Do You Sweat The Small Stuff

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I often sweat the small stuff when I read. Last night I read a paragraph that endowed a stairway with the power of ambulation, that is, the author made a claim about a stairway ascending from one level to a higher level. Birds ascend, airplanes ascend, kites ascend, cocks ascend, but stairways pretty much remain motionless unless a bomb explodes beneath them or a bomb falls atop them....then they rise or fall. So far as I know stairways connect one place to another, and that's about it.

 

[Carnevil9]

Technically, you are correct. But the world is so chock full of stupidity, that if you insist on sweating small stuff THAT small, you are going to be soaked to the skin twenty four hours a day. And not smelling particularly good, either.

Personally, I try to limit my outrage to people who misuse to/two/too, there/their/they're, who/whom, and less/fewer.

 

[SusanJillParker]

I often sweat the small stuff when I read. Last night I read a paragraph that endowed a stairway with the power of ambulation, that is, the author made a claim about a stairway ascending from one level to a higher level. Birds ascend, airplanes ascend, kites ascend, cocks ascend, but stairways pretty much remain motionless unless a bomb explodes beneath them or a bomb falls atop them....then they rise or fall. So far as I know stairways connect one place to another, and that's about it.

Think...escalator.

You need to get out more James. We've had escalators in Malls (a place where people gather to shop) for quite a long while now.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Think...escalator.

You need to get out more James. We've had escalators in Malls (a place where people gather to shop) for quite a long while now.

Escalators move, stairways do not.

 

[sr71plt]

No, James, I don't sweat you in the least.

 

[49greg]

I often sweat the small stuff when I read. Last night I read a paragraph that endowed a stairway with the power of ambulation, that is, the author made a claim about a stairway ascending from one level to a higher level. Birds ascend, airplanes ascend, kites ascend, cocks ascend, but stairways pretty much remain motionless unless a bomb explodes beneath them or a bomb falls atop them....then they rise or fall. So far as I know stairways connect one place to another, and that's about it.

My take on that would be: Did you understand what the author meant to say?

But I understand, because I do sweat some small stuff as well. For example last month I was re-reading one of Lin Carter's fantasy epics, his Zanthodon stories. In it, a post WW2 adventurer with his scientist friend found a lost world underground. He got stranded with only one weapon, (besides his brain), a pistol. I never really found out what kind because it was referred to throughout the the books as a pistol, as an automatic, and as a revolver. It didn't ruin the books for me, other than to remind me that I had finished the phase of my life where I really got into that type of novel. But still. How was my internal moving picture supposed to show this weapon. I got the blond haired Cro-Magnons, the giant hairy, dark haired Neanderthals, the dinosaurs, the mamoths, the Barbary Pirates, the Minonans who worshiped the giant T-Rex were all clear, but the pistol was a blank.

Damnit

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My take on that would be: Did you understand what the author meant to say?

But I understand, because I do sweat some small stuff as well. For example last month I was re-reading one of Lin Carter's fantasy epics, his Zanthodon stories. In it, a post WW2 adventurer with his scientist friend found a lost world underground. He got stranded with only one weapon, (besides his brain), a pistol. I never really found out what kind because it was referred to throughout the the books as a pistol, as an automatic, and as a revolver. It didn't ruin the books for me, other than to remind me that I had finished the phase of my life where I really got into that type of novel. But still. How was my internal moving picture supposed to show this weapon. I got the blond haired Cro-Magnons, the giant hairy, dark haired Neanderthals, the dinosaurs, the mamoths, the Barbary Pirates, the Minonans who worshiped the giant T-Rex were all clear, but the pistol was a blank.

Damnit

I understand what the author meant just as I understand what a reporter meant when he identified an Army of Northern Virginia Battleflag as THE STARS AND BARS, theyre very different, and its a common error.

http://www.n-georgia.com/images/stars-and-bars-flag.jpg

http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/images/uploads/gallery/ucvflags.jpg

And one more! THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG, the battle flag of the CSA Army of the Tennessee.

http://www.riversidecivilwarshop.com/images/1387043190662563561941.png

 

[JKendallDane]

Unless it is a blatantly incorrect thing (ie: erroneous historical fact, obvious technical mistake where being technical is critical, or a geographical faux paux of the worst kind) I can overlook things like an "ascending stairway."

It's called literary license and sometimes that license comes along with permission to bend a metaphor right up to where you can see the stress cracks. I've even been guilty of that myself. Almost any author here with more than two or three stories under their belt is.

Me theenks you are being just a few hairs too anal, James.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Unless it is a blatantly incorrect thing (ie: erroneous historical fact, obvious technical mistake where being technical is critical, or a geographical faux paux of the worst kind) I can overlook things like an "ascending stairway."

It's called literary license and sometimes that license comes along with permission to bend a metaphor right up to where you can see the stress cracks. I've even been guilty of that myself. Almost any author here with more than two or three stories under their belt is.

Me theenks you are being just a few hairs too anal, James.

I freely admitted I'm exact but doesn't an ascending stairway descend, too? In reality the stairway goes in circles.

 

[legerdemer]

I confess stuff like that trips me up when I read as well. I get stuck - sometimes mistakes like that make me chuckle, sometimes they get up my nose, occasionally they make me think. Then I get lost in how I would say it... It's a bit of a problem.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I confess stuff like that trips me up when I read as well. I get stuck - sometimes mistakes like that make me chuckle, sometimes they get up my nose, occasionally they make me think. Then I get lost in how I would say it... It's a bit of a problem.

Twain said, call things what they are, lightning and lightning bugs are different.

