The Write Way

5 July 2002

The Eyes Have It ...

Greetings,

You have to admit that I've had a pretty good run recently - not too many boo-boos really ... But that all changed last week! LaVonne cheekily commented, "Well, Jenny, I've heard of thanking my lucky stars, but you've given us a new twist by thanking your lucky starts. Is there a story here, or just a typo?"

I suppose I could say that since the subject was ancient Greek tragedies about Oedipus complexes, then thanking your lucky 'starts' or 'tarts' would be quite logical - albeit more in the nature of a Freudian slip than a typo... (The males in my family always get a silly look when we mention "a tartan uniform" ...)

But I have to 'fess up and admit it was just a typo! (As was the answer to the quiz: "the condition of being dull or lethargic" - HEBETUDE, not 'henetude' ... At least those two letters are right next to each other ... easy mistake to make ... really.)

Oh ... and Stanley pointed out that I'd left out the first C in "senescence" when giving the answers to the quiz! (But I did get it right the week before ... honest.)

It's quite ironic that I made these mistakes in the same week I spent two days driving my daughter to and from the hospital to have laser surgery on her eyes ... I was supposed to be the one who could see properly! 

Now there's a fantastic procedure, that laser eye surgery ... 

My daughter has worn glasses for driving since she got her licence and has complained about the inconvenience - especially during summer when glasses can be very hot. So she started investigating laser surgery - much to my horror. 

Anything that involves someone clipping open your eyes and then coming at them with any type of cutting instrument smacks too much of those old sci-fi movies for my liking. You know, the ones where your next-door neighbour gets captured by aliens and taken away for scientific experimentation, returning the next day with no memory of events but a telling scar down around his skull.

But, she was determined to have this done and after extensive research and appointments with a couple of different doctors, she finally settled on having the surgery done at a city hospital, which is why she needed mummy dearest to drive her in and back.

While we were sitting waiting, we were trying to read the eye chart on the wall in an adjoining room ... as you do. I managed to read the first five lines OK, but she had trouble getting past the first two. 

A variety of nurses, optometrists and the like kept coming in, taking her off to fill in forms, peer through a strange assortment of machines and so on until I grew weary of bidding her a fond farewell and she finally muttered through gritted teeth, "You don't have to kiss me every time, Mum!"

At one stage she was beckoned into another room, and returned with a smug smile on her face about twenty minutes later. It was over! So fast! 

She had to sit for a few minutes before the doctor checked on her and while she was sitting, she had another look at the eye chart (as you do) and she could read every line! Talk about amazing ...

For what it's worth, all this emotional energy exerted in the direction of the eyes, got me thinking about expressions we use that are related to our various senses. When you're driving in circles, looking for road signs, house numbers or the like, you'll often issue an instruction to your travelling companion to "keep your eyes peeled." 

Ugh! Given my daughter's recent experience, this is a tad too close to the truth ... but where does this rather ghoulish expression come from?

The Word Detective claims: "Regarding eyes peeled, it's a tossup whether that phrase is "yuckier" than its predecessor, "Keep your eyes skinned." In any case, they are both distinctively American coinages dating to the mid-19th century and meaning simply to stay very alert. To the extent that it means anything literally (do we really want to talk about this?), the phrase probably refers to keeping your eyelids open, which is good advice ..."

Here are a couple more that you've probably been wondering about for years past ... or not.

Ears

"Earmark, which we now use to mean "to designate" or "to set aside for a particular purpose" has a very simple origin. For centuries, farmers have marked their livestock as their property by cutting distinctive notches in the animals' ears. "Earmark" in this literal sense first appeared in English around 1591, but the use of "earmark" in the figurative sense "to designate" arose only in the late 19th century."

Noses

"The human nose appears in many slang phrases symbolizing something very close, intimate or obvious -- think of "right under your nose," "counting noses," "nose to nose" or "poke your nose into." The nose is the center of the human face, after all, so it's not surprising that it should serve as "ground zero" for so many metaphors.

