Precision in Language
Ok, I had to post because otherwise, Tim would have interrupted things here by calling in the police...Alex is fine, back from France with gifts, and has completed his first week of classes at the International MBA program here. My left wrist has been injured. There's something about the left side of my body that gets injured more easily during certain...uh, activities. I don't know what the hell is up with that. But, anyway, it's been a nice couple of days.
Yesterday, my son did something that he's done all his life since he could speak, but regardless, it still cracks me up. He is very, very precise with his language. You must be careful with how you word things or he'll either fuss or not do what you had in mind. It's not amazing to me that he's like that...it's amazing to me that he's been like that since he was three. The first incident that I can remember offhand was when he had just turned three and was busy lining up his trains, one after the other. My mom walked over and admired his construct, telling him it was one heck of a big train. My son then looked up at my mom, blinked, and replied, "It's not a BIG train...it's a LONG train." Well, uh, yeah, I guess that's the more accurate word. He also gets that way with footwear. Heaven forbid you call his sandals shoes, or his boots shoes. Or flip-flops anything other than flip-flops. Sheesh! If there's a specific word for it, we MUST use it, eh?
Yesterday's incident amused me as well. Alex had accidentally punched the wrong button on a coke machine and received a diet cherry coke instead. He brought it home to me since he knew I like cherry coke (but I don't like the diet one...brrr!). He also has a 12 pack of coca colas in the refrigerator, labeled as such. So, we are sitting down talking, and Alex asks Jared if he'd fetch a coke. Jared, happy to help, bounds off and returns with the diet cherry coke. Alex looks perplexed. "I said I wanted a coke?" he asked, at that point uncertain as for what he had said. Jared nodded. "This one says coke. The others are coca colas. You didn't say you wanted a coca cola...you said COKE." I just laughed. I couldn't help it. He's making me, English instructor, be more mindful of my words. Haha!
Ok, and on another note wherein you probably don't care, but it meant a lot to me front: I went to the gourmet shop here across from Alex's apartment with Ariana in tow. She is very curious about a lot of wine stuff, so we were walking around and looking at their expensive wine and discussing various things. I ran across a very specific Chateauneauf du pape from a stellar producer that had been reduced half off, leaving it at $27 and at that price, honestly, a great bargain. So why was the price so cheap? I looked at the bottle and my mind instantly said, southern Rhone wine, 2002, VERY crap vintage...not worth even $27. It surprised me I remembered vintages of the Rhone offhand, but then I remembered I had looked them up to give Alex suggestions on years for the Cotie Rotie I wanted when he was in France. So, I walked up to the wine guy and asked him why the wine was reduced. I asked him if it had to do with the bad vintage year for the Rhone. He said he didn't know but he thought it was due to needing more shelf space. Then he went to ask his boss, came back, started to say something about needing more room for the superior 2003 vintage...saw the look in my eyes, and then sighed. And laughed. "Oh who am I kidding? You're right. It's an awful vintage, and we're depending on ignorant people to buy it because of the name of the producer. But, since that is not you, since you actually know wine, I'll just go ahead and put it back." I was pleased that my hobby is coming together in my brain so much. However, I was even more pleased to see the pride on my daughter's face. Come on...what mom doesn't want her children to think she's smart and great and all? I grinned for the rest of the day.
Ok, dinner time! We just got back from seeing Pirates of the Carribean 2. I liked it, but darn do I hate cliffhanger type movies. Bah!
Yesterday, my son did something that he's done all his life since he could speak, but regardless, it still cracks me up. He is very, very precise with his language. You must be careful with how you word things or he'll either fuss or not do what you had in mind. It's not amazing to me that he's like that...it's amazing to me that he's been like that since he was three. The first incident that I can remember offhand was when he had just turned three and was busy lining up his trains, one after the other. My mom walked over and admired his construct, telling him it was one heck of a big train. My son then looked up at my mom, blinked, and replied, "It's not a BIG train...it's a LONG train." Well, uh, yeah, I guess that's the more accurate word. He also gets that way with footwear. Heaven forbid you call his sandals shoes, or his boots shoes. Or flip-flops anything other than flip-flops. Sheesh! If there's a specific word for it, we MUST use it, eh?
Yesterday's incident amused me as well. Alex had accidentally punched the wrong button on a coke machine and received a diet cherry coke instead. He brought it home to me since he knew I like cherry coke (but I don't like the diet one...brrr!). He also has a 12 pack of coca colas in the refrigerator, labeled as such. So, we are sitting down talking, and Alex asks Jared if he'd fetch a coke. Jared, happy to help, bounds off and returns with the diet cherry coke. Alex looks perplexed. "I said I wanted a coke?" he asked, at that point uncertain as for what he had said. Jared nodded. "This one says coke. The others are coca colas. You didn't say you wanted a coca cola...you said COKE." I just laughed. I couldn't help it. He's making me, English instructor, be more mindful of my words. Haha!
Ok, and on another note wherein you probably don't care, but it meant a lot to me front: I went to the gourmet shop here across from Alex's apartment with Ariana in tow. She is very curious about a lot of wine stuff, so we were walking around and looking at their expensive wine and discussing various things. I ran across a very specific Chateauneauf du pape from a stellar producer that had been reduced half off, leaving it at $27 and at that price, honestly, a great bargain. So why was the price so cheap? I looked at the bottle and my mind instantly said, southern Rhone wine, 2002, VERY crap vintage...not worth even $27. It surprised me I remembered vintages of the Rhone offhand, but then I remembered I had looked them up to give Alex suggestions on years for the Cotie Rotie I wanted when he was in France. So, I walked up to the wine guy and asked him why the wine was reduced. I asked him if it had to do with the bad vintage year for the Rhone. He said he didn't know but he thought it was due to needing more shelf space. Then he went to ask his boss, came back, started to say something about needing more room for the superior 2003 vintage...saw the look in my eyes, and then sighed. And laughed. "Oh who am I kidding? You're right. It's an awful vintage, and we're depending on ignorant people to buy it because of the name of the producer. But, since that is not you, since you actually know wine, I'll just go ahead and put it back." I was pleased that my hobby is coming together in my brain so much. However, I was even more pleased to see the pride on my daughter's face. Come on...what mom doesn't want her children to think she's smart and great and all? I grinned for the rest of the day.
