American English

There are many words used in the United States which irritate me. Here are a few examples and why they annoy me so much.

1. Instinctual. This word is particularly irritating as it does not exist. I have heard this word used several times. English is a great language because it is continously evolving. New words get added to the lexicon all the time. This is particularly true of computer science. 25 years ago, we did have not the following words in the language: Web, internet, flashdrive, zipdrive, jumpdrive, .com, ipod, RAM, google, wikipedia, web browser, direct tv, cell phone, ATM, text message email, laptop, GPS. Viruses made you sick. Worms were creatures which burrowed into the earth. All of these words uniquely define an object. There are no other words that have the same meaning. I am continously chastised for being an old-fashioned curmudgeon who can't handle a growing language. This is not true. Instinctual is simply the wrong adjective for instinct. The correct adjective is instinctive. So there is already a correct word. Creating a similar word (incorrectly) with an identical meaning is redundant and actually anethema for growth.

2. Defense a play. Sports commentary is replete with cringeworthy howlers that massacre the English language. This however is particularly egregious because it has now been adopted by the general public. One hears it all the time, "The Ravens have just not been able to defense the running game...." Once again there is already a correct verb - defend. Using defense as a verb is simply wrong.

3. President Obama is a person that can bring change to the country. Since when is a person a "that". For a person, there is a specific interrogative pronoun -who.

4. Split infinitives. Sometimes the split infiitive is acceptable. For instance: These experiments were peformed to further investigate the relationship between..........
Although, there is a split infinitive because "to" was followed by an adverb, the meaning is very clear and cannot be stated in any other way without sounding clumsy. On the other hand, I found the following phrase in Newsweek: "During the Civil War, Lincoln was able to brilliantly manage his team of rivals". This is just clumsy and wrong. The correct way would be - "During the Civil War, Lincoln managed his team of rivals brilliantly." A mistake like this is inexcusable considering that Newsweek must have numerous editors who (not that!) should have caught this error.

5. "I could care less." No you couldn't. If you dont' care for something, then you couldn't care any less. If you CAN care less, that means you do care.

I am sure I will think of some more annoying misuse of the language. When I do, I will blog. Now, that word never existed even 10 years ago.

Now for something completely different - Soccer

Now that the US elections have ended, I wish to blog about something non-political. I love football - the real football, known as soccer in the States and Australia. The beautiful game as it is called, is the most popular sport in the world. Its popularity in the States however, is limited and ranks behind American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, golf, tennis, ice skating, softball, volleyball, poker, nascar racing, bowling, cheerleading and ballroom dancing. Many reasons have been put forth as to its lack of popularity in the States. One of the major reasons was that success-minded Americans cannot tolerate losing to anyone in anything. This is partly true as evidenced by the fact that while the rest of the world was watching live table tennis or badminton in the Olympics, Americans were watching women's softball or 3rd reruns of Michael Phelps winning his umpteenth gold medal.


Another reason for American indifference to soccer is that they can't appreciate how one can be so fanatical about a game where two teams try to put a ball into a net for 90 minutes. Most importantly, the teams are unsuccessful in this endeavor 99% of the time. Contrast that to basketball or baseball where a significant outcome of some sort occurs every few seconds. In American football, an outcome of some sort occurs on every down. If the offense doesn't move forward, then it has lost a down, if it does then the offensive position has altered. For soccer fans, the constant stopping of the game is extremely annoying.

Soccer is not just a sport. In Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, soccer is part of life. During the season, the fans support their favorite teams with a fervor that is unparaleled in any other sport. Sometimes a little too much fervor as evidenced by the many reports of fans who have had heart attacks while watching important matches. On the other hand, soccer can be an outlet for life's miseries. Take for instance when Iraq played the United States in the soccer World Cup, of 2002 just a few short months after American troops had invaded. In that surreal game when sport and life collided, two well taken goals by an inspired Iraqi team shocked the Americans.

American audiences simply don't understand the game. The intricate nuances of passing, movement off the ball, dribbling and most importantly the dramatic moments of pure joy when a goal is scored. Soccer is more like life than any other game. It is filled with mundane moments and the players have to work hard, often without reward. But in some games there are moments of sublime beauty. Just like many important occurrences in life one can always remember where you were when you witnessed it. For me it was around 11 pm on a Sunday evening of 1988, Holland were playing Russia in the final of the European championships. Holland were leading 1-0 but the game was still in doubt. A Dutch midfielder floated the ball wide right 10 yards into the penalty area. The commentator with an air of disappointment said,"Oh! Its too wide." Just as the words left his lips, the ball was in its downward trajectory, sailing hopelessly wide towards the goal line, when all of a sudden the great Dutch striker Marco Van Basten leaped forward and struck the ball on the volley. The Russian goalkeeper didn't move as the ball flew into the opposite side of his goal. That moment is simply called "The Goal". Speak to any European of any descent about European international soccer and they will know precisely what you mean and where they were when they witnessed The Goal. It was magic.

