Semantic Slide

I am by nature a "purist" as far as the English language is concerned. Nevertheless, I recognize that the meanings of words change with time. When the British adopted the German word Blitzkrieg, they were not referring to lightning warfare, but the extended almost-nightly bombing of London and its environs in 1940 and subsequent years. A much-abused word is "troop". We still see some usage of it in its original form meaning essentially a body of soldiers: "Troop 7" refers to a unit of Boy Scouts. It is one of those words which is convenient for headline writers, in phrases such as "six troops killed in Tikrit". In other words it has become a synonym for individual soldiers. It is acceptable in the plural: "Syrian troops enter Aleppo". Although I don't like this development in meaning, there is no way that I can "stop the tide from coming in". The only satisfaction that I can obtain is to express my dismay, while I learn to live with it.

Men are from Mars...

There is a very convenient built-in shelf in our shower cabinet, It holds a container of shampoo belonging to one of the owners--and seven containers of assorted unguents belonging to the other. I bet you can guess which is His and which is Hers.

Contagious

Here in the U.S., when someone suffers from a cold, we discourage others from getting too close while the sufferer is still "contagious". In the U.K., one would use the term "infectious", while " contagious" refers to actual physical contact.. In the nineteenth century, the U.K Parliament passed the first version of the:Contagious Diseases Act. This authorized the police at Naval ports and Amy bases to detain prostitutes for examination. If they had a venereal disease, they were taken to a "Lock Hospital", and kept there, in an age when few means of cure were known. Although "contagion" was by no means limited to VD, to this day when words related to "contagious" are used they bring VD to mind. So, if a Brit is told that someone is still "contagious", it might be helpful to clarify that the speaker may simply suggest that you avoid coming too close to avoid catching that cold.

Expensive Penalty

A young man (probably deranged) climbed up on the roof of his vehicle, and took aim on a Longmont police officer. Fortunately, when he fired, he completely missed . Found guilty on two separate charges related to this incident, he has been sentenced to a total of 72 years in prison. Taxpayers will be paying out thousands of dollars, and he may spend most of the rest of his life in captivity. I'm in no position to judge whether he should be in a mental hospital, but this sentence seems to meet the test of "cruel and unusual punishment".' How can this punishment be said to fit the crime?

The VA Problems

People tell me that if only we had a "single-payer" health system, there would be no problem to solve: veterans would be folded into the system. But that's not going to happen in my lifetime. I know of no other country that has set up a separate bureaucracy for its veterans. We have to deal with political reality. It might be sensible to transfer aging veterans to Medicare, but that's not going to happen. The realistic way of dealing with the unconscionable delays for those veterans waiting more than a brief period for initial examination and treatment, is to authorize them to be seen (without charge to them) by a "civilian" health provider until they can be accepted by the VA system. The taxpayers will need to pay for this.

"Strong" Verbs

I seldom see this used here in the USA, so perhaps I should explain its usage in English. An example may help: the past tense of "sit" is "sat". I really don't understand why Americans who would readily agree that a machine gun "spat" it's bullets would report that someone "spit" out something from their mouth. Why not "spat"? I would say the same thing about another word which rhymes with that example, but delicacy and the reader's imagination make this unnecessary. There is another form of the past tense in English in which American usage and that of the British differ: Brits would say, for example, that a new coat "fitted" them very well: American usage would be that it "fit" the wearer. Of course, this is just one of many linguistic differences. When I arrived in the USA with my late first wife, she really did crack up our hosts on our travels across the country when she asked the man of the house to "knock her up" in the morning, using a common British expression that simply meant to awaken her.

Death Penalty

Although I am personally opposed to the Death Penalty, which seems barbaric to me, I do believe that the people of a state should have the right to retain it by popular vote. It does bother me that most of the states that do retain such a punishment probably tend to have voters who see it as a means of protection against persons of color. But I am totally opposed to the system which allows many years between a guilty verdict and closure of the case (either by proceeding with the death penalty or commuting the penalty, or perhaps exonerating the accused). I recently read of a case in California finally closed after more than twenty years. Justice delayed is justice denied. Unfortunately, well-meant attempts to limit the time for appeal require action by legislatures. The beneficiaries of such delays are lawyers, who make up a large proportion of the elected legislators. One can detect a distinct reluctance to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs that enrich the members of their profession.