"Several books on word and phrase origins trace on the nose to the early days of radio broadcasting. The theory is that it came from the engineer in the studio control room placing a finger alongside his nose as a signal to the announcer that the program was running precisely on schedule. I think, however, that the engineer was, more than likely, simply pantomiming the phrase "on the nose," which already existed."

Teeth

"The source of the phrase by the skin of one's teeth is the Book of Job, although the precise phrase Job used was "My bone cleaveth to my skin, and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth" (not "by"). Just what the "skin" of one's teeth might be is a bit unclear, but it probably refers to the thin porcelain exterior of the tooth, not the gums. Job evidently kept his teeth, but just barely. It is also possible that he was saying that the margin of his escape was as narrow as the "skin" of a tooth is shallow -- the equivalent of a "hair's breadth." In any case, Job clearly meant that he'd had a very hard time of it, and the phrase has been used ever since to mean a very narrow or arduous escape."

You can find more of these fascinating columns from the Word Detective here: http://www.word-detective.com/index.html But be warned - you need lots of time to spare!

Some little exercises on expressions related to the eye, if you still have spare time:  http://www.eflworksheets.com/body_words_eye.htm

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This week's quiz:

Many of these words relate to those bits and pieces of the human anatomy we've been discussing this week - match them up with their meanings:

ocellated,  eyot,  oculate,  oeillade, olid,  ocellated, ompheloid, onychoid, eyas, ocellated, oculus

1. unfledged falcon or other bird of prey

2. small island in a lake or river

3. eyelike and ringed; having an eyelike spot or spots

4. having eyes

5. round window, especially over main door in church

6. divination using teeth (Shudder ... don't even ask!)

7. an ogle; a glance or wink

8. smelling terrible

9. navel-like (as in belly-button, not sailors ...)

10.like a fingernail

If you ever have one of those days when you find it difficult to get things in perspective, have I got a site for you! It's a fascinating and strangely sobering site (run by the Florida State University) that Albert found: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."

Amazing!

As I said to Albert when he sent me this, it reminded me of a rhyme my dad taught me (along with all the nursery rhymes) when I was a toddler :

Here's something my son sent me this week - seems it came as something of an epiphany for him!

Subject: Brownie Points Explained ...

For thousands of years, men have tried to understand the rules when dealing with women.  Finally, this merit/demerit guide will help you to understand just how it works. Remember, in the world of romance,
one single rule applies: Make the woman happy.

Do something she likes, and you get points.
Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted.
You don't get any points for doing something she expects.
Sorry, that's the way the game is played.

Here's a guide to the points system:

SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed..............................................+1
You make the bed, but forget to add the decorative pillows.... 0
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets...................-1
You leave the toilet seat up..................................-5
You replace the toilet paper roll when it is empty............ 0
When the toilet paper roll is barren, you resort to Kleenex...-1
When the Kleenex runs out you use the next bathroom...........-2
You go out to buy her extra-light panty liners with wings.....+5
in the snow...................................................+8
but return with beer..........................................-5
and no liners.................................................-25
You check out a suspicious noise at night..................... 0
You check out a suspicious noise and it is nothing............ 0
You check out a suspicious noise and it is something..........+5
You pummel it with a six iron.................................+10
It's her cat..................................................-40

AT THE PARTY
You stay by her side the entire party......................... 0
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with a work colleague.........-2
Named Tiffany.................................................-4
Tiffany is a dancer...........................................-10
With breast implants..........................................-18

HER BIRTHDAY
You remember her birthday..................................... 0
You buy a card and flowers.................................... 0
You take her out to dinner.................................... 0
You take her out to dinner and it's not a pub.................+1
Okay, it is a pub.............................................-2
It's all-you-can-eat night................................-3
It's a pub, and it's all-you-can-eat night....................-10

