Writing that really pisses me off

Where I come from there are even some politicians who have no idea there's a thing called grammar. It makes their speeches and talk-show appearances pretty darn entertaining, though.

It's a good thing GTiM is not a lecturer of mine...I'd get my brother Busta (surname: Capp) to have a go.

Capt. Midnight: I too was born and raised in what others call a ghetto but I merely term it a lower-middle class suburb of Los angeles. I guess I eaute "ghetto" with multi-storey red-brick tenements popular in eastern American metroplis. My bumpkin relatives in North Carolina liked to tease my niece, also from Compton, by calling her and her behaviour "ghetto."

Of course, I'd have none of this abuse heaped on my beautiful niece by these sybling-shagging, cow-pat kicking, slack-jawed yokels. They didn't like MY abuse, but since I was packing my Mac10 (j/k) they had to swallow their onjections and keep quiet.

No-one says that those from deprived upbringings have to have the linguistic talents of a Shakespeare, a Milton, or even flavour of the month, Dan Brown, but a basic command of one's mother tongue should not be too difficult to achieve and maintain. Surely?

It is beyond anyone's power to avoid being born into a world of shit, but it is within every one of them to leave that pond of crap and seek out a pool filled with something better, something pleasant.

Thanks for reading.

p.s. please review your possible overuse of the word, "that." If it doesn't add anything, or if the sentence still makes sense without it, leave it out.

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Count me in on the journey, don't expect me to stay.

About bloody time!

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Not Now John might not be me, but he wishes he was.

Have I linked to this essay yet? Because if not, I should. Anyway, here it is, potentially for the second or third time.

David Foster Wallace on American Usage

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is snuggly

Aside from the dietary preferences of the kid in your back alley, and the odd habit of parking on the front lawns, your neighborhood was lovely in the 70's, and not that different from the one I grew up in.

Local parks and high school, another matter.


Byron, you got rednecks in the family? I would never have thought...

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Activist != Expert.

Not so much rednecks as corn-swoggling, moonshine guzzling hillbillies.

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Count me in on the journey, don't expect me to stay.

Now that I think about it, you did tell me you had to teach them how to shave.

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Activist != Expert.

Bride, well written response to my thoughts. Just a few more angles for you. I was born and raised in the, "projects." These were in fact brick buildings as you describe. I've never been to Compton, so I've no basis for comparison, but I take it that its no, "Santa Cruz." I never was one to own a gun. I've had to use one loaned to me by my Government to use against those it ordered me to do so. Those Veterans points were a great assist gaining my current employment. So I have used my Governments help to better my self. Your point also proven about rising above. I also stated that my wit, and perhaps also my grammer per your post, that I was not up to the task of writing a great novel, nor did I lay any claim to have a command of english. I live in a suburb full of Ward Cleavers that sit behind a PC all day to make a buck, and thats fine. I work eight days a month and will collect two Government pensions when I retire, well before the age of 50. The only post high school education I have had, was when my dept. paid for my paramedic training. Anyone with two levels of college english most certainly can red line my writing. Many of these same may not all have a grasp of how many jules to bust the cardio arrest pt. in the back of the squad, nor be stupid enough to climb on top of a smoking roof to cut a hole to vent out the heat and smoke. My peers can read and understand my writing, and thats the point of my first post. Well done, good stuff.

so again; "Raise a glass, to the hard workin' people