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~ The Write Way ~ Friday 28 September 2001 Car Repairs
Greetings, Let me begin with one word ... Aargh! OK ... thanks, I feel better now. The cause of my outburst? Motor cars. You know how I'm always drawing attention to the significance of the number three? Well, it's struck again. It started with our daughter's car (it used to be my dad's - he gave it to me and then I gave it to her ... See? Three again!). It's a great little car, but she was having trouble with the blinkers (indicators) - they'd work sometimes, then race other times and then do nothing ... That problem was fixed easily and inexpensively ... hey, all things are relative ... read on. Then our car started making those dreaded "funny noises." Our daughter's solution to any funny noises when she had her first little car, was to just turn up the volume on the radio ... doesn't seem to work for us though. So ... off to the mechanic with ours this time ... $600 later ... Then this morning, it was the turn of our son's car to make a contribution to the retirement fund of our mechanic. But, it hasn't been a case of third time lucky - au contraire as we say en France. Even though they both have their own homes now, neither of our offspring likes to take personal calls at work, so all messages are relayed through me and when I heard the sombre tones of the mechanic, I instinctively hugged my wallet close to me. But alas and alack ... he spoke those dreaded words " ... head gasket ... stuffed ..." I'm not looking forward to passing along this particular message i.e. I'm dreading what it means to our son's budget et al. Don't you just love Latin? Even in the midst of these mechanical woes of the 21st century, dear old Latin can still cope. i.e. is an abbreviation of id est and it means, "that is to say" or "that is." et al is a shortened form of et allii / et alia and it means, "and other people / and other things." Another commonly used Latin abbreviation is e.g. which is short for exempli gratia and means, "for example, for instance." When you stop and think about it, we use lots of Latin abbreviations every day - often not really knowing what they mean. Here are some of the more common terms:
And these are some commonly used Latin expressions that you're likely to come across from time to time:
That should help, and thanks to LaVonne for suggesting this as a topic :) I'm always ready to listen to any requests for subjects - once started I can prattle on about anything - but, like most writing, getting started is the hard part. If, like my son and his wife, you're in the market for a new (or used) car to take you on your travels, here's an excellent service that I'm associated with: AutoWorld.com lets you buy, sell and drive smarter. When you're ready for a new car quote - visit AutoWorld.com AutoWorld.com works for the consumer! We can help deliver the best price available today on new vehicles. Let AutoWorld start the negotiation process for you, for FREE. Our NEW VEHICLE PRICE QUOTE SYSTEM allows you to build the exact vehicle you want online, from your own computer. (FREE) AutoWorld.com can even help you with with the best rates available for financing and insurance, as well as FREE LEMON CHECKS (vehicle history reports). Take advantage of our free services - we protect the consumer! Don't miss out on all of these valuable services today! NEW VEHICLE PRICE QUOTE SYSTEM...So, why not drop by and see how they can help you? You get a terrific service, AutoWorld gets a happy customer and I get a few more pennies in my Running Away Fund - talk about win-win-win! This week's quiz: Some tricky ones this week - match 'em up again: minatory, peremptory, ameliorate, inchoate, epicure, froward, exigency, pugnacious, ingenuous, salient, 1. naive, young, artless, frank, honest, sincere 2. food lover, a connoisseur of food 3. prominent, protruding, conspicuous, highly relevant 4. not yet fully formed, rudimentary, elementary 5. contentious, quarrelsome, contumacious, given to fighting, belligerent 6. urgent, imperative, unchallengeable, ending debate 7. emergency, an urgent situation 8. improve, make better 9. menacing, threatening 10. intractable, not willing to yield or comply, stubborn If you've been trying to get to the forum to post a question, add a comment or just browse the wonderfully erudite entries ... it seems that the redirection link I was using has gone on hols. Here's the full link: http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=3170114826&cpv=1 Now you know why I was using a redirect! Once you get there, don't forget to bookmark the site - goodness knows when you're going to need a second opinion on some writing-related matter ... and this is the perfect place to go to get it. I received this story a couple of weeks ago - and know you'll get a giggle out of it: A fellow, a tad the worse for having imbibed a few too many, is walking home along the bank of a river when he sees a group of people standing knee-deep in the water. As he stumbles down to them, one man calls out to him, "Brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, Sir. I haven't," he answers. Taking the drunk by the hand, the man leads him further into the water, holds his nose and dunks him under the water for a few seconds. As the drunk emerges, coughing and spluttering, the man says, "Brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, Sir. I haven't," says the drunk. The man again holds the drunk's nose and this time holds him under the water for around ten seconds. When he comes up, the man repeats his question, "Brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, Sir. I haven't," says the drunk. A third time, the man holds