Debate

 Yes, Donald Trump's scowling face and nasty (absurd) lies added up to the worst debate performance ever. Gigantic turnoff. Biden's feebleness was likely the second worst. 

On to the next thing. 

Straight Pride Flag

Just in case, yes, there is a straight pride flag. I saw one on the John Oliver TV show, and then I found many for sale on the 'net. 

Vinbtter makes a powerful flag. Very straight black and white stripes with the woman symbol and man symbol arranged in the center in the missionary position. It costs $12 at Amazon. 

Not a joke. 

How to tell a native speaker

I just learned how to tell a native speaker of English from someone who has mastered English as a second language. 

In English we don't pronounce words the way they are spelled. And some words (in some contexts) get a weak pronunciation. 

As a native speaker, I might say: "I'm driving to Healdsburg." Unless I seek a special emphasis, I will pronounce the "to" as a barely audible "tuh." A second language speaker will usually give "to" a full-on treatment. 

I guess we give about 25% of our words the weak treatment. We absorb how to do this as young children, and we don't give it any thought.   

A High School Band

A man with a chainsaw, a man with a leaf blower, a man with an accordion and a woman with bagpipes go into a bar. The bartender says, Okay, okay, but no more "Ode to Joy."

Sierras

Jack de Selby once wrote that California's mountains should not be referred to as "the Sierras." 

De Selby's attempts to change how people talk seldom succeed, but I became curious enough to check check out his claim.

"Sierra" is Spanish for a carpenter's saw. By extension, I suppose, it is also Spanish for a sawtooth mountain range in Spain.  

"Nevada" means snowy. 

"Sierra Nevada" means snowy, sawtooth range. Range is singular. The plural (if you saw two ranges) would be Sierras Nevada. 

Why Knock Down Caitlin Clark?

For years now I've watched Stephen Curry get knocked down by basketball players who can't guard him. The fouls have seldom been called. There are stats: no one gets hit more often than Curry, and many players shoot more free throws. Why? I don't know.

Caitlin Clark is now getting clobbered in the WNBA, although she is the league's biggest draw. You might think that the NBA and WNBA would protect the health of the players who sell tickets, but I remember Jabbar having to wear goggles to keep his eyes from getting scratched by the nails of defenders.

How to slow down a Jabbar or Curry or Clark? A finger in the eye. 

I've read that defenders bounce Clark around because she is white and straight. But nearly 20% of the WNBA is white, and only 30% are out as LGBTQ. 

I think the motivation is more likely to be envy. In her first year, Clark is setting rookie records. She is the number one draw. She's making a fortune in endorsements. 

So knock her down, injure her, let the ticket sales slump. Less money for everyone. 

s

Roommates

One of my young relatives is about to start college. She has to choose between a single room or having a roommate. Everyone has told her to get a single, except me. I attended several state universities in the 1950s. There were no single rooms. I had roommates:

Dennis, who went on to become an editorial cartoonist for a newspaper chain.

Mike, who helped found the biology department at a state college.

Sam, who later played professional football in Canada. He was the first black person I met.

Jack, a baseball pitcher who, like me, became an English professor.

Makoto, a much older student from Japan who had volunteered as a kamikaze pilot during World War II. In formation before take-off, he'd been pulled back--because he was the only surviving son in his family. 

In Westwood, Makoto obsessively watched "Victory at Sea," an American TV documentary on the Pacific war.  During the war he'd seen only propaganda. He'd been certain Japan was winning.

Mary Berry

It is fairly common for a family to trace itself back to one recent ancestor, often someone who defines the family's ethnic background inaccurately.  In my family it was Grandma Mary. She was my mother's grandmother, not mine, but as a small child, I knew her. 

Mary was my granddaughter's great-great-great grandmother.  

Mary (Berry) Strickland's parents were born in County Westmeath. They found work in Scotland, where Mary was born. At 16 Mary came over on the boat, married Vet (Sylvester Streeter Strickland), raised children in DesMoines and ended up in Compton, California, which she called "the armpit of the universe."

Mary smoked a clay pipe. She drank coffee. She stood about five feet tall. Once my father asked her why Irish-American men were often quite large. "We left the runts at home," she told him.