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Biography of Martha Hughes Cannon
The biography I wrote, Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, Plural Wife, 1857-1932, was published by Signature Books in 2022. This short biography was a labor of love and the result of extensive research done since my first published article on Cannon in 1976. Research was difficult because Cannon’s son — at her request — burnt…
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Grammar again
I can’t seem to get off this subject — probably because any time I, or someone else, speaks or writes, grammar is the scaffolding in the background that enables us to form comprehensible thoughts. Someone else said this (and unfortunately I have lost the reference) about language being an ever-changing communication device. It reflects on…
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less or fewer
“More” is easy. You can have more sisters and more sand, more items and more money; more cookies and more cake. But just try to have less . . . er, fewer! Let’s see: fewer cookies or less cookies? Fewer sand or less sand? Does your ear tell you which is correct? I try not…
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Repetitions
I am collecting phrases we all use — sometimes without thinking — where the repetition is unnecessary. Here are two that I heard just yesterday. Send me any that you hear! “two twins.” Source: just about everyone. I have twins and I have heard this far too often: “Oh! Two twins!” You do know that…
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A phrase I never want to hear again.
I am still in a grammar and word state of mind. There is one phrase that must have been first coined by a politician who had time to kill and wanted to sound even more bombastic than usual — as if that were necessary! The phrase is “at this point in time.” Five words. Seventeen…
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The death of “me”
May I rant and rave for a moment? Someone, somewhere had an English teacher who put the fear of saying “me” into him or her. As in: “Him and me went to the movies.” Use “I”! (not to mention, “he”). Ever since then, the survival of “me” has been precarious. Now, everyone is using “I,”…
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German grammar
Since I am in Switzerland this month, I have been reading books on German grammar. No, that is not like reading the dictionary. Bastian Sick has written a series, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, volumes 1 through 4. Besides being informative, the books are hysterical, as the author leads the unsuspecting reader through…
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thoughts
I heard an interview with the actor Ben Kingsley on NPR radio today. In discussing the famous Hamlet line, "to be or not to be," it was suggested that the meaning might not be to choose life or oblivion. Rather, Kingsley suggested (and I paraphrase) the meaning might be closer to "to be and live…
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thoughts
My therapist and I have been discussing the difficulty in dealing with emotions. Emotions are real, in that they crowd in on your mind; however, what they reflects is not necessarily true and sometimes it can be downright dangerous to engage them. My therapist suggests that dealing with emotions is a paradox. If you are…
Constance L. Lieber 