GRAMMAR: when -er goes bad... (adjectives, comparative/superlative)

Almost everyday, as I drive east on Madison Avenue approaching Main Street, I see a small sign on a vinyl picket fence surrounding a manufactured home dealer's lot - the sign reads: "new and newer homes from $100,000"

Okay, I get it, new and newer homes, that's great. But, wait! Hold the horses! What have we here but another example of English grammar gone bad.

We've all been taught about comparative and superlative adjective forms in school. You know, the -er (comparative) and -est (superlative) forms of descriptive words. Whether we still remember what they were called is another matter. The basic construction was simple. Let's say there's something big, but then there's another item that is more big, we just call it bigger. Then lo and behold, there's another item that is bigger than all the others, which we call the biggest - the most big. Got it - big, bigger, biggest. Works with a whole slew of other adjectives (mostly of the one-syllable or ends in -y two-syllable varieties). Let's give it a try:

small, smaller, smallest (small, more small, most small)
cold, colder, coldest (as above...)
smart, smarter, smartest
dirty, dirtier, dirtiest
silly, sillier, silliest

Now what about that sign advertising new and newer homes? What's gone wrong there? How can something be newer than new? Those of us who've ever looked into home ownership understand that something advertised as "newer" really means that it's old (or used, if you prefer), but just not as old something older. Ah yes, confusing. I'm actually confusing myself a little as I type this.

So let's break it down:

A new house = a new house, simple; a house that has just been built and no one has lived in it
A newer house = an older house than a new house but not as old as an old house; a house that has been previously owned and/or lived in, but only a little bit!
The newest house = either the single new house among newer houses or a house with the most recent completion date among a group of other houses (whether new or not)

I hope this gave you a new (or newer) perspective on the English language.

FATHERHOOD: Oh the things you'll eat! - Part 2

So I'm packing Nolan's lunch as I do every morning, but lately he hasn't been too fond of his daily applesauce cup, so I thought I'd load up his lunch box with a pre-packed bowl of Dole Diced Peaches in light syrup. This brought to mind an infamous moment of things-you-shouldn't-and-normally-wouldn't-do-but-now-have-done-because-you're-a-parent.

So it was baseball season at newly-opened Petco Park. A beautiful day, glorious sunshine, the Padres were on the field, and we had finally arrived in our seats in the second deck in right field. Behold, my son Nolan was hungry. So I dug into our plastic shopping bag and pulled out a bowl of diced peaches, peeled back the plastic cover, and started spooning the tasty fruit into my son's mouth when I realized the light syrup was simply making a mess all around me, dribbling on the floor and my jeans. What to do? Aha! I needed to somehow pour off the light syrup, then I could properly feed my child. But what have we here? Or, better, what have we not here? A trash can, of course. No trash cans mid-row. I would have to abandon my now starving child to walk back out of my row and section to find a proper place to dispose of said syrup.

But, no, I'm smarter than that! There must be a better plan. I must act swiftly if the proper sense of calm is to remain and the day-at-the-ballpark experience is to be enjoyed to its fullest.

So I did something I shall never do again, something I would never ever recommend to another under any circumstance - I drank the syrup.

Bad idea. Though it had no lingering ill effects, it's a non-alcoholic apertif not worth trying.

Why don't I learn my own lessons? After all, I blogged about another such "inedible edibles" experience last year (see: FATHERHOOD: Oh the the things you'll eat!).

Ouch!

The Rose Bowl Game

The National Championship on the line

Three titles in a row also on the line

Darn that Vince Young and his insane ability to run the ball anytime, anywhere, into seemingly absolutely Trojan-less acres of the field last night. And you had to know that it was he who would take the ball in himself on that final play, so why didn't anyone just cover him?! Nine yards between the ball and the end zone and no one decides to pick him up personally!

Yeesh! I shall continue my sulking until next season. Seriously though, who's left at SC for next year? Reggie, gone. Matt, gone (though he seemed to check out two games early, if you ask me). LenDale, gone. Is it back to the doldroms of the 90s for the Trojans? Let's hope not.

