Where has the time gone?

Well, I see it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Most likely because the first of two part-time jobs has come through (PT copy editor at the Syracuse newspaper) and the other is due in June. That's added some urgency to getting other things done (or at least writing them on a to-do list).
Despite that, I've added another blog to this site. I invite you to check out CommasEtc., which you can link to from this one (see the sidebars to the right). For the most part it'll just be a collection of errors too funny to keep to myself. Feel free to add your own by clicking the comment button.
The first thing you may notice is that the name Commas, etc. isn't quite as confounding as galimafree. "Comma"is a nod to Don Hadley, who gave me my first newspaper job a million years ago. I often edited his columns and editorials, and as a Strunk & White devotee, I was always adding commas in the appropriate places. He'd bristle but go along with it. One of the last times I saw him, I gave him a book I'd found at the library sale: "Commas Are Your Friend."
"Etc."? Well, I think it's just me not wanting to commit to one topic or task, as evidenced by my business name, as well: GrantsEtc. That, by the way, has worked well. I do far more Etc. work than grant work. I won't be totally surprised if Etc. shows up on my tombstone one day. Can't you just see it: Dead, etc.? The thoughts that conjures ...
By the way, until I get it fixed, the first thing you may notice is that the site seems to be set up for the visually impaired. I can't find the spot that lets me change font size. Even more troubling is that as I typed today's post and started this one, it appeared as 5-pt. type, which explains any typos you find. I can't fix what I can't see.
But, I did solve that part of the problem, which was as easy at holding down command +.
Maybe the reverse (command, minus sign) will work on the other.
It's worth a try.

Required readin?

It's always kind of bugged me that in high school English -- those years when the classics were supposed to be introduced, dissected, and shoved down our throats if necessary -- my class was reading Lance Rentzel's "When All the Laughter Died in Sorrow."

What gives? Maybe the new teacher, fresh out of college, was trying to show he was cool and that even though it was a Catholic school, he didn't care there was a scene focused on menstrual fluid. After all, he was young. Maybe he was tired of the classics and couldn't stand the thought teaching one. Like the woman with the Carolyn Keene pseudonym who acknowledged not too long ago that she was so sick of Nancy Drew she could vomit.

Maybe he was trying to give the guys a reason to pick up a book, so he assigned the football player's autobiography so they wouldn't want to chuck it at him. It's been a lot of years, so I can't say for sure but I think there was only one woman in the book -- Rentzel's wife, Joey Heatherton of mattress commercial fame.

Ah, the craft of it all.

Sparking this morning's screed is a Reader's Digest piece on writer Rick Bragg, who I doubt ever read about Lance's laughter and sorrow. But I could be wrong about that. What I do know is that his assigned reading in high school was "To Kill A Mockingbird," and he said it changed his life. The best I can tell you is Lance's book didn't change mine.

Thanks to my kids' high school assignments we have a copy or two of Harper Lee's only published book, so I can catch up anytime I want to. Hearing Bragg reminisce about it, quote from it, and share what it meant to him has inspired me to at least add it to my list (you know the one) of books to read.

There were a couple of side comments from Bragg that struck home, in a coincidental sort of way. One was that he's pretty sure that the character Dill is someone he would have beat up for his lunch money, given the chance. Yet, growing up in Alabama, he said he already knew as he red the book that was happening to Tom Robinson, the black man accused of rape, was wrong. That was an interesting juxtaposition of right and wrong in the one person's mind. I'd just seen the same -- but opposite -- contrast in the book I'm about done with, Philip Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" Yancey has written many well-crafted and well-researched books on various aspects of theology. Like Bragg, he grew up in the South, but he grew up hating black people and admiring the KKK. I wonder what it was that changed him, if "Mockingbird" changed Bragg.

The other thing was that when Bragg describes being handed a copy of the book to read as a teenager, he says it was old and suffering the ravages of whatever bugs had made a home in it. It didn't seem to bother him. I wish I could say the same for the copy my son was handed, with dried food sticking some pages together. At the time I could afford it, so I bought new ones for the class from some discount Web site. OK, it's an idiosyncrasy, but I like clean books and I knew it couldn't be a priority for a Catholic elementary school trying to keep tuition down.

Somewhere, though, I hope someone who shares my low threshold for "ick" is reading Lance Rentzel's book and saying "Who?" "Why?????" and "Yuck!" to whatever she finds between its pages.

Hey, it's a paying job!

Well, at last, a job poster who gets the concept of paying for work. But, gee, do you think (s)he really needs a resume writer?

"need help writing a resume i dont need a see spot run type i can do this my slef I also need a cover letter i dont know what to pay for this but i do know that i am willing to pay I would like to do this wed of next week in my house. email me and let me know what you think hell if you can send me your resume ps you must be good with pepole becuse i going to tell you that i fix s*** and build s*** and you have to make me look good"

How bout 4 bucks even?

OK now, this craigslist ad I just came across illustrates my other post about students not doing their own work. But it also speaks to other pet peeves: People who think they know how long it takes to write, even if they're incapable of doing it themselves -- and people who expect quality but haven't a clue what it's worth:

"I need someone to write a simple, but unique persuasive speech of about 4 minutes in length. The topic is yours to choose, but we will need to agree on it before you begin. This shouldn't take more than a half hour to crank out for an experienced writer as I have an outline to follow, but lack the creativity. Please contact me if you are interested; I need this done ASAP.
* Compensation: $4.44 by PayPal "

Hey, do you think we could use this approach universally?
Let's line up somebody with a kid who can't help putting things up his nose. We go to the doctor's office and tell the M.D. that we've seen it done on TV and it should only take 2 minutes -- if he's a good doctor. Then we say, we'll pay him 30 cents. Not a penny more.
Do you see the docs lining up for this job?