Archive through December 29, 2001

The ClubHouse: Archives: I have a dumb question: Archive through December 29, 2001

Oregonfire

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 11:24 am Click here to edit this post
Cute, Pcakes! Except I don't have a cat and the tub is shaped funny, so it juts into my shoulderblades and causes some signficant discomfort. My apartment is a feng shui nightmare. It's essentially the bottom floor of a 1920s bungalow style home, so I sleep in what was the dining room. It has really nice Douglas fir (go Oregon!) hardwood floors and cabinets and a white brick fireplace, but it it has a messed up chi (see Chinese feng shui if the lingo is confusing :)). I'm trying to work with the shape of the place to make it more comfortable--it's my holiday project.

Pcakes2

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 11:33 am Click here to edit this post
OK sorry...feel free to drown the cat in the tub (oops wait, no...that will cause more of a clog)...and now all the cat people are going to send me hate mail!
Your place sounds great! Charm and character! I live in a 3 bedroom 3 bath 2 story tract home with an open floor plan which is a decorating nightmare! I'm not much of a bath person, we have a hot tub in back, and I never use it.

Phrf

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 12:19 pm Click here to edit this post
Pcakes2-
AACCKKK!!!
That's from Bill the Cat.

Babyruth

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 12:32 pm Click here to edit this post
Pcakes, I'm actually more appalled that you NEVER use the hot tub!! Aaack! I'd be living in mine if I had one.

Pcakes2

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 01:15 pm Click here to edit this post
You say that if you don't have one. Before I had I used to think I would use it everynight...now I only use it when company comes. I have spent more money on all the stupid accessories....floating cup holders, colored lights, water fragrances, etc

Whoami

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 04:36 pm Click here to edit this post
New dumb question:

Why is "spiral cut" ham so special? Yes, it does taste very good (we had some for Christmas dinner, and are now enjoying the leftovers). But wouldn't the quality of the meat have more to do with why it is so good, instead of the way it's cut?

And furthermore, just how do they cut it like that? Is it put on a machine and "twirled" around to get the spiral effect?

Evilnurse

Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 07:53 pm Click here to edit this post
Whoami I would guess that what makes the "spiral cut" so special is that you don't have to cut it yourself.LOL

I don't have the slightest clue how they do it but the sight of hundreds of twirling hams would be hilarious.

At my house this Xmas we had one of these spiral hams, as it turns out some of our guest would be having spiral ham many times that day. My husband served the ham not only in the foil wrap but in the bag he carried it home in. He informed us that it was customery to serve "spiral ham" this way. None of us believed him. But after a post ham-serving survey we discovered that 3 out of 3 served it with the foil wrapping still on. 2 out of three served it with the bag.

I will say the bag thing did make for a quick cleanup. Just wrap the foil, pull up the bag, toss in the fridge.. Somehow I don't think Martha would approve

Weinermr

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 09:38 am Click here to edit this post
I'm just wondering if they teach spelling in school anymore. I'm just asking.

Car54

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 09:52 am Click here to edit this post
Weinermr, I often have the same question.

Sometimes the spelling thing may be poor typing- not spelling, but with tools like spellcheck available now, it makes me wonder.

We have a lot of teachers on this board, maybe someone knows.

Oregonfire

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 10:06 am Click here to edit this post
A good question. In my class, I do mark for spelling, but I'm not a total Nazi about it. My thing is fragments. If students are still making fragment errors in college-level writing courses, then they are not getting it, and most likely their writing will be pretty horrible. That's my litmus test for writing success! This theory, of course, excludes the intentional fragment, which is a more sophisticated rhetorical device, and its intentionality is usually obvious from the student's other writing. You know what they say--you have to know the rules to break them.

As for spell check, I find it tedious and an impediment to posting as quickly as possible. If I have a typo or two, I really don't care at all, and people can think what they like about my spelling abilities.

Juju2bigdog

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 10:18 am Click here to edit this post
Excellent question, Weinermr, and one I would genuinely like answered. Let me go roust Axman. He would know.

Now, here is a thing I have noticed. I spell perfectly fine and am mostly literate, but nowadays, I find I have to go back and look at my stuff before I post it, or I am likely to find the weirdest garbage in there that I had no idea I was typing. I am not sure if it is early Alzheimers or just being retired and out of practice writing a lot. I never had that problem before. Aiiiieeeeeeee!!!!

Weinermr

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 10:21 am Click here to edit this post
Oregon - Thanks for answering. My own posts often contain typos, and sometimes I fix them, sometimes I don't. What I'm most interested in is whether youthful, or school age posters misspell because there is a different standard applied to spelling in the chat and message board world, or because they truly don't know how to spell. There just seems to be a general inattention to correct spelling (forget even discussing grammar) that goes beyond the medium being used (PC's). You, and the other teachers here, have a much better perspective on this issue than I do.

Oregonfire

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 10:36 am Click here to edit this post
Hmm...that's something I know little about, but based on my own posting experiences, a need for expediency overrides the need for correct spelling. And (intentional fragment!) these kids probably don't have great spelling skills either. I guess the question for me is "How much does incorrect spelling hinder the reader?" I myself, an avid reader from my youth, mainly read for content, and I still can conveniently read over other people's typos without missing a beat. Even being an avid reader and supposedly good creative writer, the formal stuff came harder to me; my first paper in grad school got totally slammed by my professor for all the misspellings and typos.

So, finally, I would guess that younger school age kids are engaging in a more stream-of-consciousness type of writing when they are in chat rooms, and this may or may not reflect their skills in the "real" world.

Car54

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 10:43 am Click here to edit this post
Juju, I call it lazy fingers! I work with computers and all day long I am on different machines and keyboards, and you would not believe what I can type at the end of the day!

