Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Taking Out the Tree
Last night I had the joy of taking down my Christmas tree. A few weeks ago I was so excited when I got the real tree and bought all the ornaments for it. But after all the merriment, the thing has to come down.
The thing about Christmas trees is that after a month or so, they get really dry and really droppy. This makes taking the ornaments off difficult, not to mention the lights, which are all twisted around. More of a pain, is getting the thing out the door. When you buy a tree, it's all closed up and opens up to it's fullness once it's inside and sitting in a pot of water. Once it's open and dry, matters are complicated, particurally if you have narrow doorways, comme moi.
Long story short: After fighting to get the tree out of the apartment and out onto the street, (ever fight with a Douglas fur? I have...) I had the immense task of cleaning up no less than 19,000 little pine needles that covered my floor from living room to front door. I left the ones out in the hallway, figuring the super could get those. Watch me get yelled at for that.
The lesson learned from all this is that taking out a Christmas tree is not a job for one person, especially when the Style network is on in the background. I kept getting distracted by "How Do I Look." I also realized I need a vacuum cleaner.
Yesterday I picked up a copy of The Elements of Style Illustrated. It's a great book from what I've flipped through thus far. I was particurally drawn to one passage about the exclamation point.
In my humble estimation, I feel that this is one of the most commonly abused pieces of punctuation, as opposed to the question mark, which I have tattooed on the small of my back. (If that's not abusing punctuation, I don't know what is.)
Anyhow, here is Strunk and White's take on use of the exclamtion point. Please make a note of it, particurally if you write Christmas letters. After getting cards and letters this past month, I'm really starting to wonder if English is some of friends' and relatives' first launguage.
"Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation. The exclamation mark is to be reserved for use after true exclamations.
What a wonderful show!
Halt!
...and that's my grammar lesson of the day. Perhaps there will be more to come as a get more into the book.
Interesting links for today:
Fred Savage is acting again, although not in angsty, Kevin Arnold style.
There's a two-headed snake for sale on eBay for a cool $150,000. I'd buy it for $100,000, for $150,000 is just a rip-off.
Cheerleading injuries are on the rise, which should make all you nay-sayers finally accept that it's a sport.
