905. Bonus Episode! You helped solve the mystery of my father's favorite childhood book. I also share quick and dirty tips from my email newsletter, my favorite social media posts, and some of my favorite products (one of which isn't a product at all).
905. Bonus Episode! You helped solve the mystery of my father's favorite childhood book. I also share quick and dirty tips from my email newsletter, my favorite social media posts, and some of my favorite products (one of which isn't a product at all).
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and unless you are a brand new listener (and if you are, welcome!) — but if you aren’t, you’re probably wondering why the show is out on a Tuesday!
Well, after 16 years of releasing the show on Thursday night, we are switching to Tuesday. There’s no huge reason except that it fits better with all the other things on my plate, like writing the email newsletter and producing the YouTube video that goes with the show every week. I’m actually hoping I can take weekends off now, and I hope the new day works for you too!
So this, my friends, is a bonus show to fill in the gap between the last Thursday show and the next regular Tuesday show. And I thought it might be fun to pull together some tips from my email newsletter because I’ve been putting a lot more effort into it the last 6 months or so, and there’s really a lot there.
First, we’ll go through some of the short tips, and then I’ll tell you about all the neat things I recommend from favorite social media posts to products I particularly liked, and at the end we’ll still have a familect story (even though those don’t appear in the newsletter).
Back in October, I had a tip about the word “index,” which has two plurals. “Index” came to English from Latin, so the original plural was the Latin form: “indices.” Over the years, people started making it plural in the more standard English way by adding “-es”: “indexes.”
Today, “indexes” is the more common form and is used when referring to more than one book index or stock index, for example:
The market tanked; all the indexes were down today.
“Indices” is still sometimes used in the sciences, however. Superscript and subscript numbers in mathematics as referred to as indices, for example:
In each case, the sum of the indices is 26.
Also in October, I talked about the difference between “sneaked” and “snuck.”
The British are sticking with “sneaked” as the past tense of “sneak,” but Americans have largely accepted “snuck” as an alternative or even preferred form. That’s not to say “snuck” is without aggressive, vocal detractors. I regularly receive messages from people who hate it, but linguists and lexicographers say detractors are losing the battle. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary notes that “snuck” is increasingly common in newspaper articles (although the AP Stylebook still says to use “sneaked”), and Merriam-Webster calls “snuck” standard.
In September, I wrote about the difference between “enormity” and “enormousness.”
Traditionally, “enormousness” described something huge, and “enormity” described something especially horrible. But, today, people often use “enormity” to describe something of staggering hugeness. Some people call this an error. Others call it language change. The real problem is potential ambiguity. For example, if I write
The flood's enormity daunted the clean-up crew.
Was the problem huge or horrible? Who knows? It’s impossible to tell. So avoid “enormity” where it could mean either “huge” or “horrible.”
And I also wrote about the word “old-fashioned” in September because I was craving an old-fashioned ice cream sundae. Sometimes people misspell “old-fashioned” as “old-fashion,” but today, it still takes the “-ed.”
And I say “today” because “ice cream” was spelled “iced cream” until the mid-1700s, so it’s possible “old-fashioned” could also become “old-fashion” someday. But for now, it’s “old-fashioned” with a hyphen and the “-ed” at the end.
So those are examples of the kind of tips you’ll find in the newsletter.
I also love highlighting my favorite social media posts.
For example, a few months ago, I had just started reading the Victorian novel “Dracula” for the first time, and although I was enjoying it because the old-time language is part of the fun, my goodness, the characters do go on and on, so when I saw a post by Amber Sparks about normal people versus Victorian writers, it really hit home. Amber wrote:
Normal People: I met this guy, he was average.
Victorian Writers: He was, in the way of most men, possessed of a rudimentary intelligence, his countenance was ordinary, his bearing mild, with some weakness about the shoulders, his hair the color of ash; he spoke of the weather.
Here’s another one from writer and editor September C. Fawkes. I’ve enjoyed her writing advice ever since I met her at a conference. Her post read: Every once in a while, I run into a post of a writer asking “How do I write a genius/clever/smart/or witty character when I am not?” What’s disturbing is that no one ever says “How do I write a murderer/villain/evil character when I am not?” Just sayin’.
