tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post7992815185547471382..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: So by Sandra HornKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-37699744252569971522018-04-21T15:10:13.610+01:002018-04-21T15:10:13.610+01:00Yes, Enid. I think it's a sort of 'Well,&#...Yes, Enid. I think it's a sort of 'Well,' or 'Now, here's a thing...' in that case.Sandra Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01761260568729338471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-32027693791082076812018-04-21T14:50:53.659+01:002018-04-21T14:50:53.659+01:00Love that jumper, Sandra - a very profitable displ...Love that jumper, Sandra - a very profitable displacement activity.<br /><br />Re- 'So'. Didn't Seamus Heaney begin his translation of Beowulf with 'So'?Enid Richemonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17218197995089241666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-11302863289646626632018-04-21T10:43:41.750+01:002018-04-21T10:43:41.750+01:00Exactly, Susan. Worst for me are academics or expe...Exactly, Susan. Worst for me are academics or experts on programmes such as 'In Our Time'.<br /><br />Melvyn Bragg: Dr X, could you take us through the early years of Archimedes?<br /><br />Dr X: So, he was born in...<br /><br /><br />GRRRRR.Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16345949773423764808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-6002303236847817692018-04-21T09:32:31.385+01:002018-04-21T09:32:31.385+01:00We're obviously at cross-purposes because if I...We're obviously at cross-purposes because if I asked someone, 'What do you do for a living?' I would also find it annoying to be answered, 'So, I'm a bus conductor.'<br />It makes no sense!Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-48706844886840872012018-04-20T18:57:29.662+01:002018-04-20T18:57:29.662+01:00As a knit designer who designs "recipes"...As a knit designer who designs "recipes" for other knitters not to follow (it's complicated but the simple explanation is that I inspire others to be their own designers), I'm impressed. Your sweater is lovely. In my case, I knit to counterbalance my writing. In my fictive world, I'm organized, busily plotting and keeping my worlds together whereas knitting allows me to proceed with abandon.Janehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04429370771807546280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-51129677202786608462018-04-20T10:19:51.312+01:002018-04-20T10:19:51.312+01:00Yay for the knitting and the poetry, Sandra. I fin...Yay for the knitting and the poetry, Sandra. I find knitting very therapeutic though I don't do anything very fancy. I think using a different part of the brain is good and unlikely to block the other part! It's also part of the need to slow-down and de-stress in our flash bang wallop world. Occasionally when I feel overwhelmed, I think 'I need to knit.' Loving the jumper. AliAliBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09611113709872287863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-41033653600443722232018-04-20T10:17:48.899+01:002018-04-20T10:17:48.899+01:00I don't so much hate it as am niggled by it, S...I don't so much hate it as am niggled by it, Sue - especially since it's catching! I have to fight to stop myself doing it now! Also, it is a bit different from your usage, I think - eg. 'What do you do for a living?' 'So, I'm a bus conductor.' Sandra Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01761260568729338471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-38559485877118438262018-04-20T10:14:29.478+01:002018-04-20T10:14:29.478+01:00Yes, Sandra, I agree with Griselda. Speaking as a...Yes, Sandra, I agree with Griselda. Speaking as a master of displacement activities, I’m very impressed with your productivity. Mainly, though, With due regard to and my continued admiration for Susan, I want to say how glad I am to hear that someone else is disturbed by this unfathomable tendency to preface remarks with “so”. It’s a real word, with meaning, suggesting that what will follow is a consequence of what had preceded it and yet people who should know better trot it out time after time. I drive my wife crazy by constantly yelling at guilty parties on the radio or television. All she worries about is Brexit, Trump or grandchildren.Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16345949773423764808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-68369616745215122722018-04-20T10:07:27.089+01:002018-04-20T10:07:27.089+01:00Loved the post, Sandra -- and carry on with the po...Loved the post, Sandra -- and carry on with the poems! As Griselda says, 42 poems is a tremendous achievement -- what does it matter if you manage 'only' 51 out of 52 -- or 42 out of 52 for that matter. It's 42 more poems than most people have written this year. 42 more than I've written this lifetime.<br /><br />But I don't get the hatred of starting sentences with 'so.' Is it a new thing? I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. Likewise, starting sentences with 'Well,...' I did meet a foreigner, from as far away as Wiltshire, who had moved to the West Midlands, and he said starting sentences with 'well; was a Midlands thing. "Well, shall we start, then? Well, are you going away this year? Well, are you planning to grow your own vegetables?' And so on and so on.<br /><br />I have to stop myself writing dialogue that always begins, 'So...' (but only because it gets tedious on the written page.) In talking, I do it all the time. "So, what are we thinking of doing tonight? -- So, how do I begin this? -- So, where can I find -- ?"<br /><br />I don't think, as Griselda does, that it implies any superiority. I think it means something like, 'After all the suggestions that have been made, let's take a pause and make a decision.' Or, 'I've listened to everything you've said. Now remind me, how do I begin?'<br /><br />So, what does everyone else think?Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-59424655458555494542018-04-20T09:44:39.798+01:002018-04-20T09:44:39.798+01:00Thank you, Griselda - I'd worked through the p...Thank you, Griselda - I'd worked through the poems before I seized up, and to be fair, it did also say that you could use two different registers of English, dialogue and legalese, for example. I couldn't do that either! I thought of alternating science with myth in a poem about the aurora borealis, but it made my brain ache. Boo hoo.Sandra Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01761260568729338471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-35830036771520061532018-04-20T09:00:46.741+01:002018-04-20T09:00:46.741+01:00For someone with writers block you sound extraordi...For someone with writers block you sound extraordinarily productive! To reach 47 out of 52 poems, not to mention the extras, is a huge achievement. I’d never heard of the macaronic style and am baffled: can good poetry really result from alternating two languages? I fear much artifice and doggerel but my ignorance is probably the reason here. If you can give any examples of great macaronic poetry I’d love to know. And the stunning jumper!<br /> Oh yes, that wretched So. Horribly overused, its function seems to be to render the speaker more confident, answering a question with the implication ‘I’ve already explained this but I’ll go through it again, as clearly you didn’t understand the first time.’ Yuk.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com