A NIGHT OUT WITH THE BOYS
Go with a mate................................................ 0
The mate is happily married...................................+1
The mate is single............................................-7
Not for long - it's his buck's night..........................-10
He has a liking for Kings Cross (red light) establishments................-50

A NIGHT OUT WITH HER
You take her to a movie.......................................+2
You take her to a movie she likes.............................+4
You take her to a movie you hate..............................+6
You take her to a movie you like..............................-2
It's called Death Cop III.....................................-3
Which features Cyborgs that eat humans........................-9
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans.........-15

YOUR PHYSIQUE
You develop a noticeable beer gut..............................-15
You develop a noticeable beer gut and exercise to get rid of it..+10
You develop a noticeable beer gut and resort to loose jeans and baggy Hawaiian shirts ...........-30 
You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too."................-800

THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Does this dress make me look fat?" You hesitate in responding...................................-10
You reply, "Where?"..........................................-35
You reply, "No, I think it's your bum"......................-100
Any other response...........................................-20

COMMUNICATION
When she wants to talk about a problem:
You listen, displaying a concerned expression..................0
You listen, for over 30 minutes................................+5
You relate to her problem and share a similar experience.......+50
You're mind wanders to the cricket and you suddenly hear her saying "well what do you think I should do?"..................-100
You have fallen asleep.........................................-200

ITS THAT TIME OF THE MONTH.......
You talk.....................................................-100
You don't talk...............................................-150
You spend time with her......................................-200
You don't spend time with her................................-500
You are seen to be enjoying yourself......................... GAME OVER, YOU LOSE!

No comment :)

Last week's quiz:

suicide, uxoricide, genocide, inovicide, fratricide, tomecide, verbicide,  maritocide, matricide, deicide

1. deliberate distortion of the meaning of a word (as in a pun) or "violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning" - VERBICIDE

2. killing of a wife - UXORICIDE

3. killing a husband - MARITRICIDE

4. killing a brother - FRATRICIDE

5. killing an entire race - GENOCIDE

6. killing a mother - MATRICIDE

7. taking your own life - SUICIDE

8. killing a god - DEICIDE

9. killing off a new idea - INOVICIDE

10. to destroy books - TOMECIDE

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A Little Something Extra ...

Here's an article that addresses an important element in any book, whether it's written for children or adults:

"A story without a strong voice does not come alive for the reader, does not touch the reader’s imagination. That’s because the author isn’t present in the story. This is tricky, because one of our goals as children's authors is to remain invisible. We want our readers to become so immersed in our stories that they forget an adult is behind the words. We don’t want them to ever break that suspension of disbelief and realize that a person other than the main character created this tale. And yet if we remove ourselves entirely from the book it has no soul. So your author's "voice" is really that part of you that’s timeless, that reaches back across the generations and connects with the reader on his or her level."

Read how you can develop an original voice in your writing here: http://www.write101.com/chvoice.htm

Oxymoron:  authentic replica. This one reminds me of a label I once read on a shirt: "100% virgin polyester" ... That still has me shaking my head!

Word of the week: Sesquipedalian (n or adj) “a word of many syllables”. The “pedal” part of this word refers to a “foot” – as in your “pedal extremities”. And the “sesqui—” prefix means “one and a half” so  sesquipedalian is saying that words of many syllables are words that are “one and a half feet long.”

The expression is credited to the Roman poet Horace ( 65 BC – 8 BC) when he wrote “sesquipedalia verba” – literally “words a foot and a half long.” In the 18th century sesquipedalian was used to mean a measurement of half a yard in height or length but today it's used to describe those people whose writing is littered with big words. 

"Lavinia flashed him an uncertain smile when he asked her home to view his collection of sesquipedalian works."

Isn't that a little ripper of a word?

Here's a Latin phrase for those times when nothing seems to go right:

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni! (Beam me up, Scotty!)

Regards,

Jennifer

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