Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Where is Everybody? (and a grammatical aside)

It's spring break and the Lareaus are seriously out of pocket. Meredith is in Arkansas with Gran, Papa, Aunt Judy and Uncle Paul. This is for two reasons: 1, her school is closed for the break and 2, every girl needs to be intensely spoiled a couple times a year. Chris is in Chattanooga learning how to be an incredible trial lawyer. I'm here in Memphis all alone (don't feel too bad for me) and I can't get Blogger to upload pictures.

And now for the grammar. Arkansas just passed a bill making it proper to show possession by the state using the following method: Arkansas's. This is so wrong. So very wrong. (Check this out -- and any number of other sites -- if you don't believe me.) I love Arkansas -- it's "the natural state." It's a beautiful and much maligned state. But PLEASE folks. How can you go to the trouble to pass a bill and actually make it illegal (in a sense) to use proper grammar? I will protest here and now:

As long as I live, I will question the sense of the lawmakers who made it proper to insult Arkansas' collective intelligence by using Arkansas's own special brand of grammar.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why didn't they just change it to "Arkansaws" and drop the apostrophe altogether? That would have made just as much sense.

Anonymous said...

Dearest Darling,
AR has a new Governor who is supposed to be wonderful. Please write him. His wife is a working member of the Committee of 100 and her name is also Ginger so maybe if you both write them you could make a difference. For my part, I will be having lunch with them at the mansion Apr. 3 so will be sure to mention it. (OK the last sentence was just for fun - and there will also be 200 other people there but you never know - all those ladies are quite the intellectuals and writers.

Unknown said...

Mom you have cracked me up. I think I WILL write the governor, by george.