Monday, January 15, 2007
Why I've been absent so long
It has been much too long since I posted a note on this blog, and I apologize.
I have an excuse. Shortly after Thanksgiving, I had triple-bypass surgery. Believe me, this will put a crimp in your blogging and in everything else. Just skip the whole thing if you can.
If you must have bypass surgery, though, you could do a lot worse than have it in Durham Regional Hospital (that is Durham, North Carolina). I was lucky to have fine surgeons, Dr. Charles Murphy and Dr. Thomas Marsicano. And I shall always be grateful for the care and compassion of the nurses and nursing assistants in the chest-pain center on the hospital's fifth floor. These folks were unfailingly kind.
While I'm here, I'll mention one or two points about language.
Terms of endearment
The first one concerns those nurses and nursing assistants. It strikes me that they are among the last groups of people who haven't been intimidated into abandoning terms of endearment. Far too many people, including many writers, shy away from using such terms for fear that the thought police and the language harpies will pounce.
I, for one, am sick of these "politically correct" types.
Yes, of course, it can certainly be inappropriate in writing or speech to use "dear" or "honey" and the like.
But sometimes such terms are quite appropriate. I found it not only endearing but also comforting when the nurses spoke them to me.
I hope that you, as writers--but more important, as human beings--have the judgement to know when to ignore the thought police and the courage not to be cowed.
A foolish word
"Carjacking" is one of the silliest and most annoying words that appear in the media. For one thing, it reeks of the kind of cutesiness that passes for cleverness among hacks. For another thing, it isn't needed. We already had the well-established "hijacking," which covers most situations that involve the forcible taking of a vehicle.
The writer who thinks "carjacking" is clever is only too apt to commit worse folly. Such as the network TV promo I heard the other day that referred to "truckjacking."
Thanks for you patience, and I will try not to wait so long before posting again.
Thanks for you patience, and I will try not to wait so long before posting again.
