Poor thing had been delayed: the anniversary for which we bought it for each other was the 17th May, and then life intervened again and the lad who plants got sick and then we had to be in Seattle—today, the stars all came together. The beautiful lilac we bought was accidentally destroyed in the interim, unable to be replaced. But our red-seed Japanese Maple is being lowered into the ground in good shape. Happy! The pond is crystal clear and the day is not too hot.
I’ll be taking the car in for an inspection after the road debris incident, and after that, I think we will go out to eat. Too much chaos to cook.
Hurray for the tree, and the guy to plant it!
It’s a funny thing to me: “lad” and “lass” get this different flavor in the US than in the UK, while over here in the US, “guy” gets used, often even as a neutral word. Yet American clang has real trouble with any informal or slang term for “grown woman” or “female person in general,” without getting judgmental (“chick,” “babe,” “gal”) for instance. “Guy” manages to be neutral for males for age, even extending to “person of either gender neutrally” in many uses. Yet there’s no real female counterpart. And both “boy” and “girl” get extended up to adults, yet come across as insulting in the wrong contexts. (When I was an older teen, for instance, I very much did not want to be a “boy,” I wanted to be a “guy, young man, man” instead. “Lad” didn’t really enter into it, since to me, that was a more British usage, or a “younger guy or kid” in American usage.)
Only marginally related, as slang, I have never quite figured out why British slang refers to a flashlight, a battery-powered hand-held electric device, as a “torch,” even if you use the older, “electric torch” form. Oh, I understand that it’s a transference from the old “burning stick of wood, fire and pitchforks” kind of torch, but somehow, to me, a “torch” in that sense is entirely different than a flashlight sort of “torch.” It has always seemed so odd to me that Brits call it a torch, and yet they see no problem with this.
I am, however, neutral on TV versus telly. I use the word TV by default, and telly sounds more cute. but I’m of the wrong generation to call my cell phone a “celly;” it’s either a cell phone or a phone, though I’ll recognize it as a “mobile,” even though to me, a “mobile” is the little turning, hanging arrangement sometimes above a baby’s crib, that kind of mobile. Heheh.
Note, though, that a cell phone can be just a phone now, but somehow an ebook is another thing entirely from a printed “book,” which somehow has not become a “pbook” to match the ebook. Nor is the ebook the reader device, but rather the document file itself.
Isn’t language weirdly fun? 😀
When you said, “…in the US, “guy” gets used, often even as a neutral word,” I took it at first as neutral gender. One can definitely include women in “you guys”, though perhaps that’s an extension of the neutral he. Of course, guy is paired with gal or doll (Guys and Dolls). Dames with knights (Anything Goes).
Flashlight has a reason behind it. Early flashlights had such low capacity batteries and low life filaments that use in more than flashes would either drain the battery or burn out the bulb.
We’ve come a long way. Now smartphones replace flashlights, cameras (still and movie), recorders, address books, to-do lists, clocks, watches, stop watches, kitchen timers, alarm clocks, clock radios, TVs, computers (for many, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers…), and many other devices–like phones. This is saving a tremendous amount of electricity, while providing higher quality services in many areas, convenience especially.
And they’re cheaper than just a landline.
(I think Google may be less presumptuous than Apple. My Fi phone suggests but never peremptorily “corrects” anything. Or, maybe I just have it turned off.)
The autocorrect for mobile devices is usually in the keyboard, and you can set or clear it in the current keyboard’s settings.
Given Walt’s reason for ‘flashlight’ I definitely prefer ‘torch’ (OK I’m not in the US:=), also because ‘flashlight’ has another meaning as the lighting source of flash photography.
The change of meanings of words over time fascinates me. For example ‘ideal’ in C18 meant imaginary – the opposite of real. Also being an unexceptional person was good because it meant that nothing bad was known about you – the modern term is ‘unexceptionable’.
Next year, a lilac?
We decided to replace it with a Dappled Japanese Willow done up in a tall bare trunk with a pompom of white streamers, rather like dogwood in habit, since these ‘flowers’ are actually new-growth leaves. Give it a haircut forcing new growth, and it turns white.
But lilacs have a lot nicer perfume than Japanese willows.
I am currently in a swivet about the state of my poor “garden”. I bought a bunch of begonias and impatiens (about all the floral offerings that will grow in this north-facing space) and was all ready to plant them when I received word that my strata corp. was set to waterproof the top of the wall of the underground parking lot. To do this they were going to tear down most of my fence and break up some patio so they could dig a two-foot trench along the underground wall. Which they have done. All the spoil is piled on tarp in my “garden”. Nobody has stepped on the trillium yet and the lily of the valley is still struggling on, but the ferns are flattened and my poor cotoneaster tree has all the roots cut on the fence side and is leaning at a 45 degree angle. And the little bedding plants grow ever more root-bound as I wait for the job to be finished and the hole filled in. Can I get anybody to commit to a time-line for this? –not a chance.
My one flower bed has rose bushes and a lot of weeds, grass and several “volunteer” locust seedlings. Too late in the year to have it grubbed out and planted with native Tx wild flowers. Missed my window of opportunity. I’ll get it next year.
The weather we’ve been having here for months now is hotter than a $2 pistol firing up hill. Days and weeks of 100F+/32C+ temps. Thought I’d share this for your summer imbibing pleasure:
WOL’s Iced White Chai
Ingredients:
4 tbsp of sugar (white or brown) or 3 tablespoons of honey, or none, as you prefer.
1 bag of Twining’s Earl Grey Tea
1 bag of Twining’s English Breakfast Tea
2 bags of Twining’s Chai
6 cups of boiling water
a 16-oz bottle of Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss Vanilla Almond Milk creamer.
Implements:
a heavy glass or crockery heat-resistant 2-quart pitcher **
a large metal spoon or ladle
source of boiling water.
Fill the pitcher with straight hot tap water and leave it sit for about 10 minutes to preheat the pitcher. This is an important safety factor as it will help keep the pitcher from shattering when you fill it with boiling water. Right after you empty out the hot water, put the sugar in and affix the tea bags to the side of the pitcher with a clip or clothes pin. Again, for safety, place the large metal spoon into the pitcher and pour the boiling water onto the spoon. Let the tea bags steep until the pitcher has cooled to room temperature. Remove and discard the tea bags. Pour in the whole bottle of Natural Bliss, stir well, cover and keep refrigerated. Serve cold. Enjoy.
I made a big pitcher Tuesday, and I’ve pretty well polished it off already.