Even smaller world

[Enzo]

I dunno, we may have told part of this already.

When we moved to the old folks home, early on we went across the street to the Mexican restaurant for the free meal they gave for the residents here. At that meal, there was a young man with his baby strapped on him, and he was taking some photos and talking to us. Wring gave him a duck for the baby - at least ostensibly for the baby. And she was handing out ducks to other kids in the restaurant as well as to some of the old folks. Turns out he was the reporter/editor for a local monthly free newspaper - Mason Today.

Recently at the courthouse square for Spring Fling in town, we ran into him at the booth his paper had. He took our phone number and gave us a card, saying he wanted his paper to do a story on wring - the duck lady - about her giving out ducks all over the area. Sure, says wring. But we never heard from them again.

A couple days ago, I am sitting on my bench downtown, reading my paper, when the young man walks up and asks if I am the guy with the duck lady. Yes I am, says I. He explains he still wants to do the story, and that his wife likes to throw things out, and while cleaning one day, she threw out the notes he had that included our phone number etc. And I gave him our number again and he gave me his card again. And I told him if he loses that note, he could always just go to the old folks home and ask where the duck lady was.

Allow me a tangent to support my story. Well allow it or not, I will take it. We have all manner of stupid controversies around here. If someone wants to put a left turn signal on the traffic light at some intersection, sides get formed and huge political arguments result. One current debate is handwriting. In the schools they want to stop teaching cursive writing. Printing only now, I guess. Most school age kids write with their thumbs anyway. Sides are formed and the we ought to teach cursive because we always have, versus the we don't need it folks. it is in the news.

Back to my bench. The guy had sat down next to me and we chatted. He asked about his paper as well as what we thought about Mason since moving there. I told him I liked restaurant reviews, except with only about four restaurants in Mason, I'd wager the reviews would become sorta repetitive. But I thought maybe just reviews of places of all sorts might be interesting. He told me they used to have a woman who was new to town and she wrote a regular column about her experiences exploring.

At this point a younger blonde woman walks up and says hi. And the man says she works for his paper, and is a writer. She would likely be writing the duck lady story. SO I said hello and asked, "So you're a writer eh?" Yes. "So, do you do cursive?" Now I thought as a newspaper writer, she would be aware of the cursive controversy... But she said, "Oh no, I am terrible at cursive. At school they made us learn that, and they wouldn't let us use pens, and I hold the pencil wrong and keep breaking the tip." I told her I do my crossword puzzles in pen.

Did I mention blonde? And cheerleader cute, and bubbly. I guess irony doesn't work on those.

Just another day on the bench. I think tomorrow, I will do my puzzles not only in pen, but in cursive as well.

[Мастер]

Most school age kids write with their thumbs anyway.

That means on smartphones?

Most people have extreme difficulty reading my handwriting. Including me; often times I try to read something I wrote previously, and have difficulty with it. If I am to draw a circle, or a simple graph, I have extreme difficulty doing it and having the result look reasonable. Is this some kind of syndrome, or am I just bad at it?

Sides are formed and the we ought to teach cursive because we always have, versus the we don't need it folks.

I'm trying to think if there is still much of a need to be able to read it, even if you don't really need to write it. Come to think of it, when I do write something, I usually just write it in block letters. Which are quite difficult to read.

it is in the news.

Well that's good, that means the war, the depression, the earthquake, and the crime wave aren't in your news there

At this point a younger blonde woman walks up and says hi. And the man says she works for his paper, and is a writer. She would likely be writing the duck lady story. SO I said hello and asked, "So you're a writer eh?" Yes. "So, do you do cursive?" Now I thought as a newspaper writer, she would be aware of the cursive controversy... But she said, "Oh no, I am terrible at cursive. At school they made us learn that, and they wouldn't let us use pens, and I hold the pencil wrong and keep breaking the tip." I told her I do my crossword puzzles in pen.

Did I mention blonde? And cheerleader cute, and bubbly. I guess irony doesn't work on those.

[Heid the Ba]

Irony? That is the metal that is like steely isn't it?

[Enzo]

Yes, like my resolve.


yes, writing with thumbs was a smart phone reference.

[wring]

yeah, her blondeness came through in the phone interview, too. bless her little heart, she'd even come up with questions, like "how long have you been doing this?" "where do you get them?" and "how long are you going to keep doing it?" I felt the phone rising with all the helium that was extruding from her. She's spent quite a long time on what she'd call me in the article since I said I didn't want my name to be used. I said I was fine with "duck lady", she kept trying to come up with something...

[Lianachan]

I said I was fine with "duck lady", she kept trying to come up with something...

A British paper would inevitably describe you as "quackers". Probably in the headline.

[Enzo]

Odd, I would describe her that way myself.

[MM_Dandy]

"Mother Ducker" crossed my mind...

[Lance]

"quackers"

"Mother Ducker"

Both have been applied.

[wring]

well, with Enzo, I can always threaten to dial down his oxygen when he gets too lippy around here, not sure it'd work well here...

[wring]

here's the article: http://www.masontoday.com/news/mason-wo ... ber-ducks/

[Lance]

here's the article: http://www.masontoday.com/news/mason-wo ... ber-ducks/

Loved it!

You are one ducked up lady...

[tubeswell]

Cool! - I still have my own souvenir Enzo Duck. After that story broke, methinks it will be worth double.

[Lianachan]

Excellent, although "the duck project" sounds either vaguely sinister, or like a pretty awful band.

[Heid the Ba]

Well done that woman! Mason Today is like every local paper I have ever seen and I spent far too long reading the classified ads. Who knew construction flaggers were in such demand?

[Lianachan]

Well done that woman! Mason Today is like every local paper I have ever seen and I spent far too long reading the classified ads. Who knew construction flaggers were in such demand?

Relieved to see I wasn't the only one who had a nose around the paper (and the classifieds). This is my favourite local paper.

[Enzo]

We also get a local section of the Lansing paper, and it includes the police reports. Wring studies those to find gems like the girl who was banging on a guys door demanding he return her cell phone. Police were called, and they in turn contacted the boy's mother who came to the scene and said, "Just give her the damn phone."

[wring]

don't forget the 'ne're do well' who was 'known to the police' who thanked the police officers for not shooting him. Even our vagrants are polite.

[Arneb]

Hey, larned something today. I didn't know "gift" can be used as a verb. Never mind that "Gift" in German means poison.

[Enzo]

Turning nouns into verbs has been around a long time, I suppose, but it has become overused in American English in recent decades. We no longer give someone a gift, we gift them. And of course if someone gifts you a ugly lamp, you might in turn give it to someone else, which we call regifting.

Having a child became birthing a child, and the hospital will have a birthing suite or at least birthing room. I now hear women talk about the child she "birthed."

American English is so informal, you can pretty much get away with whatever you like.

Another trend is to make up new terms for old things. The new terms need to sound more official or technical, and need to have more syllables. Once we have the minimum three syllables, we can then abbreviate it. As the famous sequence: Shell shock::battle fatigue::post traumatic stress disorder::PTSD.

[Lance]

As the famous sequence: Shell shock::battle fatigue::post traumatic stress disorder::PTSD.

Which is evolving yet again to lose "disorder" and become just PTS.

[Lance]

And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MasonDuckLady

[Мастер]

As the famous sequence: Shell shock::battle fatigue::post traumatic stress disorder::PTSD.

Which is evolving yet again to lose "disorder" and become just PTS.

Were the benefits getting too expensive?

[wring]

And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MasonDuckLady

yep. she gets around.