|
Michael McLeod
Jack:
I can't do it. I can't keep from pointing out a weird little word usage peculiarity - a mistake I've made myself and only avoid now because somewhere along the line an eagle eyed copy editor gave me a stern lecture about it way early in my career.
It's "pore" not pour when what you mean to say is that you were doing a lot of reading as part of whatever project or obsessive subject you are engaged in - as, for example, if I wrote "These days I find myself poring over the stories about those cheating bastards from the school woody hayes called "that team up north."
Just a weird kink in the language that few are aware of, the pored/pour thing. There are many such kinks but that is an especially sneaky one given that "poured" actually makes sense - brings up an image of really getting lost and involved with the reading - soaking it in, if you will.
Anyway as far as the grammar/spelling/word usage nazis of the sort I came up with in journalism, it's "I pored over my notes" not "I poured" over my notes, which, if you took that literally, would only make a mess.
Speaking of current issues and literary oddities last night Denise and her daughter and my son Taylor and I went to see Art Spiegleman, the brilliant creator of "Maus," the inventive graphic novel about his parents, who were holocaust survivors. Just so fascinating that a writer turned the panels/speech bubble genre - commonly known as a comic book - into a compelling literary triumph. It is quite seriously one of the most memorable literary achievements of our generation.
Spiegelman had us mesmerized for two hours, just sitting there on stage talking. He's been touring for years, doing these talks, accompanied by his graphic novelist buddy, Neal Gaiman. Two hours plus, actually, and we were spellbound the whole way through. The setting itself - I had to stop and appreciate it - was just so beautiful. Orlando has a fabulous new performing arts complex and our walk took us around a big lake downtown, really big - two blocks I'd say - with swans and illuminated fountains in the middle of a really progressive neighborhood downtown. This city has gotten so crowded in the couple of decades or so that I have been here and I miss the slower pace it used to have but there's a plus side to the changes and last night was a great illustration of that.
Sorry. Got a little windy. Just still charged up about the evening and lately I have been newly appreciative of the luck that brought me down here. I feel very, very fortunate, and I wish the same for all of you.
|
