Language is a continually evolving structure, but do the changes have to be so gross, ugly and just plain annoying. So the word Black is capitalized but even combined with another marginalized segment of society, the word brown is not. Jack fell down and broke their crown. To heck with subject verb agreement. The word before has been replaced by ahead of.* Sounds cooler, I suppose. The word furbaby has been coined and people voluntarily use it. Sort of along the lines of furhat, I suppose.
Now the powers that be in the written media have decided to have parents "share" their children or offspring. Not that the parents are necessarily divorced or separated, but a common expression denoting, I guess it could be more, that the kids have 2 parents. Used to be that parents or others shared custody, but no, now it's the sharing of their actual physical being. Sharing in this sense would best be defined as having a portion of something split with others. Can you really share a child. Ask Solomon.
* And the replacement of the word "from" by "out of." If you want to sound like a police report.
Just received a message to submit more articles, so, being the compliant sort, I'll do so.
Every once in a while, I'll go to the Physician Ratings Site and see what's new with the doctors I've known. Of course, these ratings are patently unfair because anyone can leave a review and say anything. And there's no recourse for the doctor but to live with what's been written. I'm sure not all doctors even read them. I have never left a review on this kind of public site, only if I receive a request from the physician's office or treating hospital. But I occasionally review the site anyway.
I checked the site for Dr. Frank Congiusta, the orthopedist who performed my knee replacements 8 and 9 years ago, probably the most successful of all my medical ventures. The doctor, then in his late 30's and fairly new to the practice, is now approaching 50 and holds title of Chief of Orthopaedics at St Peter's Hospital, among other honors.. The reviews left on the Ratings Site have increased in number and sing his praises. Except for a single one.
That review, left by a woman, reads: "Dr. Conquistador is not as great as he thinks he is." Why this is funny I don't know, but it is
Reading about the woman found dead in the woods in Schaghticoke brought back this memory, from around 1957-58 or so.
The garage building next to our house was vacant then. Customers of Sara's store frequently parked there, alongside the driveway we used then. But a white car was parked there for a while, with no driver anywhere around. Someone must have notified the police the next day when the car was still apparently abandoned there. It was a neighborhood mystery when the authorities showed up to examine the vehicle. So much intrigue that my sister, completely out of character for her, skipped classes at Albany State to wait for news of the mystery car. That evening, when I was working in the store, 2 strange men came in and bought flashlights and batteries. Besides being strangers, a rarity then, they seemed gruff and serious. They were joining a search party for the missing driver, a woman, the wife of one of those customers.
The search party was headed for the woods on Stover Road, with Johnny Daurio joining in the search. It was late evening that rainy day when they found her, her body dangling from a tree deep in the woods. Johnny said it was a terrible sight; he was there when they found her, and was moved by it.
The back story was that they looked in the woods because her husband said she loved the woods and often hiked through them.
The rest of the story, pieced together as it was, was that she had driven from another state, maybe Pennsylvania, and had paid a visit to Dr. Sproat's office, no appointment needed back then. She was concerned about her health, deeply worried that she might have contracted a venereal disease that her husband had brought back from North Africa or someplace. Dr. Sproat confirmed her suspicions and she drove her car down to River Road and walked to her beloved woods and hanged herself.
I don't know the circumstances of the death in Schaghticoke, but the car parked alongside the road and the statement of there being no signs of foul play made me think of that other poor soul.
Thinking of Professor Brooks and relevance today: The true muses have definitely been retired. (Just ask George Will.) So the bastard muses have been more than ready to take over:
The muse named Pornography is ultra evident, so much so that even scholar Brooks could probably not have foreseen the degree. The definition, legal and societal, of what constitutes pornography has broadened so that few formerly apt definitions now apply. Child pornography exploitation seems more prevalent, but that is pure criminality. Brooks alluded to the ability of pornography to distort the human dimension by its focus on a powerful human drive at the expense of the human dimension. Enough said.
In contrast to Propaganda and Pornography the bastard muse of Sentimentality seems benign, but it may pose the most widespread threat of all to the debasement and distortion of the values for which many have laid down their lives. Sentimentality devalues the human dimension by working up emotional responses unwarranted by the occasion. We as a nation are committed to the love of animals, in general, and especially for dogs, and more especially for young dogs, puppies. Even older dogs are referred to as puppies. If a canine of any age gets lost or injured in any way, facebook reports the many prayers that are offered up for its safe return or recovery. When humans and dogs are at risk because of accidents or crimes, attention is more likely to be focused on the animal involved. I can relate because I loved my childhood dog more than life itself, but even at ten years of age, I realized its place in the world we lived in. The term "calf" has been transmuted into baby cow. The sight of a noted chef choosing a lamb to be led to slaughter causes outrage. We are subjected to the horrors of life and death in the Ukraine but are inured to the devastation by the sight of a young girl selling lemonade or such to help those poor children---get them a toy or maybe a book. Praying for a lost puppy and supporting a fundraiser for lost children are simple and gracious ways to help. But such virtue signaling should not substitute for the understanding of the human condition and the events that can lead to its dissolution. Like the other two bastard muses, that of Sentimentality offers only a partial account of life in its fullness, which is not nourishing but debilitating. I would speculate that the epitome of the sad state of America's learning could be the coinage of the word "furbaby."