 

[FantasyXY]

I generally don't get wrapped around the axle unless the author is claiming something happens with a technology that is complete BS. Most of the time this happens for me while I am watching a TV show and for some ridiculous reason someone is required to keep the bad guy on the line for a certain amount of time so that the call can be traced. I think that it should be a requirement that all police/detective show writers download, read and understand the U.S. law called CALEA before writing another episode of "Clever Detectives R Us".

Also, in case anyone is wondering, where any telephone call is coming from is always "registered" in the terminating telephone switch BEFORE the actual call rings the phone. There is NEVER a reason to keep someone on the phone for a magic period of time to know where that call came from... period.

 

[JKendallDane]

I confess stuff like that trips me up when I read as well. I get stuck - sometimes mistakes like that make me chuckle, sometimes they get up my nose, occasionally they make me think. Then I get lost in how I would say it... It's a bit of a problem.

I have that problem all the time when I'm reading a mainstream novel, but it isn't about being anal over a strange choice of words. I just like "rewriting" John Grisham's and Tom Clancy's and Tess Gerritson's sentences for them. "That would sound and flow better if they had said it this way..." tends to go through my brain far more often than it should.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I collided with another erroneous observation: GUIDO TOOK THE STAIRS. Not likely!

 

[lovecraft68]

I collided with another erroneous observation: GUIDO TOOK THE STAIRS. Not likely!

Like the George Carlin routine "Take a shit? I don't take it with me. I leave a shit!"

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I collided with another erroneous observation: GUIDO TOOK THE STAIRS. Not likely!

That's idiomatic in American English at least; stemming from take as in capture. Idiomatic usage doesn't bother me. Usually; anyway - I will not accept momentarily for "soon". If the plane is landing momentarily, someone slap the pilot.

In general I sweat the small stuff when reading, and attempt to when writing. The details are generally the point of writing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...7c2836-bd39-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html

“an Exchange established by the state.”

The SUPREME COURT is wrestling with the meaning of the above 6 words. Seems clear to me but the phrase created a Constitutional crisis because the intent of the law is in doubt, because of the wording, and no one in Congress bothered to record the intent in any relevant document. The crisis involves the 14th Amendment, the Feds cant deny subsidies without a test but the law's test is “ an Exchange established by the state.” Its not kosher and must go away unless the Congress amends the wording which isn't gonna happen. I don't know what the Supremes can do, Lincoln said a horse chesnut is not a chesnut horse. How they get at an opposite meaning will be as obscure as the paternity of Romulus and Remus.

THis kinda crap is why I sweat the small stuff.

 

[49greg]

Finally, someone else who knows which is which.

I lived in Texas for 25 years, and a couple of close friends were 'native born' Texans that were in my unit when I was in the Army. I always understood the "Stars and Bars" was the flag you show - Three big Red and White stripes with stars in the Canton at upper left.

They always referred to the Battle Flag - that I've also heard referred to as the Southern Cross - as the Stars and Bars. I could never ever convince them. But then I read books, they don't.

Hahaha, that last line made me think of the movie "Hatari" with Red Buttons - his line before he fired off his monkey trapping rocket, something like "I read books, vectors, trajectors ..." Hilarious. One of the many movies of the era where the Stars of the movie (John Wayne and Elsa Martinelli) were the weakest characters/worse actors.

No wonder I can't finish a story, I keep going off on Tangents.

I understand what the author meant just as I understand what a reporter meant when he identified an Army of Northern Virginia Battleflag as THE STARS AND BARS, theyre very different, and its a common error.

http://www.n-georgia.com/images/stars-and-bars-flag.jpg

http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/images/uploads/gallery/ucvflags.jpg

And one more! THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG, the battle flag of the CSA Army of the Tennessee.

http://www.riversidecivilwarshop.com/images/1387043190662563561941.png

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I collided with another erroneous observation: GUIDO TOOK THE STAIRS. Not likely!

I think it depends on context.' As the elevator was crowded, Guido took the stairs' seems OK to me. Surely, one usually 'takes' an elevator (up or down?) so why not the stairs (or stairway)? I don't follow your point. 'It's only two floors, shall we take the stairs?' is common parlance.

To go back to your first point, 'ascend' can be transitive or intransitive and doesn't only apply to movement. You can say "the path (or stairway) ascends to the top of the ridge (or third floor). No movement. The King ascended to the throne doesn't imply any physical movement.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think it depends on context.' As the elevator was crowded, Guido took the stairs' seems OK to me. Surely, one usually 'takes' an elevator (up or down?) so why not the stairs (or stairway)? I don't follow your point. 'It's only two floors, shall we take the stairs?' is common parlance.

To go back to your first point, 'ascend' can be transitive or intransitive and doesn't only apply to movement. You can say "the path (or stairway) ascends to the top of the ridge (or third floor). The King ascended to the throne doesn't imply any physical movement.

Its idiom, as someone else pointed out. And idiom is always fertile soil for confusion.

I almost married a Spanish girl over a fight we had over idiom. An American freight manager called me to come get freight awaiting unloading on one of his 'trucks.' He meant CONVEYANCE. I went to the depot, spoke to a lovely clerk who spoke Brit English, and assured me there was no freight on any truck (hand cart). This went on for 3 days. Its on the truck, its not on the truck.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

No, not idiom but current usage. Neither 'take' nor 'ascend' are idiomatic. You are flying behind the curve.

 

[Tigersman]

I'm retired from the healthcare field which makes watching any television show or movie where someone is hospitalized hard on me. The first thing I notice is if the bed rails are up or down. Hospital rules clearly state that the bed rails should be up at least the ones at the top portion of the bed to help prevent the patient from rolling out of bed thereby injuring themselves. Next I check to see if the I'V is dripping. I also watch to see if the staff cleans their stethoscope either before or after examining the patient. Dirty stethoscopes are at the top of the list for passing from one patient to the next infectious disease.