So I almost asked in the beginning of this post (i.e. this sentence right here, yes, the one you are currently reading) what the damn difference was between “miscellany”, which seems like a fake word designed by idiots too lazy to type out the full “miscellaneous”, but then I decided to look it up (online, of course, but still). And my flabbergasted self has come upon YET ANOTHER revelation: “miscellany” is actually a real word. In fact, it’s the noun, as opposed to the adjective “miscellaneous”. So why do I have such a strong preference for the latter, if both are real words? Maybe because one of our asshole former clients always sent emails with a subject line of “miscellany” and I liked thinking that the neurosurgeon might be screwing that one up? Maybe because I think the letter “y” is ugly, hence the spelling of my own (nick)name?* Anyway, so now I have learned a new thing – the word “miscellany” exists. I still hate it though, and will probably instinctively and incorrectly continue using “miscellaneous” (in a substantive-adjective way, if pressed for explanation) until the end of time and/or until I someday have an editor who yells at me about it enough.
Ooh, a convenient segue: speaking of editors, I just happened upon the writing guide of a very bright and funny British author Mil Millington, whose site, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, is worth a visit when you are NOT busy or being surveilled. I’m not kidding (about anything in that sentence).
In other news, I very much enjoyed this article about “Snubster” (as opposed to Friendster). As much as I love reconnecting with people, I get kind of tired of the random Brazilian Orkut spam. No offense intended; it’s just that I don’t speak Portuguese (yet) and thus it makes deleting nine thousand random Portuguese shoutouts kind of an annoyance, ya know? Anyway. Snubster. Ha.
*I actually don’t care one way or another about the letter “y”, and I have often regretted my third-grade decision to spell “Ginnie” in such a nontraditional manner; or rather, regretted the massive idiocy of the American people in general and their complete and total inability to spell my freakin name EVEN WHEN I SPELL IT OUT FOR THEM, letter by letter, using non-standard but still helpful military-style codes (e.g. “G as in God, I as in Inca, N as in Nancy…). And they STILL. GET. IT. WRONG. I am totally marrying a man with the last name of Brown, Smith, Young, Black, or White. Or maybe Blue, or Green. But nothing more than one syllable, and no words that couldn’t conceivably appear in “Highlights” magazine for children. I am so sick of spelling my name out six or seven times. It’s actually the main reason I started going by Virginia, at least in professional situations where I might have to be on the phone frequently – I had this CRAZY idea that just MAYBE if I went by my name that was in fact a STATE (OK, Commonwealth, if we want to get particular) that people might actually have a clue how to spell it.
To date, I have gotten:
Virgina (SO many of these)
Virgnia
Vergina
Verginia
…and so on and so forth until you decide to change your name to Jane Smith; only then when you try to reserve your own website domain that bitch Angelina Jolie has already taken it over. Like she doesn’t have enough going for her already. Meh, at least my lips are normal.