I Had A Birthday; Shout Hooray!

Cash is always so great. I was out of the country on a trip, and since she is humorous and I like to let her blog for me, this is what she wrote in an e-mail to me for my birthday:

*****

Great things happen at age 32.

When Harriet Tubman was 32, she helped rescue slaves through the Underground Railroad.

When Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was 32, he was on his exploration for El Dorado and he spent the winter in a village that later turned into Bernalillo, New Mexico.

When Meriweather Lewis was 32, he was on a groundbreaking expedition of the unknown western United States with William Clark and Sacagawea.

When Audrey Hepburn was 32, she starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

When Harper Lee was 32, she was in the process of writing To Kill a Mockingbird.

When Michael Jordan was 32, he came out of retirement to lead the Chicago Bulls to a record 72-win season (as well as the next three NBA titles).

When J.K. Rowling was 32, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published.

When Tina Fey was 32, she was Saturday Night Live's first female head writer.

When Alexander the Great was 32, he died ... after having conquered most of the "civilized" world.

When Thomas Edison was 32, he perfected his invention of the incandescent lamp (aka the light bulb).

The following celebrities are also 32: James Franco, tennis champion Tommy Haas, Ashton Kutcher (sorry), Olympic gold medalist (and BYU alumnus) Ryan Millar, Liv Tyler (he-he), Jon Heder, Brittany Murphy (or would be if she were still alive), and, my favorite, Creep Creepersin,

And finally, four out of 10 women feel most beautiful at age 32.

*****

I'm feeling pretty good to be 32. Thanks for the fun e-mail, Cash.

Thanks for Writing My Post for Me, Cash

Did I ever mention that I have a sister who sometimes writes me the most hilarious e-mails? Well, I do. This is cash's input for today:

One of the secretaries at my work listens to a Top 40s radio station every day. There are these two songs that are played constantly these days. Both have blatant grammatical problems in their choruses:

1. From Alicia Keys and Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind": "New York! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of!" What on earth does that even mean? What is she trying to say?

2. From Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance": "You and me could write a bad romance." Well, obviously. Maybe "you" and "I" could write a better one.

Am I too picky to expect better grammar from a world where everyone who titles a song with "you" actually uses "u" instead?

And then when I asked cash via e-mail if I could post this on my blog, she also brought up another song that really hurts my grammatical ears (not that they are fine-tuned or anything) when I hear it. We can thank Paul McCartney for this one: "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in..." In which we live in? Aaaaah! Seriously, it hurts.

No, Cash. In my opinion, you are not too picky to expect a song-writer to write correctly. Also, I think that the problem with #1 is the same problem that I hear all over these days (especially in church). People sometimes don't think about real meanings of sayings when they use them in their conversations. They know what they mean, but it doesn't really fit the situation.

Another grammatical pet peeve I have in songs: "If I was..." or "If today was..." It's enough to lose my fanhood. Attention musicians: "Were" should be used with "if." When in doubt, think of Fiddler on the Roof. "If I were a rich man..."

Regarding "u" for "you:" probably my biggest problem with the substitution of a letter for a word is that I guess I'm too dumb sometimes to get it. On Facebook earlier today I was reading a comment, and the person substituted "y" for "why." This is a problem for me because to me "y" equals "and," not "why." And it didn't make any sense. Sometimes I confess to using a letter instead of a word, but that is generally while texting when I'm trying to be fast or trying to fit it all in one message. I guess I should be more versatile. R u thinking that, 2? Gr8!

So, how about u guys? What do u think about grammar and/or letter substitution for words?

Newbery Books: Great, Good, Meh, or Skip?

So, I was talking with Cash the other day, and she was hinting around that I haven't blogged in a while. It's true. In my own defense, I have a partially-completed post that just takes a bit to finish because it's my 2008 Movie Post. You know, the one where I tell you what I watched in '08 and give my opinion about their goodness or badness.

Anyway, in the meantime, since I probably won't finish that post until at least tomorrow, please enjoy a post brought to you by Cash. She read all of the Newbery books. It took her a few years to complete the goal, and she did it with this really fantastic, enjoyable, and long write-up about each of the books. Don't worry... I'm not going to post the write-ups. But, I am going to post her categorization of the books into Great, Good, Meh, and Skip categories. If you want to read Newbery books, feel free to use this as somewhat of a guide. Also, feel free to discuss in the comments of this post whether you agree/disagree with her categorization of the books. Or, you can ask her specific questions, and if she realizes I'm doing this, maybe she'll answer your questions in the comments section.

And for me? As a newly-reinstated card-carrying member of our public library, I plan to read some of these books. If I can get around to it. I am also pleased that there are relatively few books in the skip category. For award-winning books, I would hope there wouldn't be many, if any. Enjoy!

