Speaking Confidentially: 6 November 1997

Whither English?

Knowledge Is Wealth.
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treeEt tu, CNN?

From the griping files two days ago:
This morning on CNN's Morning Edition, John Metaxis at the Financial Desk (6 November 1997 6:40 a.m. MST) spoke of certain rates. These rates were not increasing or decreasing significantly but, he said, were "moderating." Was there a debate the rates mediated? Is not "moderate" a transitive verb?

treePaper

I am settled in the corner of the living room with the nasty IBM-compatible on my lap. What even is the correct term for such machines anymore? I need a corner and comfort, which means that Blake is upset because no one is using the desktop. So he's having a time-out in his cage, where I hope he will calm down and become a good study buddy. With me now is Monty, whom I call my moos. The pun is more obvious when spoken.

treeMy Son

Blake has just endeared himself to me in an nth way. He has been playing on his bookshelf like a good boy, not chewing the wall or fluttering to the floor. One reason he doesn't chew on the wall is the coffee cup in the corner. If it were bottoms-up, he'd clamber up it and chew the wall higher up; but he hasn't figured out to climb to the rim of a right-side-up mug yet. He's munching pellets, turning them reflectively in his beak, and has just snapped one across the room. Happily for us, he also has not discovered the joy of deliberately launching pellets across the room as his older brother did. Anyway, just after selecting a pellet, he noticed the coffee cup to his right. He peeped inside it, then carefully dropped the pellet into the mug. Okay, I'm anthropomorphizing, but it did look to me like he considered the aesthetic appeal of the interior of the mug, decided it needed some color, and remedied the situation.

treeSunday evening television

On "60 Minutes" tonight was interviewed the producer of the CBS show broadcast directly after "60 Minutes," "Touched by an Angel." "60 Minutes" did this with Angela Lansbury too; it always advertises the post-Andy show. The producer said she didn't want the angels--three of them, N.B.--to be the stars of show, but God. The interviewer said, "But you never see God," because the show is carefully non-denominationally Christian. And I, ever Tom Servo, retorted to RDC (my captive audience), "But you never saw Charlie either, and everyone wanted to be touched by those angels."

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Last modified 18 November 1997

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