Hey, maybe my Cal Bears will make a nice run at it next season.

The most inconvenient thing about having a baby...

...is having more than one!

I meant to post this before daughter Berkeley Celeste was born, since it was the main thing I was worrying about, but time drifted by so quickly and the next thing we knew, she was born.

But the big "inconvenience" has to be the dilemma of what to do with your other kids while your current kid is being born. When Jackson was born, our firstborn, Nolan, had to endure all day babysitting until I could make it back from the hospital to pick him up. He actually went through two sitters that day, one whom he didn't even really know that well. And to top it off, he didn't get a nap because he was completely out of his element. Oh the humanity!

This time we had two kids 3 and under to find places for. Thank God Berkeley was born under cover of night so I could put both boys down to bed, giving us just (barely) enough time to call in some nearby and parental (2 hours away) reinforcements while we rushed off to the hospital. She was born before midnight, so I was able to return home before the boys woke at 6 a.m. Then I fed them, dressed them, and sent them off to school. They were none the wiser until I brought them to the hospital to meet their baby sister that afternoon.

So really, it turned out not to be as inconvenient as I thought it would. In fact, it was quite convenient. But the lead-up was all worries nonetheless.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We've been regularly hitting the mid-30s overnight this past week. And all this, in sunny San Diego. (Sure, it still hits the mid-70s by noonish, but that's beside the point.)

Brrrrrrrrr--!

A Star is Born!

Our beautiful daughter, Berkeley Celeste Lai, was born last night! She is truly a joy and wonder, a blessing indeed.



Here are some vital stats:

dob 11/16/05 @ 11:03 PM
7 lb. 12 oz.
20 in.

Fire Season Officially Over in California

Except, as it would be, in my home region of San Diego County as well as San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Ah well, at least the rest of the state is considered to be out of the woods now because of some early rains we got last month.

Yippee!!

The Two Tiggers - Halloween 2005

What's not to love?

College Football: Trojans PUSH past Irish, 34-31

PHOTO CREDIT: Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart (11) scores the winning touchdown against Notre Dame with three seconds remaining in the game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005. USC defeated Notre Dame, 34-31. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)



In a game too incredible for words, and an ending approaching the stuff legends are made of (see the all-time most unbelievable play: "The Play" - Cal v. Stanford), I must defer to revered silence and point my dear reader to the Los Angeles Times story instead.

So now, I bow to Touchdown Jesus and say, "Thank you and fight on!"

Border 50 Fire is Out!

Thank you, firefighters!

College Football: UC Davis Stuns Stanfurd, 20-17

PHOTO CREDIT: Who are those guys in gold? And what is he doing to that poor little Stanford guy? (UC Davis, 9/17/05)


I must really not be paying attention to let this gem cross below my radar. Or maybe it's just that my radar doesn't go so low as to pick up anything of note down on the farm. In fact, I'm reporting this a full 3 weeks tardy!

On one September Saturday evening in Stanford Stadium, the unlikely happened. The UC Davis Aggies football team, making the transition from Division II to Division I-AA, took on the Stanford Cardinal in what should have been a laugher for the boys in red. That wouldn't happen. Even with the Cardinal taking a strong lead, 17-0 deep into the second quarter, it wasn't going to happen, because the mighty-mighty Aggies would find a way to storm back with 20 unanswered points to march away in victory. Cue: UC Davis fight song. Oh, wait. Does anyone even know the Davis fight song? Really, should anyone know it? Or, do they even have one? No matter.

Indeed, as one San Francisco area headline says it, "Stanford football: Making history for all the wrong reasons."


Go Bears! Grrrr-rah!

Just so nobody takes offense, the Aggies do indeed have a fight song. You can hear it here, and find out more about their marching band here.

