“I wan‘t the good guy‘s to win.”
“My family are leaving me for the weekend.”
“most of there clothes are about $5″

When in doubt, or simply as a rule, whack in an apostrophe, just for good measure. It can’t hurt, right? And what about those collective nouns? Out the door with them! Two of the above quotes came directly from the internet, and the third out of the mouth of a relative of mine. (I still love you! xx)

I have this dilemma. You see, I’ve always been madly interested in languages. I was brought up (as opposed to bought up) in a household of immigrants, where education was extremely important, and using correct language was ..well, just what you did. It was expected. My teachers at school expected it, and my parents, mostly Mum, expected it too. It wasn’t something that was up for grabs. It wasn’t optional. It wasn’t anything you would dick around with. You just spoke correctly.

One of my “fondest” memories is of getting into trouble as a child because I used contractions such as “can’t” and “don’t”. Even that was straying, for my mother.

At the time, I was quite the young rebel, and continued to use “won’t” and “shouldn’t”, almost more so to make my point – languages evolve! Don’t you understand that, mother?

So here’s where my dilemma comes in. It seems we’ve done away with any interest in correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. And when I say “we”, I mean the up-and-coming generations, the ones to whom the world now belongs. When I say now, I mean “now, when  I can just about smell the burning  candles and taste the cherries on top of my 55th birthday cake”. The world is no longer mine, at least not when it comes to language and grammar. For the most part, phonetics is all important. So, “there”, “their” and “they’re” are interchangeable. Even “”are” and “our” apparently can switch places!

Now, I know that language evolves, and it seems that that’s what is happening here, but I am not so sure. I’m not convinced yet, although I’m open to the possibility, that in fifty or a hundred years time, we won’t even have the written word to worry about. Perhaps language and communication will transform beyond what’s even conceivable now. Maybe this will all be moot. I really don’t know. The only thing for me is, I feel that now, in our time, we’re missing the whole point of language.

See, what differentiates us from the animals that roam the Earth, as we all know, is precisely the fact that we have language. More than that, language is the medium by which we communicate, and by which we create life and the world we live in, whether it’s to ask someone to pass the sugar, or to use the most expressive poetry to tell someone we love them, and thereby create a whole world that didn’t exist the moment before we spoke, or to create a significant document that reaches down the generations – take any country’s constitution.

Misuse of language, sloppiness with expression, any lack of understanding of the rules of language – all are opportunities for ambiguity, confusion, and mischief. When I hear on the radio, “The government are about to pass the bill,” I want to reply, “Are it?” It just doesn’t make any sense. It leaves me listening to and dealing with the bad language, and not fully engaged with what the speaker or reader is expressing. The flow of language is interrupted, and it becomes an irritant to the ear and to the mind.

But, as I’m bemoaning the demise of my beautiful, rich mother-tongue, I keep searching for a solution. I mean, how can language that has gone so far off the rails be revived? I’m devastated by the number of teachers, professors, academics, doctors, lawyers, politicians, government representatives, both here and abroad, who mess up the language. It seems hopeless. I mean, if those that educate and lead don’t have the thing flat, what hope is there!

Now, I do know of several people out there who are making a concerted effort to re-educate the masses. I only hope the masses get interested in learning from them. I’m gob-smacked by the lack of interest on most people’s part; they’re not even looking to educate themselves. It’s more of that dumbing down thing, mediocrity winning the day, “anyone can be a hero” mentality that mistakenly validates and almost glorifies ignorance. I think people completely missed the point in the movie, Forrest Gump. Forrest is not a hero because he’s a sandwich short of a picnic. He’s a hero because being a good person, having a full and generous heart, doesn’t depend upon how educated you are. And yet it seems that people think that any nincompoop is worthy of fame and fortune, and idolatry. You just have to turn on cable TV and count how many “reality” shows there are, shows about nothing really. Shows that do nothing more than provide the means for people to have Andy Warhol’s legendary 15 minutes.

So who are these people? Those that keep the Preservation of Language flag flying high? I know a couple of them. Well, not personally, but enough that I can introduce you to them, if you like. My list is really short, but start here, if you are interested. Start with these, and get a taste for it. Allow yourself to become fascinated, and then move on to others. You’ll find them. You just have to look. They’re everywhere. You’ll find them in books; just ask at the bookshop. You’ll find them on the internet, if books aren’t your thing. Here are two of my favourites for you:

1. Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue and Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words. Easy-to-read books with a humorous bent. Very smart and entertaining.
2. Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl, a website loaded with information and grammar answers. She publishes podcasts, she tweets, and her website is loaded with grammatical goodies.

