blooper_reel epitome of incomprehensibility I put my shirt on backwards today and didn't notice until about noon. My friend and I were going to meet yesterday to go to a play, but I forgot to write down the theatre's address. I don't have a phone, and to top it all I was looking for the theatre on the wrong street (St. Denis instead of St. Laurent), asking people, "Well, I know it's on this, I'm just not sure where!" And I didn't want to call her because I thought she'd already be in the play. Eventually I went to her place and her boyfriend was there; he said she was waiting for me and gave me the address. Turns out she hadn't gone into the play at all, and I felt bad for keeping her waiting half an hour. But we went to Pi Cafe for snacks and a talk. I called bok_choy "Boko Haram" on Saturday, being tired. My mother thought I'd said it on purpose to piss her off. Why would I...? Anyway, I liked my explanation: Boko Haram "is that Chinese lettuce that tastes like celery on the bottom and spinach on the top." 150126 ... e_o_i Chicken_out, self_loathing; misheard or misspoke, amusement. Rinse and carry on. 150126 ... e_o_i Reading aloud to my sort-of boss Prof. K some small print about Prohibition in Canada: "His view was that one must obtain from alcohol at all costs..." The word of course was "abstain." Prof. K laughed. 150206 ... e_o_i An RA-K is a research assistant whose name begins with K, to distinguish her from Professor K. An RA-K is not a gun, but requires some usage precautions: it is not recommended to give an RA-K more than one caffeinated or alcholic beverage per day, nor is it advisable to assume the RA-K knows what Shakespeare play you're talking about at any given time. RA-K (reading about World War 1 and pausing): Asquith. Who's Asquith? I seem to remember he was a general or official... Prof. K, with a slight eyebrow lift of superiority: He was the prime minister of Great Britain then. RA-K: Oh. Oh. I though it was Woodrow Wilson. Was he the one before? Prof. K, laughing: No, Woodrow Wilson was the American president. Close enough. 150402 ... e_o_i Again: "Maple green tea is kind of gross. I mean, it isn't the best example of culinary multiculturalism. I prefer Boko Haram sprinkled with allspice." Bok_choy! BOK CHOY!!! And "I'll go get a salad at Burkina Faso," meaning the restaurant Basha. But of course. 150402 ... raze my dad was looking around for a loaf of light rye bread we just got a few days ago. he couldn't find it anywhere. he was starting to think he was losing his mind, hallucinating bread that never was. turns out i put it in the meat crisper in the fridge after making myself a sandwich for lunch. i have no memory of doing that. i've never done that before. i don't even know. for my next trick, i will put my shoes in the kitchen sink. 150402 ... e_o_i Last Friday, Prof. K sent his book proposal to a fairly large press and it was my task to edit it. Well, the first paragraph had a list of historical things World War 1 set the stage for, including the next world war. When I went through that section, I automatically corrected "Second World War" to "First World War." I was cringing. I am now. I much prefer the approach of being amused by my mistakes, but this was just stupid. WW1 caused WW1 indeed. Besides, I can't help thinking of the time I was chewed out at the publishing-editing job for not catching a much smaller mistake. But when I told Prof. K, he laughed. He just thought that was very funny. I guess that's the advantage to being old, if you do it right - not worrying about such things as much. Or maybe that's strictly personality-dependent. Anyway, I am not fired and that's a relief. Context, e_o_i. Context. Look for it next time when you're editing. 150417 ... e_o_i And today while talking with friend(ly acquaintance)s, saying how I used to get the Halifax Explosion mixed up with the sinking of the Lusitania. "Of course the Lusitania wasn't an accident. It was shot down by a German submarine." "Shot down" incurred laughter, since that phrase is used of planes, not ships. But ships have far to fall too, if the water's deep. Still, the others were right: if ships get shot so that they sink, they aren't really "shot down." Sunk then. Loose idioms sink ships. I still contend that a blanket is a blanket term for all kinds of bed coverings, and I will argue with sheet-exclusionary radical blanketists (hey, that spells Serb: the nationality of the lone assassin responsible for killing the Archduke of Afghan-Quiltery, leading to World War 1.5 which led to World War 1.5.) Let us take serious things blanketfully. 150417 what's it to you? who go blather from