Border 50 Fire - San Diego's first big fire of the season

PHOTO CREDIT: Tecate Fire along the US-Mexico border -- the international border is the brown fence on the left (video still from KGTV Channel 10 San Diego)


Just a quick step outside tells the story: The filtered sunlight casts a faint red-brown hue on the skies, clouds, walls, and sidewalks. The hot, dry smell of smoke is ever-present while the tiny white specks of a distant ash-fall are unmistakable.

Now San Diego County has it's own fire to take care of. Early this morning a Santa Ana wind-driven fire broke out near Barrett Junction of State Highway 94 in south east San Diego County, not far from the Mexican border. (Actually, it's more like south central county, but we San Diego Metro-centric folks think central is plenty east to qualify as south east.) Then later this morning news was out that another, much larger fire was coursing northward from Tecate, Mexico, threatening to make a border crossing, which it did.

It's been officially named the Border 50 Fire and is 0% contained, or shall we say, completely uncontained, as of this moment. The fire (according to the CDF website) started at 9:17 a.m. and has currently burned 1,000 acres in Mexico and 500 acres in the US.

California Wildfires Information: Fire Season / Topanga Fire Update

PHOTO CREDIT: Plumes of smoke rise from brush fires burning near Chatsworth. (Damon Winter / LA Times / September 29, 2005)


Back on June 23, I posted a California Wildfires Information entry mistaking the Morongo Valley fire for the start of the fire season in Southern California. While I did mention that the giant Cedar Fire among other mammoths that broke out in SoCal and my beloved San Diego County took place three days after the birth of my second child, Jackson, on October 25, 2003, I was fearfully thinking that the fire season was coming early this year.

Now with the additions of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slamming ashore in the Gulf Coast, the idea of natural disaster is all too vivid.

It's interesting that while we were getting all that rain earlier this year, with landslides and floods throughout the southland, nobody even once mentioned that rain, in a basically arid and desert region, could prove itself so harmful later in the year. With all the new and dense vegetation (read: weeds) that sprouted up everywhere, giving us a soft blanket of green on our normally dusty, sagey hillsides and canyons, there was not even a whisper of what it would mean for the fire season -- namely, that all this new growth would eventually dry up in the summer heat and become massive stands of fuel for the flames when Autumn's Santa Ana winds would come blowing across the desert and into our beautiful, sunny Southern California.

The Topanga Fire (pictured above) is still a raging, uncontrolled mess.

Once again, here are some important fire-related websites for us Californians:

- California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) has a page detailing current major incidents going on in the state at CDF Major Incidents.

- National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

- USDA Forest Service's Active Fire Map; a really good place to get a visual idea for major fire incidents nationwide.

Crossroads Christian Fellowship

Just wanted to point you toward a website I created for a pastor friend of mine, Rod Robison, and the church he planted last Easter - Crossroads Christian Fellowship in Santee, CA.

Relic from our Half Dome Adventure

I was clearing out a couple very old items from the pantry today and came across this container of powdered Gatorade fruit punch. Knowing precisely how long I'd had it (too long!) without even looking at the label, I tossed it straight into the trash when a bell went off in my head.

D'oh! You can't throw that away! At least not without its due ceremony to remember its contribution and place in your life story.

So I reached into the trash can, removed the now more than 4-year-old container of Gatorade, and took this picture, all the while singing its praises and thanking it for simply "being there" in our time of agonizing triumph. After all, this was where the "4 servings of Gatorade powder" came from on our Half Dome Hike back on June 5, 2001. (You can read all about it in my previous blog entry, "Hiking Half Dome - Yosemite National Park".)

To think that we moved from our condo to our current home and took this old container along with us and never thought to trash it any earlier than today is almost comical (almost, only because if you know me, you propbably wouldn't be all that surprised). Actually, I'm sure I had thought of discarding it before, but subconciously felt too strong a connection to it to do so. So today the deed is done, but its deeds are not forgotten.

The Mission: best breakfast in San Diego

Yesterday we had one of those rare opportunities to go out together without the kids! So we took quick advantage of the situation - both boys in preschool on the same morning, Mary with a light(er) morning work schedule - and headed for our favorite breakfast spot in San Diego: The Mission in North Park.

