17 April 2008

Number 250

Wow - this is my 250th post! Who knew I had so much to say? Well, I knew, and since I like to write, I guess it makes sense that I would make it to 250 posts. I guess the more surprising thing is that anyone besides me reads my blog. I've made so many friends, and continue to meet people who I now consider close to me - which is such an improvement over my legions of imaginary friends ...

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, commenting, whatever. I hope you'll stick around.

This week's question:


I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

Gee, this has never happened to me - HA!

Most of the time, I try to continue reading to see if I can figure out the meaning of the word or phrase in the context of the story. If it is something that I can't fit in anywhere, I'll generally look it up. To be honest, most of the time I'm too lazy, so I "decide" what it means and move on.

This has led to two instances where I ended up with weird results. The first was when I was a kid, and read the Nancy Drew books. I had never encountered the word "sleuth" until then. However, I figured it out in the context of the stories - except I pronounced it to myself as "slee-uth" (short u), because well, that's what it looked like to me. When I heard someone use the word - pronounced correctly - I couldn't figure out for the life of me what they were talking about ...

The second one is really stupid when you get down to it. I would come across dialogue where one person would use the contraction "c'mon." A lot of the time I realized what it was/what it meant, but occasionally I couldn't remember, and would think it was short for "See you on Monday." Needless to say, I would be really annoyed when one character would be talking to another one and say something (I thought) like "See you on Monday, let's go to the park." I would think to myself *what* are they trying to say??? How dumb! Though even writing it at this moment makes me laugh at myself, so that's a good thing.

17 comments:

Chris said...

Congrats on 250 posts!

Maureen said...

Congratulations on the 250 posts....here's to many more.

Knitterary said...

Congrats on 250! I love your blog.

I always look up the word. But then, I'm a nerd that way.

teabird said...

If the book is mine, I'll write the word on a flyleaf and look it up later - or I'll forget, which is more likely, come to think of it -


Congratulations on 250 posts!

BooksPlease said...

Congrats on your 250th post! I'm so glad you commented on my blog because now I have found yours and it's a treat. This post made me chuckle so I scrolled down to read more and found more to make me giggle in the Random Thoughts post about the baby hat, that's priceless. I hope you write many more.

Brigitte said...

Yay you on your 250th!

I usually jot it down, and look it up later. Mainly phrases. My first language is french...

WendyKnits said...

Happy 250th. You don't look a day over 249. :-)

Lorraine said...

Bridget- 250 posts- and many more to you.

I keep a dictionary in my nightable and look things up as I come across them.
Then I get distracted and start looking up rude words.

Dianne said...

Happy 250th!

Mistrmi said...

Oh, I'll be around. Don't you worry about that. . .

Anonymous said...

Happy 250th!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

I find it annoying when that happens and I do one of 3 things. 1. If I'm lazy I'll just ignore the word; 2. I'll ask Steve what it means (generally I'm reading in bed) and he knows everything (no exaggeration) or 3. I'll drag myself over to the dictionary and look it up the old fashioned way. I worry about attributing a meaning in context as I fear I may "learn" an improper definition!

Dave said...

Congrats!

C'mon - LOL!! Ppeppering your conversation with "See you on Monday" would be a great way to freak people out! :)

Literary Feline said...

"...most of the time I'm too lazy, so I 'decide' what it means and move on." -- I do this more than I would care to admit probably. LOL

Congratulations on your 25oth post!

Quilting Mama said...

And I've enjoyed reading every single posting. Thanks for the fun glimpses into your worlds.

We missed you today but you'll have to see my posting later for more details.

Anonymous said...

Who is quilting mama and does she really even know you?

Anonymous said...

Whoa. I can't even be bothered to reach 25 posts and you've got 250. Yay!

Whenever I hear/read "C'mon!" I immediately think of Mrs. Krabapple. :)

The only time I make an extraordinary effort to figure out a word is when I'm working on one of my journals. As I've got many non-native English speakers, they get rather creative with the language. Occasionally, when I'm reading something for enjoyment, I'll haul my butt out of bed to look something up but most of the time I'll ask Jerry or just worry about it later. Especially when it's a nicely made bed with clean sheets. Then there's no word worth looking up if it means leaving such comfort.

Again, yay you! Now I must post randome words of whimsy to catch up.