illiterally

Just had to post this article about Penn State. Might not get good Xmas gifts if I didn't.

Seriously, click here.

Don't think that no one has used or misused "literally" since November 10. I've just been busy and lazy all at the same time.

The other day I attended a talk by Ray Ybarra of the ACLU about the Minuteman group and other border vigilantes. He's coordinating legal observers who follow these guys around to deter and document human rights abuses, and he's working on a class action law suit against a proto-Minuteman offender. He rocks and he needs help. I mention him here because he twice used "literally" in his presentation.

Describing why he got into this project, he mentioned that he grew up in Douglas, AZ, so these things were happening "literally in [his] back yard."

When he got started on this project, he filed FOIA and other disclosure requests, and noted that the stuff these vigilantes had done to border-crossers was "literally appalling."

The word "appalling" comes from the Old French "palir," which means "to grow pale." "Palir" came from the Latin word "pallescene" ("to be pale"). The word became "apalir" in Middle French. The word entered the Middle English vocabulary, but the meaning became "to grow pale because one is overcome with consternation, shock, or dismay," and it was spelled "appal." Apparently the vigilantes are accomplishing their goal by shocking people into becoming white.

I added yet another link to the right. This one deserves to be linked twice on my little blog spot.

From a 10/1/05 post: "I am literally pressed up against the glass window." I can't vouch for whether Charles was in fact literally pressed up against the glass window, but I've visited Schwab with Charles before, and there's definitely some window-touching that goes on.

Talked to my mother today, and got the usual health update on all the aging relatives. My great aunt, let's call her "Pat," has various ailments and believes she is dying. She isn't really. She argues with her doctors and refuses to take her medicine. She has long been the butt of many family jokes based on her various idiosyncrasies. Recently she told my uncle/her nephew that she was looking forward to seeing his mother (her sister, my grandmother) in heaven. He told her that knowing his mother, she'd already told Jesus about Aunt Pat and that consequently he probably wouldn't be letting her into heaven.

So Aunt Pat's husband, "Carl," is having surgery next week to have a pacemaker put in. My mom told me she'd let me know how that went, then decided to make fun of her aunt, saying she'd let me know "whether Aunt Pat makes it through Uncle Carl's surgery -- literally."

Isn't the death of loved ones funny?

I am literally out of class for the day. I added two links: "Misused" Quotation Marks and Apostrophe Abuse.

A good friend, who apparently wishes to remain anonymous, directed me to this: NPR commentary on the subject.

For real.

Check out this anti-war T-shirt:

Call me hard to please, but it really needs a comma.