A Bountiful Thanksgiving

A mountain of mashed potatoes. Carrot casserole in cheese sauce. Authentic Thai noodles (thanks Panida!!). Cranberry sauce. Cookies. Cupcakes. And of course the plate of turkey that still overflows even though our gracious host sent bags full home with every guest.

When I look in the fridge today, the word bounty comes to mind. Though it may seem a strange word to use in 2008--a year in which high gas prices, shrinking retirement accounts and a struggling economy dominate conversation--it helps to have a little perspective.

My host's local newspaper discusses how much we have to be thankful for in the midst of trying times and brings back an article written during WWII. During a time of much more struggle and scarcity than the present, our nation stopped to be thankful for the half loaf of bread the rations allowed. The article discusses how, during times of plenty, we are more prone to take it for granted.

So even though times are tight for many close to me, I'm ever so grateful for a full holiday and a full belly. I'm grateful for the chance to travel and be with family and for a room in a warm home with hospitable hosts who will drive hours to the airport, rearrange plans and provide meal after lovely meal. I'm thankful for authentic Thai food, and even more so, for the authentic chefs. Oh yes, this Thanksgiving was more than just sufficient: it was bountiful.

Article: Plenty to be Thankful for in Worse Times Than These

Grammar Wall of Shame: Trouble With Ants, Anyone?

Finally, a cream that ages ants! I'm tired of seeing all those energetic little guys flaunting their muscles and carrying 50 times their weight all over the place. Apply this cream to clean ants morning and night and put them back in their place!

Note** If the marketers need a new ad writer, I'm for hire. Check out my portfolio.

Grammar Wall of Shame (everyday versus every day)

It's too small to read, but at the very bottom it says, "I wish you the greatest of success, and remember, being healthy is like making your bed. It really is something we have to work at everyday."

Do you see the problem here? Everyday is an adjective (and therefore modifies a noun). Every day, on the other hand, is a description of frequency.

The sentence above should be changed to the following: It really is something we have to work at every day.

Need a handy trick? As a former English teacher, it just so happens that I have one.
*If you can substitute each day then it should be two words.
--I find grammatical errors every day.
*If it modifies a noun, it should be one word.
--Finding grammatical errors is an everyday activity.

Wall of Shame: Grammer versus Grammar

It is one thing for students to write grammer and quite another to find it written as such in a textbook, which is exactly what happened to me last year in one of my literature textbooks. I can still see it on the page: grammer. What an abomination! No wonder so many of my students couldn't spell it!

I started a mini-campaign in my classroom and had students repeat the mantra, "There is no me in grammar!" When I shared this story with a friend who is as geeky as I (yes, that's the correct pronoun), he corrected me with the following explanation of grammer:

I'm afraid your aversion to "grammer" is lost on me. It's a perfectly good word:

gram•mer (noun)

1. One who makes or has made a living delivering singing telegrams, candygrams, etc.

2. One who has a love for the metric system (esp. as it relates to measurements of mass) and who feels a strong compulsion to convert measurements made in any other system to metric.

3. (dialect) A variant form of "grandma." ("...that was after we got back from Grammer's and Papper's house."

Grammar Wall of Shame: Election Humor

Excerpted from a story on usatoday.com:

"On the plane back to Chicago, Obama strolled back to speak with reporters who have been covering his campaign, saying he wanted to shank them for having "shared this process with us."

You'd think Mr. Obama would want better for the media members who have stuck it out with him all these months than to whack them badly with a 3-iron.

**contributed by fellow Grammar Geek, Wally**

Guess My Grammar Gripe

I would like your input on this one, blog followers.


Tell me why you think this upsets me. Then, tell me if you agree with the Wheat Thins folks or me and why.