An email from my doctor friend:

I had a dream last night that you lived in a house made out of popsicle sticks and you shaved your head and grew a long beard. My advice: don't do it, you look like a stooge.

-Grant

On "Like"


The plethora of uses for "like" in modern american vernacular has been the screech in the ear or the linquistic norm comforter (creating a sort-of cadence in the ear) for users of our language for some time. Since 1982 we have or have not tried to avoid sounding like a Valley Girl, and for even longer we have or have not wanted to sound similar Scoobie's friend, like, Shaggy.

let this second paragraph sit as an aside: for i don't know how long, the use of "so" to end a sentence, as a sort-of trailing of, is creeping up as the next rhetorical institution with which to be dealt...soooo....(miles presciently asks, so what?)

"Like" now has a numer of uses apart from its comparitive origins. Most are oral, such as the place holder (Well, like, I think we're doing X); the verbal quote (and I was like, my name is Andrew); and the verbal approximation (it's, like, lunchtime) where written language would normally use "about."

While for the most part I am no fan of "like," I do have 1) a curiosity on one aspect; and 2) an approved use.

To the extent "like" has become a verbal filler of space, in place of ummm, the usage is more annoying. Especially when placed in the beginning of a sentence. "Like....wherever you want to go." It seems to have the connotation of eyes rolling, uncertainty, or adolescence. My curiosity is this: why does it feel right in the mouth? ummmm feels sort of like a thoughtful hum whilst forming thoughts...it sort of keeps the throat moving while grasping fo rthe next kernel. Like is the opposite. It abrubtly stops the sound with a hard k sound.

Also, ummm forms in the face a sense of contemplation. Lips are sealed lest we release the wrong words. Like forms on the face a sort of grimmace. A teeth bearing almost cattiness.

All the same, potentially the most annoying (to the ear) usages is also the one I think most suitable for ocnversation. This is the approximate quotative. It is used when summarizing a prior converstion. He was, like, i think X; and I was, like, I think Y.

When relaying prior conversations, the truth of what was actually said is usually lost in the relay. The child's game of telephone so prooves. Using "like" conveys some sense of acknowledging this fact. It relieves the speaker of exact quotation and warns the hearer that the third party involved in the prior conversation might well have a different idea of what wa said. "Like," then, almost is used as a rule of evidence to allow hearsay evidence.

A second curiosity: I was trying to think of what we used for summary information of a prior conversation before "like." Did we say, "well, so and so said something approximately along the lines of, 'I think X'."?

Tom and Bruce sing: "cause down the shore everything's alright"

why am i writing this post?

i got to thinking about some mariah carey videos the other morning.

is intellectual honesty (or really more accurate: consistency) a good thing? if so, is there a reason we, broadly as a society, don't care about it? if not, if intellectual inconsistency is fine, is there a reason why we chaffe upon its discovery (as in, why being a flip-flopper is a bad thing?) is there a reason we celebrate mind changes and maturing one moment and condemn shifts in opinion the next? again, let me just ask: what is up with consistency in america?

The first two singles for Mariah's new album, Emancipation of Mimi, were "it's like that" and "we belong together." "It's like that" came out some time ago as a video, and launched off the album. I remember reading "mariah's back" type music critics that remarked upon the song as a vehicle with which the pop artist rode back into prominence. The lyrics, some mentioned, really captured Mariah's state of self. She's over the meltdown, no more drama, just putting out good music. Lyrics like this:

Cuz it's my night
No stress, no fights
I'm leavin it all behind
No tears, no time to cry
Just makin the most of life

hard to argue. "It's like that" was a statement. I'm leaving the drama soapopera celebrity this that glitter world beind and enjoying life. cool.

The video featured Mariah walking into a party. Basically that was it...the entrance and the pre-entrance getting ready (makeup, you know).

Well, the video, that again featured lyrics celebrating the soap-opera-less life, ended with a young man tossing some flowers Mariah's way. And the next single's video, "we belong together," features a marriage ceremony from which Mariah bolts, 5 mile long dress trailing behind, from the Richard Gere lookalike hired for the video for the Justin Timberlake lookalike (tux and sneakers in full gear).

So much for leaving all the drama behind.

Somewhere in these two videos is a good analogy of our ability to live and thrive within an intellectually inconsistent world. perhaps this is why we make so many new years eve resolutions.

go south.

dang it if it's not another book to buy. Economist has a good glimpse of this new one out from Martin Gayford, The Yellow House. The book is about what I have to imagine would be excellent fodder for a month long sellout at your local indie theater: the roomate-ship of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in southern France.

Southern France (don't give me "south of France" unless you also say North Carolina is in "south of America") has always (the one time i was there) struck me as quite similar to southern U.S.: awesome. Sunny, happy, warm disposition, wonderful, bright, and the summation of all things good. Van Gogh, wanting to paint out what the nature around him compelled, and not wanting his mind too much in the way, was naturally draw to get going a "southern school" of painting that exploited what beautiful Provence offered.

As the Economist column discusses, Van Gogh's heart contrasted to no small level with Gauguin's mindfulness. Also, Gauguin is quite often (likely correctly) regarded as a pompous prick.

That these two were roomates, complete with paintings dedicated to each other, is ripe for film. It's over ripe. It's a brown banana. For pete's sake, the whole ear episode. I look forward to the movie version of The Yellow House. I can then strike this one happily off my reading list.