I also sometimes recommend products I like. I don’t have one every week because I’m not a huge shopper and they have to be things I actually have bought and liked, but I’ve saved a huge amount of money by doing some of my grocery shopping through Thrive online, and I love a lot of food I’ve discovered there too like the jalapeno turkey sticks and the smoky cashew cheese sauce. So I recommended Thrive and included a discount code.
And sometimes I just remind you how great libraries are, like the time I discovered my library has free passes to museums, and also a program where if they don’t have a book you want, you can just order it from them through Amazon and it will come to your house, and then when you’re done with it, you just return it to the library. Yeah, libraries are awesome.
I also made sure you know that authors love it when you request their books from the library because I heard that some people feel bad when they get a book from the library because it’s free, but that’s not bad at all. Libraries buy the books, so it’s fine. It’s actually good for authors when you get their books from the library, so never hesitate to do that. When you don’t have a lot of money and you want to help an author, the two best free ways you can help are to request that the library get the book and to write a review. Both free. Both very helpful!
So that is a taste of the kind of things you get in my email newsletter. If you want to subscribe, there’s a link in the show description or you can just go to QuickAndDirtyTips.com and click the little envelope at the top of the screen on a computer or signing up at the bottom of the homepage scroll on a phone.
Before we get to the familect story, I want to give you an update on the search for my dad’s favorite childhood book. You may remember that in the Storyworth ad, I explained how the prompt questions had led me to have this great conversation with my dad about his reading habits as a kid, and he mentioned this book he loved that was a lot like “Star Trek” with people on a spaceship seeking out new life and new civilizations in every chapter, and he had been trying to find again for years but couldn’t remember the name. Well, three of you figured it out:
[clips]
And Librarianne who goes by BookwordBaby25 also posted the same suggestion on social media.
And YES! It was “Voyage of the Space Beagle” by A.E. van Vogt. My dad immediately got the book, and started reading it, and is so happy; and I have to say, I got a little shiver when the first call came in. I was so excited to find this for him, so thank you to the moon and back to the people who called.
And here’s a bit about the book. The name is a patterned on a book called “Voyage of the Beagle” by Charles Darwin about his voyage around the world on HMS Beagle. “Voyage of the Space Beagle” was a collection of previously published stories stitched together into a novel and then published in 1950. It was also re-released in 1952 under the title “Mission: Interplanetary.”
Van Vogt was also kind of interesting. He’s considered to have influenced many science fiction writers who came after him, including Philip K. Dick, and he was named a Grand Master of The Science Fiction Writers of America 1995, and he’s also an inductee in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
He was very into Dianetics and psychiatry, but not Scientology, and he claimed many of his ideas came from dreams. In fact, one profile said that whenever he was working on a story, he would set an alarm clock to go off every 90 minutes so he could write down his dreams.
Finally, it’s generally believed one of his stories from “Voyage of the Space Beagle” was the inspiration for the 1979 film “Alien.” He sued 20th Century Fox and they settled out of court.
Thank you again to Librarienne, Lenny, and the third person who called but didn’t leave a name. You made my dad so happy.
Finally, I have a familect story.
"Hello Mignon this is Abby Taylor in Sheridan, Wyoming, and I have a familect story for you. When I was a little girl, I loved listening to music on those long playing records, and my parents often put a record on for me at night when I went to bed to help me fall asleep, and these records were usually classical music. Well, one night I was lying in bed listening and all of a sudden the record start turning sporadically and so, and it sounded like
Thank you, Abby. And if I remember right, you are one of the people who called before and I couldn’t use the audio, so I especially appreciate you calling again from a better location.
If you want to share the story of your familect, a family dialect or a word your family and only your family uses, call the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL, and I might play it on the show.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to my audio engineer Nathan Semes and my editor Adam Cecil, who says A new vegan lunch spot just opened up a ten minute walk from his apartment right after a vegan donut shop opened just a few blocks away, so everything is truly coming up Adam this month. Our ad operations specialist is Morgan Christianson, our marketing and publicity assistant is Davina Tomlin, our digital operations specialist is Holly Hutchings, and our intern is Kamryn Lacy.
And I’m Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. That's all. Thanks for listening.