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The Write Way 23 June 2006 Who? Moi? A Food Critic? Greetings, Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on last week's topic about the pandemic of obesity. As I said to a number of people, it looks as if I touched on a sensitive subject! So, being the fair-minded person that I am, I've set up a little blog where you can post your comments and toss around a few ideas about this weight problem that has us all in such a tizz these days: Drop by and feel free to pass this along to any of your family or friends who may have some experiences to share. I've come to the conclusion that this must be the week for food-related matters, because I received an interesting phone call a couple of days ago, asking me if I could spare a few minutes to recommend some local restaurants. Ever the community-spirited one, I unhesitatingly said, "Of course, I'd love to help my local businesses get the recognition they deserve!" So, I gaily rattled off some of our favourite eateries, engaged in some sociably satisfying chat with the caller about the sort of food to be had in each and then was rewarded when she asked if I'd ever considered being a food critic. Had I, what? Who hasn't dreamed of being able to rock up to a posh restaurant, order something from every part of the menu, then to have the added delight of being able to send off pithy (but constructive) comments to the chef and management about the quality of the food and service ... AND not have to pay for it? Count me in, Honey! So with this delicious dream filling my tiny mind, I listened avidly as she explained that the comments would be compiled into a local version of the Michelin Food Guide. As a valued member of the team, I'd be given a complimentary copy of the Guide and a card that entitled me to dine On the House. I'd also get regular invitations to visit various participating restaurants.
Wow! The only catch was that I had to always pay for my drinks (fair enough) and take a paying partner (and I knew the Love of My Life would offer no objections to what amounted to half-price meals at aforementioned flash nosheries). I was chuffed, to say the least, and was already composing telling (but definitely positive and constructive) comments about our past dining experiences ... just by way of practice, you understand ... when I tuned in from my alternative universe to hear my caller conclude, " ... so that's just $2.87 a week to cover costs of printing the Guide. Thanks so much. Our rep will call on you this afternoon and get you to sign a couple of papers. Remember, you need to sign today to get your six-year membership. Bye for now and thanks again." Then she hung up. Huh? What's this? Printing costs? Oh ... Well, I suppose $2.87 a week isn't much ... Can't even buy a cup of coffee for that these days, can you? No, it wasn't that teensy weekly amount that set off alarm bells but the mention of the six-year membership. I thought I was taking on a job, not signing up for a membership ... and for six years! Let's see ... $2.87 times 52 times 6 is ... getting perilously close to T B M! Pardon? Oh, TBM ... Too Bloody Much. No, I just made that one up, but there are squillions of acronyms in everyday usage, aren't there? They're great time savers, but you have to be careful when you decide to write them down, and there's quite a bit of dispute about whether or not to use apostrophes to indicate the missing parts of the words. Is it CDs or CD's? Most Style Guides now prefer the former and save the apostrophe for indicating possession. How many CDs did you buy? Don't write on that CD's label. He dropped tomato sauce over all the CDs' covers. So that all makes sense, doesn't it? Where it gets really tricky is when people decide to use acronyms as verbs ... Sunscriber, Marie Chong, commented: "APFTP
stands for Australia Post File Transfer Protocol. Thus, we'll say,
"I'll APFTP this file to you", meaning "I shall send the file via
the APFTP. "I have APFTPed (or APFTPd) this file to you." At the moment, there's no hard and fast rule, although I'm sure there are House Rules. My personal feeling is that if you insist on (shudder) verbification of acronyms, you should at least have the decency to stick with traditional verb endings ... "I have APFTPed this file to you." "That KOed my dreams of being a food critic." You'll find more than you ever wanted to know about acronyms (including how to pronounce them) here. If all this talk of acronyms has kept you sitting in the one spot for too long, you may be comatose ... that's when your foot goes to sleep ... Sorry. To make up for that groaner, I have a pressie for you in this week's Little Something Extra ... it's called A Modest Proposal to Eliminate Acronyms and is a must for anyone who's interested in improving the clarity of writing. No, you'll have to wait until you've done the quiz. Patience is a virtue, remember? If you're a bit short on patience and like to get writing tasks out of the way so you can get on to your next activity, you really need some time-saving ways to accomplish this. How about using templates? Just copy the template into your word-processing program, add a couple of personal details and before you can say, "The World Cup replays are on!" you've finished what would previously have taken hours of furrowed brow, chewed pencil tops and frustration. Give yourself more time to enjoy the good things and use these templates now. And as an added benefit, this little software package will also correct all your spelling, punctuation and grammar errors PLUS suggest better words to enrich your writing! Cheap at half the price, indeed (especially when there's a trial version you can download right away!) Have some fun with it this weekend and you'll see that you can't live without it! This week's quiz: Since we've been pondering acronyms so far, see if you know the initials that make up these commonly used words (no cheating ... use those little grey cells before you look them up): 1. radar 2. scuba 3. laser 4. awol 5. Qantas 6. Sids 7. Nato 8. aka 9. Dos 10. Aids One for the computer buffs out there: A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard.