Mary had her usual - Mission Rosemary ("Crispy rosemary potatoes, scrambled eggs, sautéed tomatoes, and grilled rosemary bread."). And I had the 2+2+2=$5 special ("2 Blackberry Pancakes + 2 Scrambled Eggs + 2 Strips of Bacon"), an unlisted menu option that's just enough for the growing boy inside!

They also have two other locations; one in Mission Beach and another in the East Village, Downtown, not too far from the ballpark.

So next time you're in town, invite us (or just me, or whatever) to join you for breakfast. Who knows, we might even pay!

The Rainbow Revolution

All stand. And welcome me to the Rainbow Revolution!

All right, what the heck is he talking about? And what's with that silly photo of a flip-flop?

Goaded along by brother Jobo and sis'n'law Joanna, I have been conviced that my cheapo plastic Old Navy five-buck-a-pair sandals just don't cut it in today's more-chic/less-shabby world. So tonight I plopped down some heavy plastic and sprung for premium leather Rainbow Sandals (#301, blackforest brown) at PacSun in Parkway Plaza near my house. They come fully equipped with a lifetime guarantee (MFR: "Our Warrantee is for the Lifetime of the sole. As long as you haven't worn into the next layer of the sole from either the top or bottom") and people have been known to be wearing the same pair over 20 years! Not sure what I really think of that, but sounds better than my current not-so-stylish and not-that-comfy 6-monthers.

I've yet to actually wear them though. Kinda scared to set my feet free in these suddenly upscale environs. I'll try them on the carpet first. Then slowly ease into walking through the tiled kitchen. Then maybe, just maybe I'll take them into the garage in the next month or so. I'll update you all once I've ventured to take them beyond the perimeter of our property.

The Trouble with Reading

I was thinking the other day, why am I such a bad reader? Why is it so hard for me to do some real, solid reading, as opposed to my typical 3-6 pages a day?

I've determined that it's a fiction v. nonfiction thing.

Air travel, for instance, seems like the perfect time and place for solid reading beyond the 6 page barrier. Still, I never seem to even crack open that novel or even really see it until I've returned home and replaced it on the bookshelf. Pathetic. Yet on that very same flight I managed to completely consume a number of magazine articles, lengthy ones, mind you, and even read through the first 15 pages of the latest political expose madness in the airport bookstore while waiting for my flight. And that novel just rests tucked away in my carryon bag.

Fiction - stories from another world, not necessarily otherworldly in the alien sense, but certainly not from the here-and-now which we know and love and live in. It's the unreal, however real it may seem.

Nonfiction - stories from this world, that directly affect/infect this world and its populants. It's real for the most part, save tabloid journalism and books by would-be/washed-up celebrities trying to make a cheap buck at someone else's expense, however unreal it may seem.

So what's the difference? Why can't I concentrate on fiction but can eat up the nonfiction without breaking sweat? It seems I've just answered my own question -- "without breaking a sweat" is the key.

Fiction necessarily requires the full participation of the reader. I've got to put my whole self into the story if I'm to breach the first barrier, the fact that it is fiction, the unreal passing itself off as real. No one ever wrote a bit of fiction with the intention that the reader would disbelieve the whole thing, the entire premise. Fiction is intentionally real and unreal at the same time.

Nonfiction, on the other hand, starts and ends in what we know, the here and now (or in the case of history, the here and then). There is no barrier to breach and no participation needed. There is no suspension of disbelief, just the invitation to disagree should an opinion be given, and I guess that in itself is one entre to reader participation, but it's not required.

I love the fact that I'm a writer. I hate the fact that I write so little. It's high time that I breach the barrier to make the unreal real.

US State Demonyms: Ans, Anders, Ians, Ers, and Ites, OH MY!