Ok, dinner time! We just got back from seeing Pirates of the Carribean 2. I liked it, but darn do I hate cliffhanger type movies. Bah!
posted by Kira | 4:29 PM
12 Comments:
Sounds like Jared's a born editor. Better keep an eye on him, or you're gonna find blue pencil marks all over your favorite recepies.
I can understand where he's comming from. Ambiguity does grate on me. Even the subtlest of differences can turn a sentence on its ear. For example:
"What is this thing called 'love'?"
As opposed to:
"What is this thing called, Love?"
A place for everything and everything in its place. Good for Jared. He'll make an excellent editor, teacher...or lawyer!
Visit Bordeaux when you go to France. You'll love it.
Jared sounds like me: he's going to have to compensate a lot for his OC. For instance, the wine people would in fact be trying to make room for a superior 2003 vintage by selling you the 2002 cheaply: nothing in their statement means the 2002 vintage wasn't crap. And you spelled Chateauneuf wrong, but I've been trying to compensate for my OC by not pointing out your spelling errors. :) I also see you know more than I do now about wine, which means I'm going to have to start being good at something else. Or maybe I'll just punish you by never giving you any more cheese. ;)
X.dell--well, the example you just gave reminds me of exactly how important proper punctuation is. Students complain when they are marked off for "minor" punctuation errors, and what they don't realize is that it can change the whole meaning of a sentence!
Laura--I would love to go on a wine tour of France. Alex has suggested maybe we do just that after we get married over there...our honeymoon I suppose :) And yes, Jared's precision leaves many job options open for him!
Amanda--Jared, Ari, and me all like dark choccy truffles. We are a dark chocolate family. You sure those will survive another day, though, even if you prefer milk chocolate? ;)
Joe--The wine people deliberately phrased their sentence so they wouldn't have to discuss the merits of the 2002 vintage. That was why I eyed him funny. They didn't lie to me; they just were careful with their phrasing. See, Joe, it was a VERY VERY crap vintage, both in the North and the South. It was so bad that many producers didn't even bother to make a 2002. In fact, I went to Total Wine and More in Greenville and checked out if they had a single 2002 on the shelves for the entire Rhone region...nope. He didn't want to admit the error for having it anyway ;) Although honestly, it would have been a gamble, but considering the producer...it COULD have been all right anyway. I just don't have $27 to gamble like that. And speaking of money, I wish I were wealthy so that I could pay you money to stop pointing out my spelling errors. You know WHY I make them, and you know that I don't want to turn my blog into a business proposal or a story to be sent to a publisher, so I don't spellcheck it. Oh well. I will have to find a way to not be bothered by it, just like I had to find a way to not get frustrated by the word verification on everybody else's blog that presents a nightmare situation for me. But yes, Jared is OC in a lot of different ways. He has to have each item have a special place in the house. All things have to be organized. We'll turn around and he's gathered up all the pens and placed them in the cup for the pens. Or one time, I found that he took all the coasters from across the apartment and stacked them up neatly in one corner. He needs to find a girl who won't mind him constantly tidying up the house!
Hey -- yep, I'd stopped pointing out spelling. I wasn't doing it this time to piss you off: I did it to show how OC I was. :) Sorry.... I still wuv you wots! ;) And yes, I do think the wine people were trying to be deceptive -- I was delineating a linguistic space in which their duplicitious asses could be considered correct, no matter how deceptively they were trying to sell you crappy wine. [smooch] Will you ever forgive me? I'll never threaten you with loss of cheese again, I swear!
Well, Joe, after Calvary/cavalry too...I thought all you decided to do was reduce the teasing instead of eliminate it ;) I can forgive you after copious amounts of CHEESE! haha! Actually, you can make it all better by coming and visiting me some weekend and trying out new wines with me. Your palate is better than any of my other friends (and yes, that includes my Frenchman), so I know your input would be fantastic. We should get like Alex and Amanda and Chuck over if you visit and have a "wine tasting" at my house or something! They all really grove into wine. That'd be fun!
Your wine powers are impressive, or would be if I cared. I think I'll file that one in the drawer with "soccer". :p
Lol - Jared should continue to develop that talent, as it could be quite useful later in life, especially in school. (And most especially after he's married.)
So, Pirates 2 was good, huh? I can't wait to see that one.
If I had an easy way up there, I'd come. :(
Grant--would it be better if I knew a lot about beer? Never mind; that won't happen. I care about beer as much as you do about wine!
Angie--he likes to tidy up and clean. Some girl is gonna love me for training him up right ;) And yes, it was slow at parts, but Pirates 2 is good.
Joe--sniff. Yeah, I know the issues at hand...which sucks! I had a great time the last time you visited:) it was one big ass hedonistic frenzy of good food, good conversation, and good wine! woohoo!
Does that make you a wine geek?
In the interests of equal time and fair play, I thought I should let you know I just noticed I typoed your FREAKIN' NAME on my blog in a comment. Sheesh. I was gonna fix it, but I thought you might want to see it first. Should I tell you where it is, or would you enjoy looking for it? ;)
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