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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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~ The Write Way ~
Friday 10 August 2001 Fire and Ice ... Greetings, One continent that has always fascinated me, ever since I taught Douglas
Stewart's beautiful verse play, Fire on the Snow, is Antarctica. Did
you know that the average thickness of the Antarctic ice is 2,000 m
(6,500 feet), and the greatest measured thickness is more than 4,770 m
(15,650 feet)? (Bramwell, Martyn. Glaciers and Icecaps. Belgium:
Franklin Watts, 1986)
That's a lot of ice... then add the katabatic winds that rage on the coastal
regions and the whole place is just mind-blowing (pardon the pun!) It's such a great term, isn't it? "Katabatic winds" ...brrr .... it
just makes you want to reach for a woolly pullover and a hot-water bottle. The
term comes from the Greek These winds "are caused by a combination of the cold of the interior, the domed shape of the continent and intense low pressure systems around the coast. For long periods - often many days - large amounts of dense, cold air slide at an accelerating rate down the coastal slopes of Antarctica's ice sheet, reaching hurricane force (around 120 km/h) by the time they reach the sea. Maximum gusts can be more than 250 km/h." If you ever complain about it being windy where you are, spare a thought for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 to 1914. "At the Cape Denison headquarters, the average year-round wind speed was nearly 80 km/h, and in June and July the average speed was 120 km/h."
As well as being the windiest, Antarctica is also the coldest place on Earth;
"the lowest temperatures recorded in nature have been at the Russian
Vostok base, when on 21 July 1983, the temperature dropped to minus
89.2 degrees C (-128.6 F). In 1998 the Vostok temperature was
reported to have dropped below minus 90 degrees C (this is yet to be
confirmed)."
The above information comes from the Australian Antarctic Division site: http://www.aad.gov.au/ which has details of many things relating to Antarctica, including the scientific bases at Heard Island, Mawson, Davis, Casey and protecting wildlife. Now, if you furrowed your brow a little there, I'm not surprised. We looked at the use of the apostrophe a couple of weeks ago, let's take a peek at its lowly cousin - the comma ... and ... umm ... it's a comma ... not a coma (although you may feel like lapsing into one of the latter after trying to work out how to use the former). There's a major debate raging in some circles about whether or not to use the 'terminal comma.' (I just made that term up to describe the final [or 'serial'] comma in a sentence - it sounds more dramatic, don't you think?) Look at the difference when this comma is included: "... from the Australian Antarctic Division site which has details of many things relating to Antarctica, including the scientific bases at Heard Island, Mawson, Davis, Casey, and protecting wildlife." Aah - suddenly it makes perfect sense. The site has details of the bases, plus information on protecting wildlife - there's not a base called, "protecting wildlife." Here's a good explanation of why we should use this little comma: ...a conjunction, which connects, cannot do the job of a comma, which separates. Without the comma the final item may seem to be a compound. In the sentence "The agency lists openings in publishing, broadcasting, advertising, and public relations", the absence of the comma could turn "advertising and public relations" into a single field. Another reason for using the final comma is to acknowledge the pause before the "and". If a writer only uses a final comma to resolve ambiguous situations, her inconsistency will confuse the reader. Since all style books require the comma in cases where the last or next to last item include the word "and" or "or," it is inconsistent and confusing to the reader to mix styles--so let's just use it all the time. I am especially uncomfortable with a "rule" that says don't use something except to avoid confusion. Why not use it all the time and be sure you have avoided confusion, particularly when there is no harm done by doing so. A comma, after all, uses only a small amount of the world's precious ink reserves. It also would eliminate the constant bickering between English departments and journalism departments at a multitude of colleges and universities. Examples of silliness caused by omitting the serial comma:
I especially like that first example :)
This week's quiz:
This week, match the word in the list with its ANTONYM below: impractical, taciturn, abundance, invigorate, impatience, co-operative, impropriety, curse, effective, disinclination 1. feckless 2. decorum 3. penchant 4. truculent 5. garrulous 6. beatify 7. forbearance 8. pragmatic 9. paucity 10.enervate Here's an interesting slant on a well-known tale: Imagine, for a moment, that there were Three Wise Women, instead of Three Wise Men ... what would they have done differently?
What would they have said as they left?
And
while we're on a Biblical roll, here's the Missing Chapter of Genesis:
God said that He was going to make Adam a companion and that it would be a woman.
He
said, "This person will gather food for you, cook for you, and when you
discover clothing she'll wash it for you. She will always agree with every
decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in
the middle of the night to take care of them. She will not nag you and will
always be the first to admit she was wrong when you've had a disagreement. She
will never have a headache and will freely give you love and passion whenever
you need it."
Chuckle ... Aah ... love it!
Last week's quiz:
Here we go again, match each word in the list with its definition below: disabuse, render, apropos, guileless, diffidence, implacable, sophistry, vituperate, raffish, resigned 1. appropriate to the situation; apt - APROPOS 2. incapable of being placated, unpleasable - IMPLACABLE 3. disreputable; tawdry - RAFFISH 4. without deceit, honest - GUILELESS 5.unresisting, submissive - RESIGNED 6. berate, rail against, attack verbally - VITUPERATE 7. deliver, provide, represent - RENDER 8. shyness - DIFFIDENCE 9. fallacious reasoning, faulty logic - SOPHISTRY 10.to undeceive, correct a false impression - DISABUSE Larry sent this last week - just to prove how valuable these Tips are :) Remember a couple
of months back we were discussing *schlimmbesserung*?
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20010802.shtml (from
the 7th paragraph) See? You can spend time reading this newsletter with a clear conscience, knowing that you're improving your vocabulary! If you know anyone who would like to subscribe to The Write Way, please send them a personal invitation to join us each Friday, just cut and paste this link and email it to them: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com If you've been a subscriber for some time ( a lo-o-o-ng time actually) you may remember I gave some nifty Dieting Tips before Christmas one year. Here are some more:
That sounds like my kind of diet :) Thanks to
Bronwyn for finding these and sharing them. Mondegreen of the week: If it's late where you are, perhaps it's time for us all, in the words of the old Christmas carol, to "sleep in heavenly peas." Here's a neato Latin phrase if you're a Baby Boomer and would like to relive the 50s - with a Latin twist: Vale, Lacerte! (See you later, Alligator!) WAH-lay, lay-KUR-tay! Remember, all these pronunciation guides are just that - guides ... how many Romans do you know who can correct your pronunciation? If you received this from a friend, click here to receive your own copy: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Regards, Jennifer |
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