No, not US State Demons! I'm talking about "demo" as in deomgraphics and "nyms" as in names - names of people. For example: the name for people from California is "Californians" (not Sunshine Staters or Hippies or whatever else you've got in mind for us, please!).

We really don't talk about state demonyms enough. Some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, why would we ever need to? But what do you do when you need to make a gross generalization about a mass of people in another state? When I lived in Wisconsin, people were always talking about how much they hated them "Flatlanders!" The what?! The who?! Unbeknownst to me, Wisconsinites (d'oh, what's an "ite"? this is getting interesting...) consider their state mountainous, or at least a little hilly. And they have an ingrown disaffection for those south of the border, known more properly as Illinoisans or Illinoisians (no one seems to agree on this one, go figure), and love to ridicule their neighbor's flat(ter) geography. Soon after, I learned that those on the other side of the great lake are called Michiganders. "Ganders? You've got to be kidding me!" But it's true.

It got me thinking... if I were in conversation and needed to refer to a stateload of people, what would I have said? "Yeah, those Michigan-- an-- er-- um, those Michigan people are so...."

While Alabamans seems obvious, there are some who go for Alabamians - I'm sorry but that's just too close to Albanians for my taste. Similarly, there is disagreement in Colorado, even among their own state and federal officials - the governor favors Coloradans while the congresswoman from the 4th district leans toward Coloradoans.

And just where did Floridians buy that extra vowel, "i"? Shouldn't it be Floridans?

A person from Utah is a Utahn, rhymes with Yukon. And while many Utahns are Mormons, and many Mormons are Utahns, not all Utahns are necessarily Mormons and vice versa, so let's get that straight.

As I've already mentioned Michiganders, something to keep in mind is that theirs is but a variant of the -er ending with the likes of New Yorkers, Maylanders, and Mainers.

Now Mainers serves as our entre into completely alternate demonyms that truly are nicknames as they don't actually use the state's name as their roots. Some Mainers prefer to be called Down Easters, referring to their far eastern longitudes and not to Easter/Spring chicken down feathers. Indiana Hoosiers are a classic, but what of Massachusetts? They're called Bay Staters? Really? I guess any variant on Massachusetts as a root just end up sounding silly, so the state legislature went so far as to write it into law. Wow.

But my all time favorite must go to our friends in New Mexico. You can't really argue with the cheerful ring of "New Mexicans."

US State Demonyms: Just the List

Alabama = Alabamans, Alabamians
Alaska = Alaskans
Arizona = Arizonans
Arkansas = Arkansans
California = Californians
Colorado = Coloradans, Coloradoans
Connecticut = Connecticuters, Nutmeggers
Delaware = Delawareans
Florida = Floridians
Georgia = Georgians
Hawaii = Hawaiian
Idaho = Idahoans
Illinois = Illinoisans, Illinoisians
Indiana = Hoosiers
Iowa = Iowans
Kansas = Kansans
Kentucky = Kentuckians
Louisiana = Louisianans, Louisianians
Maine = Mainers, Down Easters
Maryland = Marylanders
Massachusetts = Bay Staters
Michigan = Michiganders, Michiganians
Minnesota = Minnesotans
Mississippi = Mississippians
Missouri = Missourians
Montana = Montanans
Nebraska = Nebraskans
Nevada = Nevadans
New Hampshire = New Hampshirites
New Jersey = New Jerseyites, New Jerseyans
New Mexico = New Mexicans
New York = New Yorkers
North Carolina = North Carolinians
North Dakota = North Dakotans
Ohio = Ohioans
Oklahoma = Oklahomans, Oklahomians, Sooners
Oregon = Oregonians
Pennsylvania = Pennsylvanians
Rhode Island = Rhode Islanders
South Carolina = South Carolinians
South Dakota = South Dakotans
Tennessee = Tennesseeans
Texas = Texans
Utah = Utahns
Vermont = Vermonters
Virginia = VirginiansWashington = Washingtonians
West Virginia = West Virginians
Wisconsin = Wisconsinites
Wyoming = Wyomingites