Karuuna

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:24 am Click here to edit this post
My son is now in second grade, and he is *required* to know how to spell a whopping 200 words by the end of the year (yes, that was sarcasm!) Actually, spelling is self-paced, so each week they need to learn 15 new words, and they have a list of 1200 commonly used words to work thru. I volunteer in his classroom to help with spelling testing, and most of the kids in his class have about 300 words or so mastered halfway thru the year.

I'm a fastidious speller. I hate errors, and I rarely use spellcheck. But my adorable son is more of a creative speller. I'm learning to adjust.

Car54

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:38 am Click here to edit this post
For some reason, spelling was my favorite academic subject in early elementary school. I loved drilling and learning the words. Odd isn't it? We used to have all kinds of contests it gave me such a sense of accomplishment.

Weinermr

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:46 am Click here to edit this post
I remember in 4th grade we had a spelling bee, and I lost because I misspelled the word chocolate (choclate). I was mortified. That's when spelling became so important to me. Jump to 7th grade, when I had what the other students considered was the most boring English teacher on Earth. I'll never forget the grammar and other lessons I learned in his class, and I'll never forget HIM either. Other than that, math was always my forte.

Oregonfire

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:55 am Click here to edit this post
I am somewhat dyslexic (and lefthanded, if indeed it is related). When I write on the board at school, I usually spell many things wrong and often confuse my "b" with my "p" so it's completely upside down. This tendency has gotten worse with age. Sometimes I think that spelling is a control issue with people, and that they use it to lord their intelligence over others who are poor spellers. (not anyone here, of course!! :)) The same thing goes for grammer. I was mortified to learn in grad school that "irregardless" is not a real word :(

Car54

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 11:57 am Click here to edit this post
I didn't like spelling bees either- if I am not sure how to spell a word I have to see it written. For some reason I am able to tell if it looks "right" if I see it in print.

I liked math, but my parents REALLY drilled me on it and it kind of turned me against it in school. I still enjoy the "creative" side of math- that sounds strange doesn't it. I had beginning algebra in high school and that was it-I was on the "arts" track. I had one math class in college- the only thing I learned was how to count to ten in Chinese, I think.

When I took the GRE, I cruised through all the sections til I got to math, and it was half algebra, half geometry. I figured, with algebra, it was multiple choice- most of the time you can use logic to figure out the answer- and I did fine. I totally tanked in geometry because I did not know the terms.

Weinermr, I had one of those English teachers too-loved her.

Donut

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 12:35 pm Click here to edit this post
A sooflay is kind of a cross beetween a moose and a poopover. Have i covered all the topics? oh i forgot, it is fun to eat one in the tub provided you have pulled all the hair out of the drain first....

Schoolmarm

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 12:50 pm Click here to edit this post
Yup, spelling is still taught in school. HOWEVER, by the looks of the papers written by my teacher education students...well...even though it's taught doesn't mean that it is learned.

I always laugh when I get "chat" shorthand in a paper.

B/C is used as often as they use "of" instead of the verb "have". My favorite automatic spell checker correction is that they "defiantly" will do something instead of definitely. I probably get that one in at least two papers in a class of 25. One student actually wrote LOL in a paper. YIKES! And the sad thing is these students want to be teachers!

Grammar is another issue altogether. I don't think that anyone diagrams sentences anymore. I'm appalled at how few students actually know their parts of speech and how to correctly conjugate a verb. Don't even get me started on the "ly" omission on adverbs.

<marm packs it up to move back to the upper midwest....where test scores are high and, as Garrison Keiller says, all the children are above average! >

Car54

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 12:56 pm Click here to edit this post
Oh, I forgot diagraming sentences- I loved that too! Wonder if I could still do it?

Tess

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 02:15 pm Click here to edit this post
Car, I loved the grammar part of English class and spelling lists. My grandmother was an English professor at Oregon State when I was very young.

I have found these days that different schools have different approaches to teaching spelling and reading. Some use phonetics and stress accuracy and some use whole language and let the student spell creatively. Many schools meld the two methods and form their own curriculum. I have nieces and friends who are excellent students but cannot spell to save their lives. I find this to be appalling and always have. My 5 year old daughter can spell better than some of the older children. These nieces are all out on the east coast and I would imagine that teaching methods are different depending upon the school district.

Sunshinemiss

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 02:59 pm Click here to edit this post
My 2nd grader has weekly spelling tests of 10-12 words, is learning the noun-verb-adverb-adjective thing (reluctantly), and is required to read a book a day. I feel the latter is where the most valuable lessons are learned, as I feel most of what I picked up was from a combination of context and repetition via a LOT of reading...

Personally, I am horrified by some of the spelling and grammar I see. I don't mind typos, you can generally tell if the writer is literate and just in a hurry (or, in my case, a victim of two different keyboards, my home one being slightly smaller), and the occasional -er or -ar mixup is no big deal. It is the glaring inconsistencies that bother me, to the point where there are some things I just can't read. My hometown newspaper weekly throw-away (the "Pennysaver") is one. I waded through the first page cringing, and finally gave up after reading an ad for a dining room set made of "rot iron". Argh!!

Yes, it is funny, but this is a business publication, and is indicative of a level of sloppiness and indifference that really bothers me.

On the other hand, having hit (and sped past) 40, I fear I am reaching the age where I am starting to talk about the dreaded "Back in the day...."
Horrors indeed!

Juju2bigdog

Saturday, December 29, 2001 - 03:39 pm Click here to edit this post
Sunshinemiss, the term "rot iron" refers to Weinermr on a golf course.

I recently ran across a certificate awarded to my (long deceased) father for perfect scores on the last 100 spelling tests. 1929.