Monday, February 18, 2008

Howdy

Just a quick note of apology. A couple of friends have commented on my spelling and grammar or lack there of. But after this many twelve hour days in the hospital under the conditions I feel lucky to get my shoes on the right feet in the morning. The whole thing does weird stuff to your brain it makes so many things seem unimportant.

8 comments:

Cake the Small said...

HeyYa Duncan, no worries on the grammar and spelling. We're just glad you're keeping us informed. Live from Batavia Coast, Mrs. Jarvie.

Anonymous said...

Hi Duncan,
Who cares about your grammar and spelling? On the contrary, I feel they give that special down-home touch to your posts, which are eagerly awaited little jewels you so generously offer us day after day. Keep 'em coming, and don't change anything! :)
Christine in NC

Anonymous said...

Hello Duncan; Don't worry about it,you are good to go with the crowd here in Pennsylvania. So glad for all the updates. Hope you will all soon be headed east. Keith Bednar

Anonymous said...

Well, there's your problem, Duncan.

One of those shoes should go on the left foot!


Portland

Unknown said...

Thanks for the updates, Duncan, and no worries. I taught literature and composition for 20 years. F#"k grammar. Sue

Anonymous said...

Duncan,

ewe maid gremmer mestaces und erars wit ?spilleng eye dednet knotise.

lurve al de steries. Pleze cepe dem kominc.

much love to you, your dad and everyone.

Mike Taub

Unknown said...

Hi Duncan,

I am a book editor and translator and I wholeheartedly echo Susan's comment! and have this to add about grammar:

"It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word." - Andrew Jackson.

and here are a few more enlightening thoughts on the subject:

"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." - attributed to Winston Churchill, rejecting the rule against ending a sentence with a preposition, c.1948.

"Grammar stops at love, and at art."
- Valentine Sterling

"If you give me the tools, the syntax, and the grammar, it still doesn't tell me how to write Ulysses." - David Baker

"Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression." - Bronson Alcott

"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places."
- A.A. Milne

"Correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays." - George Eliot

"Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar." -E.B. White

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."
- Mark Twain

"His eyes so dim, so wasted each limb, that heedless of grammar, they all cried, 'That's him!'" - Richard Harris Barham

and my favorite, "Why care for grammar as long as we are good?
- Artemus War

So glad to hear your dad is feeling better. I saw him perform only one time, around 1976 in Amherst, Mass. Although I have forgotten who the friend was who took me, I never forgot that performance, and I have passed his music and stories on to my kids. I discovered this blog while looking to see if he would be anywhere nearby so I could take them.

Continued healing and strength to you all. And thank you.

Judith Hoffman, Ann Arbor

Diane Smith said...

Duncan:

As a writer, let me add my whole-hearted agreement to all of the above. We all so appreciate knowing that you and your family are doing well.

I loved Judith's quotes. Having lived in the wake of the Wobblies, my favorite, and the one which seemed particularly appropriate for Utah:

"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places." - A.A. Milne

Get well soon Utah! We need you out there raising hell against the inequities of the world.

Diane Smith, Montana