Wed 1 Feb 2006
The Well-Chosen Word
Posted by Erin under Netflix Reviewer
[10] Comments
First, a comment on the title of some email spam I got yesterday, telling me I could generate “more sperm than there is water in the ocean.” I have never generated a sperm in my life; to go from zero to an ocean’s worth? Remarkable! But what I noticed about this sweet little hyperbole was the noun problem. Sperm is countable; water is not countable, making the comparison moot. Actually, now I’m confusing myself. Because you can’t put an “s” on the end of “sperm” (believe me, I tried!) indicating that it is non-count. And yet you could certainly count them if you had a big enough magnifying glass. What’s wrong with this language! I feel sad that English is taking over the world. I can’t imagine having to learn it from scratch.
Speaking of which, time for a weigh-in from my favorite Netflix reviewer. He is going to tell us about Million Dollar Baby, gender roles, and eating your own food. He gave the movie two stars.
This movie of the boxing woman makes me to feel for the confusion. Is not the boxing for the man? Why would the pretty woman desire to punches and haver her attractiveness to put in danger with nose breaking? Also, it make me to wonder regarding her eating of food remaining on plate of diners who consume food in her restaurant. If she is the business owner, why cannot she feed herself with fresh food? This was too much confusing for me. And I don’t like to see the womans hitting to one another.
I agree with him on the last point. I don’t like to watch anybody hit each other, except Mohammed Ali, because he makes it look like it’s not even hitting.
Women hit each other constantly. It’s just not as easy to see the physical way that men hit each other.
This man, he should avoid the movies if he cannot to see a difference between the waitress and the owner of the business.
Don’t feel so bad about English, there’s that same singular/collective/plural sperm problem with other languages too, Greek and Hebrew for instance, allowing Paul to stretch the point:
The stretchy part is that in Hebrew, Greek and English, “seed” can be taken as “one seed” or as “a sack of seed”. “Sowing seed” is plural, “plant a seed” singular.
May you be blessed like Abraham with more seed than there is water in the ocean.
Random blog posts rule.
We might have to sign up for Netflix just for the reviews.
Kate, what do you mean, women always hit each other? Is that a metaphorical statement? I haven’t deliberately hit any females since I shared a room with my little sister.
Nate, thanks for widening my horizons on the whole “seed” thing. I feel a LITTLE better about my native tongue.
Sarah, Higglety Pigglety Pop.
Julie, Not only that, but you could spy on your friends and see what they watch.
Well, you know. Women like to beat each other down in subtle ways… Oh, I don’t know. I was just trying to be deep, or something.
Well you know, maybe the spammer was trying to bless you. God told Abraham “I’ll make you a blessing and all the nations will bless each other by you”, like by saying “May you be like Abraham”.
The spammer is expressing our universal human desire to be abundantly generative, in the image of the Creator. An utopian appeal. On the other hand, the Million Dollar Baby reviewer is made “to feel for the confusion” because the film is total dystopia for him. Somewhere between the two, between heaven and hell on earth, is where we are found, is it not?
Okay maybe you haven’t hit a girl recently but I seem to remember a time when you might have kicked a girl in a hallway. You Love Skip Nova!!!
Kate– So it IS Metaphorical. I feel ya.
Nate– I’ll take all the blessings I can get.
(Wow your nicknames rhyme, kate and Nate).
Amy– I had a feeling you would bring that up. Blogosphere, I hereby confess that in sixth grade I freaked out and beat up Amy, who was later the Matron of Honor at my wedding and is now one of my most devoted blog readers. It’s a good thing that she was too shocked to respond because she was and is stronger, faster, and more coordinated than me.
Surely she couldn’t be more coordinated than YOU!
Okay. That was mean. Good thing you already sent me my birthday present.
I kicked only boys in sixth grade. Right in the shins. Great fun.
Kate and Nate also rhyme with a host of other fabulous words… Late, Hate… Ugh.