Last week's quiz: cellulite, cholesterol, diuretic, hypotension, metabolism, bariatrics, adipocytes, catabolism, endorphins, hypertension 1. branch of medicine dealing with the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity, both pharmacological and surgical - BARIATRICS 2. group of proteins produced naturally by the body with potent analgesic properties (similar to morphine) - ENDORPHINS 3. chemical processes that take place within a living cell or organism that break down substances to provide energy and/or raw materials which are then re-synthesised into new and necessary substances to support life - METABOLISM 4. waxy lipid (fat); important for our health, but excess is deposited on the surfaces of blood vessels making them stiff and causing blockage - CHOLESTEROL 5. the dimples and bumps in the skin, usually around the thighs and buttocks, caused when the natural structure of the skin is stretched by fat cells growing too large - CELLULITE 6. metabolic breakdown of complex molecules into simpler ones, often resulting in a release of energy - CATABOLISM 7. the scientific term for fat cells - ADIPOCYTES 8. drug that increases the discharge of urine, used to move fluid through the body quickly as a form of purging - DIURETIC 9. blood pressure above the normal range - HYPERTENSION 10. blood pressure below the normal range - HYPOTENSION And for those of us who naively believe all the sales hype about new software programs comes a story from behind the scenes... Software Development Cycle
Thanks to Danny for finding this and passing it along ... I always know I'll find an excuse to use these stories sooner or later! Subscribe Here If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. A Little Something Extra Did you know that the earliest example of acronyms being used as words dates back to the early years of Christianity? The Greek word ichthys (meaning fish) was used by early Christians to stand for Iesous Christos Theou Huios Soter, (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.) Fish were also associated with Jesus because he was known as the 'fisher of men,' and the fish symbol became associated with Jesus and the early Christians. In fact, you'll still see the fish symbol on bumper stickers today. But not all acronyms are quite as positive ... in the 1970s, President Nixon's opponents gleefully pounced on the acronym formed from the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). If you'd like to know more about acronyms, the difference between abbreviations and acronyms and why we should use them sparingly, you'll find it all in this great ebook, A Modest Proposal to Eliminate Acronyms. Send for you complimentary copy now: mailto:acronyms101@getresponse.com?subject=Acronyms101 Word of the week: Posh (adj) The story goes that this acronym came about during the heyday of P & O's Britain-to-India run when passengers, who could afford to dictate, would demand that they had portside cabins out and starboard cabins for the trip home. The reasoning was that this way, you and your good lady would then avoid the worst of the heat when travelling, because your cabin would be facing north instead of south on the trip across the Mediterranean. Plus the view was supposed to be better on the northern side ... Don't ask. Now fascinating as this story is, sadly, it's just that ... a story with no real basis in fact. A more plausible explanation is that "posh" meant "halfpenny" (from Romany _posh_ "half") and then "money" before acquiring its present meaning. Or it may come from the slang "pot" (= "big", "a person of importance"). Or it may be a contraction of "polished". The term was used from the mid 19th century to mean a dandy and that is a possible derivation for the current meaning. In his 1903 "Tales of St. Austin's", P. G. Wodehouse used the word "push" to mean much the same as we now use "posh", and that's a possible derivation: "That waistcoat ... being quite the most push thing of the sort in Cambridge." The first recording of posh in print is from Punch magazine, Sept. 1918: "Oh, yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there." Sigh ... Fancy letting facts get in the way of a good story! Oxymoron of the week: easy acronym And this week's Latin phrase is not something you want to hear at the end of a night at a posh restaurant where you've been and laughing and smiling and generally hogging the spotlight the whole time ... In dentibus anticis frustum magnum spiniciae habes. [EEN dayn-TEE-boos ahn-TEE-kees FROOS-toom MAHG-noom speen-EEK-ee-eye HAH-bays] (You have a big piece of spinach on your front teeth.) Kind regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal: OR 2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form. (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart) Copyright 2006 Jennifer Stewart Individual articles copyrighted by
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