Archive for the ‘Words’ Category

Welcome to Perfection

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Found this little meme somewhere …

The idea is to respond to each prompt by writing a short scenario that includes your answers.

The perfect outfit: I pulled a peasant blouse on over faded jeans, slipped into flip flops, and hung my favorite silver hoops in my ears. No makeup. He was mildly pleasant, but hardly mascara-worthy.
The perfect meal: I set a steaming plate of my made-from-scratch chicken enchiladas on the glass table, tinted peach by the vibrant sunset. Even the tumbler holding Bret’s Perfect Margarita was sweating, moisture trickling down its sides. The intoxicating aroma of Brenda’s Coconut-Pineapple Cake wafted out from the kitchen, teasing our tastebuds toward orgasm.
The perfect beverage: Wiping sweat from my sticky neck, I tilted my glass, spilling the minty crispness of Bret’s Perfect Mojito across my rejoicing tastebuds.
The perfect hangover cure: Cradling my throbbing head on my hand, I gulped down a B-Complex tablet with Alka-Seltzer fizzing in orange juice. It worked like a charm. Within minutes, I had emptied my guts into the toilet bowl — after which I felt remarkably better.
The perfect facial feature: Looking into Juli’s eyes, I see unconditional love reflected within the green depths. Mother and child — there is no stronger bond on earth.
The perfect song: He stubbed out his cigarette and swiveled toward me. As the smoothness of Rob Thomas’ voice drifted from the speakers, Bret held out his hand. I rose, moving into his arms in time to the sensual throb of All That I Am. His lips nuzzled my neck as I breathed in the scent of his skin.
The perfect sign of affection: We are walking, me a step behind, lost in our own thoughts. He reaches back with open hand seeking mine, clasping tightly as I slip my palm against his. No words, no glance, undeniable love.
The perfect weather: A hellacious thunderstorm raged outside, rattling windows and punching through the gloom with strobes of eyeball-impaling brightness. When the power flickered out, we grabbed beers from the fridge and adjourned to the breeze-cooled sunroom for a few rounds of Texas Hold-’Em by candlelight.
The perfect afternoon: The weak sunshine of late October angles through the window, kissing my cheek while I nap under a quilt, my book fallen from my grasp.
The perfect road trip: My camera captures each glorious vista as the serpentine curves of Pacific Coast Highway seduce us north to Big Sur and Bixby Bridge.

Not I, me. Me, me, ME!

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Today I’m going to address an issue which has been DRIVING ME INSANE around the blogiverse, and that is people using “I” when they should be using “me.” The pronouns, I mean. I’ve seen a total of five instances of this in the past week, and I can stay silent no longer. People! Remember your grammar rules, for the sweet love of God!!! It’s your blog, say what you want, but I’m begging you, please be kind to the innocent pronouns.

Quoting from the ever-helpful website English Rules:

The sentence in question is as follows:

Please plan on joining Jin and I at Frank?s house next Wednesday, May 28th, at 9:00 AM.
Or…
Please plan on joining Jin and me at Frank?s house next Wednesday, May 28th, at 9:00 AM.

My boss wanted the 2nd sentence to be sent, but Microsoft Auto Correct changed “me” to “I”. Can you explain why “me” in this situation was incorrect?

Answer: The second sentence is correct. The AutoCorrect feature was wrong. If you remove “Jin and,” it should be clear that “me” is the correct choice. … If you want to know the grammar rule, it’s that “I” is used as a subject and “me” is used as an object.

And from Grammar Puss:

I is the subject of the sentence. Me is the object.

Therefore: I do something, but something else is done to me.

She and I are going out, or
She came to see me.

The most common form of pronoun abuse occurs when there is more than one subject in a sentence:

She came to see my sister and I.

But there is one very easy way in which to avoid confusion: The pronoun doesn’t change just because there is more than one party involved. In other words, just ask yourself if you would ever say She came to see I.

Thank you. That is all.