by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"
... part two, or three, of why English is a difficult language to learn.
The radio ad was for a restaurant featuring vegetarian meatballs. Imagine learning what vegetables are and what meat means, and try putting them together so it makes sense.
It’s like the phrase jumbo shrimp. Jumbo meaning large and shrimp meaning small, right?
And say you are driving an Allamakee County road and you see groups of wild creatures. There are lots of deer. But lots of turkeys. Why the “s” for the turkey numbers but not the deer? Or the “s” for foxes but no “s” for moose, the latter not seen in Allamakee.
Who made the rules?
Still on the subject of outdoor things, have you noticed the fireflies? They seem extremely bright this year. As if you could put a couple in a jar, as we used to when we were children, and read a book by their light. Which we did not do as children.