So. What do you think? Is language simply evolving, or are you as frustrated as I am with the complete, blasé disrespect of the centuries that have gone into creating this thing of beauty and genius we call our language?

I’m guessing that if you’ve gotten to the end of this post, you’re someone who already holds our language dear.

I made my very first lavender wand today. It wasn’t as if I’d seen them eons ago and have been longing to make one. Not all all. I hadn’t even heard of them until this morning. Have you? Well, I stumbled across a blog post about them, looked on the internet, found some gorgeous images including these below, found this YouTube tutorial for ribbon-less wands, and then this tutorial for how to weave in the ribbon. I turned my head to the left, and looked out of my window at the lavender bushes in my garden. The project was under way! About 15 minutes later, I had my finished wand in my hand. Plus a sweet little bouquet that’s going in my undies drawer. Pretty cool, huh! I think next time I’ll see if I can make one of those big fat wands. I like them.

from Chappell Hill Lavender Farm

from The Squirrel Basket

from Provence

Below is a picture of my wand. A little rough round the edges, but I’m happy with this first attempt.

smells divine!

Driving to our friends’ house tonight for a fish and chips dinner that turned out to be a full-on, fabulous barbecue, we listened to the news on the radio. The reporter said something about the 19-year-old man who was stabbed in St. Kilda, and then the entire rest of the short 2-minute report was devoted to the question that must be on everyone’s minds (NOT!) … “Will people still come to St. Kilda, we hope this won’t deter them from coming”. Now I ask you, what the hell kind of news reporting is that? It makes my blood boil. It’s a little bit like when Marisa Tomei says to Joe Pesci in ‘My Cousin Vinny,’

“Imagine you’re a deer. You’re prancing along. You get thirsty. You spot a little brook. You put your little deer lips down to the cool, clear water – BAM. A fuckin’ bullet rips off part of your head. Your brains are lying on the ground in little bloody pieces. Now I ask ya, would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son-of-a-bitch who shot you was wearing?”

Except we’re talking about a young man here, and not a deer. But isn’t the same kind of disbelief and outrage warranted here too? I mean, is that really the question to be asking now? Will people still come to St. Kilda? It’s no wonder I don’t read the newspapers or listen to the news on the radio, or on TV. I can’t stand what passes for reporting these days.

I think our society has gone really weird. It’s weird what has become important. What’s important apparently is to make the tiniest ripples. There’s no being bold. There’s no line of demarcation over which people will not cross. No stand on what’s really critical in life, like people’s real safety. If that was really important, we’d be all over this thing like a rash, making sure that those people who think it’s acceptable behaviour to go around carrying and brandishing knives, we’d make sure they are behind bars for life. Not like the piddly couple-3 years or something the guy, if they catch him, is likely to get. Makes my blood boil.

I love it. Woke up this morning, the sun was shining. You know the way holidays feel? Like you just wanna smile. I put on the kettle, and my falling-apart kitchen didn’t look quite so bad. Bree’s here cleaning up the garden, and I swear, it feels like when our kids were at school, and it was the day before summer holidays started. Six weeks off to play in the sun. Yep, it’s holiday time alright. Even Sarah’s kinda winding it down a notch. Moshe’s reading his blogs, I’m writing posts, and it just feels.. well, kinda happy, doesn’t it?

I just saw a fabulous message on Facebook about the Weeds app. Fabulous. I click on the link to take me to iTunes, try to download it, and am told something along the lines of “this app is not available in your country”. HUH!!!! I can’t stand this kind of nonsense. I kinda can get it with DVDs, although not really. It’s the same thing as why phone companies don’t all use the same kinda connection cable for your phone. Why should I have to buy a new cable every time I upgrade my phone? And even if it’s a phone made by the very same company as my last phone! It’s just weird! So now, I have to wait down in little ol’ Australia for the app to reach our shores. I hope the ship has a smooth journey across the oceans. I reckon I should set up camp at Docklands and wait! I mean, how insane is that!

Does anyone have a really good explanation for why this is the case? What’s with the regions! Why I can’t buy the Weeds app here in Australia? It’s even a free app! And by “really good”, I mean one that has merit, weight, one that makes sense. Not just the reason someone from tech support in some Asian country gave you.

I know, you’re probably thinking… “Another blog? What on earth does she need another one for?????” Well I decided I do. This will serve as a place for me to write about things not related to quilting, piano, A Lists, or genealogy. Perfect. I’m still setting things up, and trying to think of a really good name,  so bear with me as I do that. Now it’ll be simple for me to direct my friends to my blog. Instead of having to give them ten million addresses, there’s only one. This one. And from here, they can click to go to one of my other sites. Good, yes?