Writing my way through life, one word at a time.
In the last decade, a plethora of business and self- improvement books have cropped up – all either extolling the virtues of saying yes or purporting to teach you how to get others to say yes to you. Always the contrarian, I’m going to spend some time explaining why saying ‘no’ has opened my life to far more joy and far less stress than saying yes ever did.
It’s been awhile since I got really pedantic on here but it’s happening today. I was going to write this post last week but then decided that the issue really wasn’t *that* bad and just ranted a bit to some Facebook friends. In the past two days however, I’ve heard the phrase “historical storms” at least 5 times on 2 different television networks and a radio news broadcast and it needs to stop.
I realize that not everybody is as into history as I am and that may explain some of the confusion surrounding these terms. Historic and historical are terms I’ve become very familiar with over the years as a history major but it’s quite possible others don’t realize they’re not interchangeable. (Although major news networks have editors who should know this sort of thing). They are both adjectives, which undoubtedly doesn’t help the matter, but the main difference is this:
Historical is always used to describe events that occurred in the past (and not the recent past), while historic can be used to describe both events in the past and current events that will become important to history in the future. Thus a hurricane can be historic but is not historical – unless it is swirling figures from history around near the eye of the storm.
Yes, in the grand scheme of things it’s a small error, and I know in time these hurricanes will be historical events but that time is not now and every time I am watching or listening to the news and hear about how much damage the current “historical hurricane” is causing I’m going to think about historical figures being swept up in a hurricane and deposited on random islands / territories. Because it at least brings a little levity to an otherwise horrific situation.
Historical (his·tor·i·cal) Adjective
Historic (his·tor·ic) Adjective
I’ve been neglecting the blog a little recently, partly because I haven’t had a word that I wanted to write about and a couple of the other pieces percolating in my brain haven’t worked out and partly because I’ve been busy writing for other people and reading for myself. My little word book has been getting quite the work out as I work my way through the almost complete collection of Phryne Fisher Mysteries I managed to score at the thrift store I volunteer at. They were sitting on the shelf as a set and they were signing their siren song. In the face of that temptation, I was helpless to resist (especially with the deal we had going on paperback books that day) and they came home with me. I loved watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on Netflix / PBS and was delighted to find that the books are just as amazing as the show.
First off, I’m sorry if I gave you a Monty Python earworm with the title. Actually no, I’m not sorry since the lumberjack song is one of my favourite Monty Python songs and if you haven’t heard it you need to go and click on the link right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait. It isn’t a long song but it’s seriously catchy and never fails to make me smile. Secondly, if the title of this post made you run for a dictionary (physical or online – I’m not too picky) to look up logophile and you returned with a smile, you just might be a logophile too.
Fall has arrived and with it fall weather – which is awesome (with the exception of leaves – which aren’t so awesome when you’re highly allergic to leaf mold like I am). Cooler days and cool nights mean I’m sleeping better and can actually walk the dog in the middle of the day when he prefers it without melting into a blob on the sidewalk. I quite enjoy fall. It’s not too hot, not generally too cool, there’s football to watch, playoff baseball in Toronto, and Thanksgiving at the family cottage to look forward to.