the drunk's nose and this time keeps him under the water for about thirty seconds. As he comes up, he again asks, "Brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, Sir. I haven't," says the drunk, "... are you sure this is where he fell in?" Chuckle ... If you've always had lots of terrific ideas swirling about in your head, but haven't had time to get them down on paper, maybe now's the time. And if you feel a bit rusty, remember my six-part writing course. Even if you feel confident enough of your own abilities, I'm sure you know people who've said something like, "I know what I want to say, but I can't write it down." Now ... c'mon ... you do know someone like this, don't you? Why not be nice and tell them about my course? Remember that everyone who does the course receives not one, but two, bonuses: 1. a terrific little ebook that shows you how to enter and win all those myriad competitions you usually ignore 2. a collection of hundreds of autoresponder messages - if you want to set up an autoresponder, for a business, a community group or whatever - you'll find a letter here that's just right. But wait ... there's more ... Everyone who enrols also has me as a personal tutor for a full twelve months ... now, if that's not a bargain, I don't know what is ;) N.B. Before you write in to tell me that I have no business offering a writing course when I can't even spell "enrol," remember that this is how we spell it out here ;) Click here: http://www.write101.com/orderform.htm to get started or send this link to someone you know and love .... awww. What it means ... For any of you who are struggling with reading and deciphering academic papers, the following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of science and medicine. Thanks to Fran for finding these and passing them along :)"IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN"... "THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN
FOR DETAILED STUDY"... "TYPICAL RESULTS ARE
SHOWN"... "IN MY EXPERIENCE"... "IN CASE AFTER CASE"... "IN A SERIES OF CASES"... "IT IS BELIEVED THAT"... "IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED
THAT"... "CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF
MAGNITUDE" ... "ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL
ANALYSIS"... "A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED
PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF "IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL
WORK WILL BE REQUIRED "AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY
COLLEAGUES"... "THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR
ASSISTANCE WITH THE "A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR
EXPLORATORY STUDY"... "IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL
STIMULATE FURTHER Aren't they great? And so-o-o true! Last week's quiz: Match the word with its meaning: poignant, apprise, dissemble, polemical, irresolute, equanimity, engender, luculent, complaisance, pusillanimous 1.unresolved, indecisive - IRRESOLUTE 2. tending to comply, obliging, willingness to please - COMPLAISANCE 3. give notice to, inform - APPRISE 4. cowardly, craven - PUSILLANIMOUS 5.controversial, argued - POLEMICAL 6. easily understood, lucid, clear - LUCULENT 7. physically painful, distressing, pertinent, touching, stimulating, emotional - POIGNANT 8. cause, produce, give rise to - ENGENDER 9. to hide, conceal, disguise - DISSEMBLE 10. calmness of temperament - EQUANIMITY You and I know that there are hundreds of terrorist jokes doing the rounds at the moment - most not in very good taste - but I thought this one was acceptable because of the play on words ... well, it's writing-related you see: Apparently the Irish army has surrounded a department store in Dublin ... They're acting on a tip-off that Bed Linen is on the second floor. Hmmm. Don't forget to use the search box if you're trying to find something from a past issue of the newsletter or information relating to any writing-related matter. You'll find it here: http://www.write101.com If you received this from a friend, click here to receive your own copy: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Word of the week: An
interesting one this week - Retronym (n)
A term coined as a modification of a referent originally used alone, to
distinguish it from a later, contrastive development. Another example of a retronym is analogue watch, to describe the sort that has hands, to distinguish it from the digital variety. Other examples are birth mother, natural turf, regular coffee, classic Coke and real cream. Invention of the term has been attributed to Frank Mankiewicz, a well-known US broadcaster and journalist who was at one time Robert Kennedy's press secretary. It seems to have first appeared at about the beginning of the eighties and is now well established in the vocabulary of those who keep a watch on our changing language. A new retronym is often a sad sign that something is on the way out - who now uses a quill pen, for instance? And the dustbin of technological evolution is filling up with the likes of reel-to-reel tape recorders, black-and-white televisions, and manual typewriters. (Compliments of Weird Words) Mondegreen of the week: Sweet dreams are made of cheese. The Eurythmics (Sweet dreams are made of this.) Here's a good Latin phrase - who of us won't need this some time in the week ahead? Nil desperandum (Don't despair.) Nunc
est bibendum (Now we must drink.) Jennifer To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com or go to the web site, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WritingTips This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
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