editor was in hiding because he didn't realise that satire and Beardies don't mix. Valentine's Day came and went without really stopping to be noticed. There's one pseudo-religious festival we could do without. I'd also started going to the Muslim noodle restaurant because it was the only place open. I didn't know that it appears to be part of a chain because today when I went on a short adventure, I found there was another branch not far from the university. The options for places to eat eventually got narrowed down to KFC, although I did go to Jazzy Pizza in town one evening. I reinstalled Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project which I hadn't played in ages. I also noted to myself that the FAQ about Duke Nukem Forever ...

Or a bunch. Language Log has a post about the phrases "there are a number/bunch of..." and "there's a number/bunch of..." I find myself occasionally changing "are" to "is", but "a number of" and "a bunch of" typically take "are" in my grammar unless I'm using the contracted form "there's". Quantifiers are interesting things. I wonder whether "many" and, especially, "much" might be on the way out. I have problems using the latter without finding that "a lot of" comes more easily. I can say, "There isn't much butter" and "There's too much butter", but "There's much butter" just doesn't sound right whereas "There's a lot of butter" is unremarkable. I find via Google that there are some instances of "There's much + noun" which are grammatical to me. There's much activity (141 hits; "Ther...