Punctuality Rules!

Perfection

Here’s a tricky question for you: Do you demand perfection? Of yourself? Of others? It’s a hard one, isn’t it? Personally, I feel that I’m about one, short step away from being a perfectionist–I know that perfection is impossible to achieve, and yet my standards of behavior are quite high.…

Writing, in Short

Maybe it’s my own, personal quirk, but I am not a big fan of abbreviations. I can’t really say why. Perhaps there is an affection for formality somewhere in my bone marrow, along with the parts of me that appreciate decent manners and a respect for punctuation. Mind you, I’m…

We Look Alike, We Talk Alike….

You may remember this from grade school, but let’s review anyway, because English words do not always play fair. Homonyms are words that sound alike (and sometimes, but not always, spelled alike), but have completely different meanings. Bald/Balled/Bawled Basis/Bases Idle/Idol/Idyl Pare/Pear/Pare Heteronyms are words that are spelled alike (and sometimes,…

Respect

Let’s be clear: Civility and Civilization do not depend on knowing when to shake someone’s hand, or which fork to use at dinner. Decisions about whether the short version of “electronic mail” should be spelled with or without a hyphen are not earth-shaking. You don’t have to look down your…

Annually

birth[noun]1. The act or instance of being born <biology class will be showing a movie of the birth of kittens> Synonyms: nativity Related Words: creation, genesis, origination, rise; bearing, childbearing, labor, parturition; begetting, breeding, fathering, generation, mothering, reproduction, siring, spawning; fatherhood, maternity, motherhood, parenthood, paternity Yep, it’s my birthday. And,…