There simply isn't another sport which is itself such a universal language. It is a pity that most Americans simply don't understand it.

Election prediction

The following is my election 2008 prediction:
Barack Obama: 311 electoral votes
John McCain: 227 electoral votes

Senate
Democrats: 58 seats
Republicans: 42 seats

House
Democrats: 249 seats
Republicans: 186 seats

Electing the President

I met a couple of people today discussing the election.
"You ready to vote?"
"Yes, I'm really motivated now. I just can't see how McCain and that woman can run the country."
Overheard a teenage girl with her girlfriends (all in Philly t-shirts) speaking to her father, "I can't believe Obama is going to win. Taxes are going to go up". "Got to have faith. Maybe it can be turned around." Her father replies.
With the enormous amount of material that has been fed into daily media (TV, radio, internet and newspapers), these anecdotes where ordinary people have tried to distill this election into a single issue that means something to them, is a sign that there are too many complex matters to keep in mind. While simplifying the election into a focused issue that is important to you is a legitimate method of deciding for whom you will vote, this method may be problematic. For instance, the person who simply couldn't stomach a McCain/Palin administration has no real evidence that McCain/Palin couldn't run the United States. I believe she meant that McCain is such a maverick (and hot head) that he couldn't run the White House. while his running mate isn't even worth mentioning by name. This opinion is not quite correct, as there is no evidence that McCain won't be ABLE to lead the country, while "that woman" is vice-president and won't really be leading the country at all. The girl who was afraid of an Obama Presidency because taxes will go up is equally wrong. Taxes will rise only for households which earn more than $250,000.
This method of making one's choice worries me as it would appear that many voters are making decisions based on incorrect assumptions.

Grey's anatomy

Last week, my mother-in-law wanted to watch Grey's anatomy. I dutifully switched channels so that she could watch the show. I decided to watch the show with her, as I had heard that it was extremely popular and so wished to see what the fuss was all about. I had only watched 1 previous episode and had not been particularly impressed. This time round, it was downright painful. The episode centered around Meredith Grey's boyfriend wanting to kick out her roommates and all the angst that causes. Along the way, there were the obligatory quirky patients each with a story that was supposed to grab our interest. All the stories were cliched - girl who tries to deny that she was dying, man whos wife dies before he is finally cured, and man believes he is down on his luck, gets a break and finds out he has cancer through a freak accident during surgery (the roof falls in as a result of pumbing problems). Through all this, all the regular cast are varying degrees of irritating, whining or plain obnoxious. Most importantly though is the fact that all of them are 2 dimensional, unbelievable and excruciatingly boring. I cared nothing for any of the characters but that wasn't the worst. The beginning and end of the show was bookmarked by Dr. Grey's saccharine sweet voice-over stating pseudo-intellectual surgical metaphors. I could not find one aspect of the show that was worth watching, and I am being kind. The writers should have their contracts revoked and the actors should simply be embarrased. But even that may a be beyond their shallow abilities.

3rd Presidents' debate

Compared to the last limpid, yawn, masquerading as a debate, this 3rd edition of Obama-McCain verbal confrontations was extremely lively. McCain was in fine form, flashing a relentless series of sanctimonious smirks at all of his opponents measured answers. It appeared that McCain was completely contemptuous of all Obama's answers. Every single one. This patronizing behavior only reinforces his nauseating hypocrisy when informing the American public that he understands that the public is "angry" at the economic crisis. He doesn't understand anything. How can a man who can't remember that he owns 7 homes understand the plight of people who were unable to make mortgage payments truly understand this? I can understand him laying out his economic strategy (or at least trying to) but please do not tell us that you understand the anger, frustration, pain, stress, despair that besets families which have lost homes and/or retirement savings. Therein lies the basic difference between the candidates. Obama doesn't try to explain to us how he "knows' what the American public feels, instead he pounds us unceasingly with his plans and proposals. He further tells us how his opponent's plans appear to favor the wealthy. This is slightly more palatable and constructive than McCain's constant reference to his audience as "my friends" and telling them that he knows how they feel or whats best for them and Joe the Plumber.

2nd Presidents' debate

Does anyone answer the questions asked? I think both candidates used every opportunity to push their plans and importantly the differences between them.

How many times did John McCain say, "my friends" or "fundamental differences"? Too many.

How many times did Obama say, "fundamental differences"? A few less.

Have you noticed that every time the candidates attack each other - the Ohio voter reactions went down?. Good. What a waste time this is.

Did anyone notice that McCain wore a red tie but Obama did not wear a blue one?

Yawn.

The one comment at which I took issue, is the use of the phrase "we will kill......." . Being a total pacifist I cannot agree with such language. I cannot agree with the philosophy of intentionally killing anyone. Senator Obama hit a raw nerve with me here.