Four-and-twenty blackberries? or BlackBerrys?

I really do get gleeful about looking up some grammar rule and finding an answer. When I was younger and newer to the profession, I’d get freaked out if I came up against something I didn’t know – especially if a boss or client corrected me. Now, I actually enjoy it. Because I know no one has 100% mastery of the wacky English language (and anyone who pretends they do is a great big Grammar Meanie - thank you June Casagrande) and I also know that in my many volumes of reference books or somewhere online – someone has already posed and answered the same question I have right at that moment.

Let me illustrate: Recently, I was wondering how one might create a plural of the word BlackBerry – not the fruit, the sexy PDA. Of course Strunk and White haven’t yet made a decision on that, but I actually found several online discussions on the topic and even a “ruling” in one of my reference books about pluralizing proper nouns ending in ‘y.’

In case you care, I went with BlackBerrys so as not to dilute the brand. And I really can’t properly express here how happy I was as I set out to find the answer and how equally happy I was to discover an answer that I felt confident I could explain and defend, if necessary (of course no one challenged me, but I was ready).

P.S. Please don't post comments telling me it's blackbirds. I know. It was a joke.

Word Girl Geek Love

I didn't plan to fall in love. I didn't want to fall in love. It's not at all what I thought I'd want in life, but now that it's here, I must have it. The next $400 I make is going to buy me a Kindle!

Gobble, Gobble.

As if Americans needed an excuse to eat in excess.

But I’m not really a grouch about this holiday. I just wish I could be a part of a celebration that really was about giving thanks for the abundance we enjoy here in this country. What would that celebration look like? I’m not sure but I think it would involve a lot less gluttony and a lot more selfless acts.

Yellow

I actually scribbled this in mid-October, but never had a moment to post. Just a little vignette of autumn in NJ.

Recently, I was pushing one of my nephews on a swing. At one point, he tossed his head back - the way kids do on swings - to watch the sky slide by, back and forth. His eyes caught the tops of the tall trees that separate grandma’s yard from the neighboring farm, where the corn stalks stood softly, dried-out and ready to be cut down.

“I see colors,” he shouted excitedly. I looked up and, sure enough, the tippy-tops of the trees were turning. It was as if a painter’s brush had gently dabbed the edges of the trees with new colors to cover the summer green.

“What colors do you see?” I asked. A chorus of voices erupted as the other nephews and nieces (who I didn’t even know were paying us any attention) chimed in: “I see red!” “I see orange!” “I see green!” “I see yellow!”

The swinging boy replied, “I don’t see any yellow! Where do you see yellow?”

Later, on the driveway, we started taking inventory of the fallen leaves, sorting them by colors as you sometimes do with a bag of M&Ms.

“See? There’s yellow,” one instructed the other. And of course, everyone had to agree there was indeed yellow in the mix.

Today it’s raining leaves outside. It is a miracle of beauty that I cannot imagine living without.

No, not dead.

Just adjusting to a new professional lifestyle. Work had been a little thin for a little longer than I was happy about in early October, so I raised the “Carole is for hire” flag. Ended up with a PT gig that was suppose to go FT in January, but has suddenly become FT, like, now-ish.

The most relevant news for this blog is, of course, that I will still be working out of the BDO. Viva les fenêtres ouvertes!!! (don't ask me to actually say that... just bable fish-ed it)