(no subject)

[wickedflea]

Do you know that poem that says something like "When I Am an Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple"? Yeah, here it is. I first saw it several years ago. Kind of a nice sentiment, no big deal. But apparently it's spawned a whole movement of these old women who go out in public wearing purple outfits and red flowery hats. I had no idea about this until I was on the train to NYC a while back and saw three or four of these peculiar old ladies changing cars. And several hours later, we were eating at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, and there were six or eight more who came in. They must have been having a con of some sort. Very strange. The poem seems to be about individuality and doing fun stuff and not giving a fuck. But these ladies fetishize the purple dresses and red hats and make the whole thing all about conformity. Kinda wack, innit?

Egad. I'm running down some poor old ladies who probably just want to get out of the house and act goofy. Next I'll be bitching about toddlers and puppy dogs.

That toddlers thing does remind me of something I mentioned to a friend yesterday. It bugs me right the fuck out when I'm driving and have to screech to a halt because some numbskull is crossing against the light with a BABY in hand or in a stroller. I mean, jeez, I'll jaywalk all over the place if it's just me, but I think I'd be a little more careful if I had a kid in my arms.

Oh yeah, my Sim, Eddie Sanchez, got married and had a kid right after he turned into an old man. Eddie's kinda got his hands full right now. He can't keep little Pandejo from playing in the toilet all the goddamn time.

For some reason, I was just thinking that "nakidity" should be a word.

Rudy Gomez, 34, was arrested in Edgewood Park last night for public nakidity. Witnesses said that Gomez was strolling through the park when, in the words of one onlooker, "he went stark raving naked."

It looks like some people think that "nakidity" is a word. So does that make it a word? Sure, you won't find it in the dictionary, but you know what it means, right? It always kills me when people claim "ain't" ain't a word. Horseshit. It's one of the most useful, multi-purpose words you'll find. Some snob just decided for whatever reason that it wasn't a good word.

I always vacillate between the grammar-cop mentality of "no, you have to do it the right way!" and the thought that language is nothing more than the way people talk, and if the way they talk doesn't jibe with the rules, then you should change the rules. Like "whom." Fuck "whom" with a broomstick. The who/whom thing is an unnatural distinction in English, and it serves no purpose, so let's get rid of it, right? But no, we have to hold onto it because the books say so. Funk dat.

What in the hell am I doing? I have work to do and I'm ruminating on purple hats and nakidity.

Comments

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

I have seen those purple hat ladies too. I think in NYC they don't need purple hats because they are already weird. They have like giant leopard coats and 3 pounds of eye makeup and hats with peacock feathers on them and elbow length gloves.

I am nominally in favor of it, though any super-conformist group weirds me right out.

[dob.livejournal.com]

first, aren't you a proofreader or something.


Second,
you are freaking me out. I was talking with my momz and gfriend just this weekend about the purple ladies. Damn it's uncanny.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, so it's my job to notice little stuff. So I notice stuff like split infinitives even though they don't bother me personally, and they're not really wrong. But some people think they are, so usually I change them.

2. It's my ghetto mind control.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Right, I got no problem with weird old ladies. But when a bunch of 'em decide to be weird in exactly the same way, so that they're not weird . . . that's weird. ;)

[miladyelizabeth.livejournal.com]

I asked about a group of them at Rusty Scupper one night - apparently the Purple Hat Club (or something like that) is a social group for older women. They get together, enjoy each other's company, and have nice dinners out and such. *nod*

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

So basically what you're saying is that I'm a big asshole. :P

[buscemi.livejournal.com]

"Reckless" always seemed like a weird word to me. No one says "reckful" or "He was full of reck", for example.

funny

[nationofsheep.livejournal.com]

I have been thinking about this word grammar cop thing because I subscribed to the Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day. Some of them are just flat out slang. It seems that while a lot of dictionaries and grammar people are figuring out whether it is correct, the OED people are recording word usage and leaving judgement to someone else. They stick a word in that has been used a couple of times in some source and record the date, give an example and explain what it means. Then there are all those words that entered English because Tolkien made them up, and he worked on the OED in the 1920's. My perception of correct has changed quite a bit.

The OED is just going to end up finding this source and putting nakidity in the OED. So if some idiot is using nakidity, then I am sure it is fine.

[miladyelizabeth.livejournal.com]

Hey man, my favorite people are assholes!! ;)

[faerieface.livejournal.com]

http://www.redhatsociety.com/