I met a librarian today. Well, a soon-to-be librarian. Alexandra is studying Library Science at Uppsala University, and she helped me track down some of Bill Bryson's books in the maze that is the humanities library in town. I was always highly confused with the Dewey Decimal system as a kid and had just started to figure it out when I moved abroad where they have a completely different way of organizing books. In our search for Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, she asked if i was from America, and when I said yes, South Carolina, I was surprised to see her face react with excited surprise instead of the dull unrecognition I am used to getting. She is in fact leaving in 2 weeks for a library internship at the College of Charleston, and as we spoke I tried to think of what to recommend for her to see. The weather will be a highlight, as we have had fallish, greyish, cool weather since the middle of August, and I am sure the South Carolina beaches will still be warmer than a Swedish summer. Charleston is a beautiful city to explore, one i loved as a child because of those cobblestone streets that made it feel thousands of years old. (and that pinneapple water fountain....how cool was that!) I told her she ought to check out the fall colors of western North Carolina, to which she asked the logical (to the European mind) question of "Is there a good train system? ....busses?" Well, not really, i said. Unfortunatly everyone just drives cars. With some hope i suggested she rent a car since it's fairly inexpensive. She doesn't have a liscense though, having never really needed one. So, my question for my SC readers is...does anyone know of a good non-car way to get around our great state? Surely there is a bus or train I have just never looked for before?
3 comments:
Hey Hannah~ Hannah Stevenson(daughter of Hal and Diana from 1st Pres.) is a freshman at CofC adn would probably be glad to show your new friend SC. We also go there a lot since Jay is a senior at The Citadel. Among our crew, I know we can find some Burkes who would be happy to show this carless young woman the SC South. Contact Ashleigh and my crew. Love ~ Mrs. Burke
She can definitely stay with us in Greenville, if she wants to! I miss public transportation so bad, too! One nice thing is that you can get around pretty well on foot in Charleston... She picked a good city.
I miss you Hannah!
Hannah,
I recently read this interesting take on the English language from a friend in school in Costa Rica. I thought you might like it. I hope I get to see you when you come home to visit. Let me know.
Melissa Hood
Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it--English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea, nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, two geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of it all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which of course isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
How about when you want to shut down your computer you have to hit start?
---By Sermon Fodder and Joke a Day Ministries
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