Great

2005 Kira-Kira
2001 A Year Down Under
1999 Holes
1997 The View from Saturday
1994 The Giver
1990 Number the Stars
1988 Lincoln: A Photobiography
1984 Dear Mr. Henshaw
1979 The Westing Game
1978 Bridge to Terabithia
1977 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
1973 Julie of the Wolves
1972 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
1967 Up a Road Slowly
1963 A Wrinkle in Time
1961 Island of the Blue Dolphins
1959 The Witch of Blackbird Pond
1954 …And Now Miguel
1948 The Twenty-One Balloons
1946 Strawberry Girl
1944 Johnny Tremain
1936 Caddie Woodlawn
1934 Invincible Louisa
1923 The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
1922 The Story of Mankind

Good

2008 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
2007 The Higher Power of Lucky
2006 Criss Cross
2000 Bud, Not Buddy
1998 Out of the Dust
1995 Walk Two Moons
1993 Missing May
1992 Shiloh
1991 Maniac Magee
1989 Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
1987 The Whipping Boy
1986 Sarah, Plain and Tall
1983 Dicey’s Song
1981 Jacob Have I Loved
1980 A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
1974 The Slave Dancer
1970 Sounder
1967 The High King
1964 It’s Like This, Cat
1958 Rifles for Watie
1957 Miracles on Maple Hill
1955 The Wheel on the School
1952 Ginger Pye
1945 Rabbit Hill
1941 Call It Courage
1939 Thimble Summer
1932 Waterless Mountain
1925 Tales from Silver Lands
1924 The Dark Frigate

Meh

2004 The Tale of Despereaux
2003 Crispin: The Cross of Lead
2002 A Single Shard
1996 The Midwife’s Apprentice
1985 The Hero and the Crown
1982 A Visit to William Blake’s Inn
1976 The Grey King
1975 M.C. Higgins, the Great
1971 Summer of the Swans
1966 I, Juan de Pareja
1965 Shadow of a Bull
1962 The Bronze Bow
1956 Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
1953 Secret of the Andes
1951 Amos Fortune, Free Man
1950 The Door in the Wall
1949 King of the Wind
1943 Adam of the Road
1942 The Matchlock Gun
1940 Daniel Boone
1933 Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
1931 The Cat Who Went to Heaven
1930 Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
1929 The Trumpeter of Krakow
1928 Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon
1927 Smoky the Cow Horse
1926 Shen of the Sea

Skip

1960 Onion John
1947 Miss Hickory
1938 The White Stag
1935 Dobry

On Cleverness

This summer I enjoyed a play called Cyrano de Bergerac. During the intermission we were discussing what we thought about it, and I mentioned that I thought that Cyrano was very clever. A guy whose name escapes me right now quickly caught that and asked me if cleverness was attractive to me in guys. The question kind of caught me off guard, but I quickly realized that yes, I do like it when people are clever. Not just guys, but all people. Clever people are cool.

I also like getting e-mail. Blogs are cool, too, but they're basically public, so you have to be a little guarded about what you say. Well, since I have a major case of The Fridays today, I've been browsing some old e-mail messages, and I would like to quote from some of them. I am fortunate enough to receive e-mail from some really clever people, so enjoy! This installment is from Cash (names have been changed to protect people).

"Game-playing in Salt Lake City is almost always unbearable. I’ve gone to "game parties" before in the SLC and they’re typically ranked right up there with mammograms, Rod Stewart, and McDonald’s. It’s not necessarily that the games are unbearable, it’s more the atmosphere."

"...wastes of time should per se be enjoyable."

"I considered urinating on him – then I’d be rid of him forever! ... Or would I?"

"We had to dilute it before (she) would even consider it as an entry, and even then it was like drinking an entire bottle of an 85-year-old’s perfume."

"I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically that four girls who were talking VERY SERIOUSLY about sex and lingerie had been – a mere five minutes earlier – racing each other down the stairs ala Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone using their sleeping bags as toboggans."

"There was a truck parked on our lawn and a barbecue on the driveway. Donna and Jack were challenging each other to a belching contest. Mike and Brock were leaning against the truck, wearing sweat pants, and drinking Mountain Dew. The winner of the pie-eating contest won a Kathy Ireland exercise slide. The newlyweds and our neighbors were no doubt praying for the swift return of our parents from Hong Kong."

"If you’re in Utah, the "Settlers" is to be pronounced as two separate words: "Sett"-"Lers." If you pronounce it as one fluid word, you will be revealing your brains. That’s not always a good thing in these here parts."

"When I revealed that I knew what the word "gamut" meant, everyone in the room feared me."

Okay, so I think these are clever. The funny thing is, you might not. So, while I say that I like cleverness, we all probably have a different idea of what about cleverness is attractive or cool. And the attractiveness about being clever can be unattractive if you know you're being clever or if you're trying too hard to be clever. So... I guess that it has a lot to do with delivery. Anyway, I'm glad I have clever family and friends. So there. Yay for me!