GammaGlobulin

Dear Friends, Have you had just about all you can take of being inundated with one acronym after the next, almost everywhere you look? I just read an ad served up to me, moments ago, on a Thai business site. The ad talked about ESG. How was I supposed to know that ESG means “Environmental, Social and Governance”? I only know about monosodium glutamate (MSG). And then, some ads tell me to worry about SIDS. But I am too old to be interested in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. And, what is the NHS? If I had SIDS, then I should contact the NHS, maybe? Being an everyday scientist, I am used to dealing with plenty of acronyms. However, at the beginning of any article, we usually expect to be told what acronyms denote. There are just so many obscure and needless acronyms floating around this year. And, there will be even more in 2023. How does one learn the meanings of enough of them to make sense of what one is reading? Also, is this increasing bombardment of acronyms just another symptom of our texting world on social media? What are some of the most useless acronyms that you have come across? The most useless are the ones which you will use only one time in your life and then need to forget. Only, it seems, the ones you want to forget are the ones most easily remembered, for years. Somebody said that there were 1,112,345 unique acronyms bobbing around between the years 1950 and 2019. And so, does anyone know how many there will be in 2023? What does the acronym (HMMMMM) mean, anyway? It means “Holistic, Manipulative, Multi-modal and Mimetic, Musical and Mimetic”. The only acronym of interest, at least to many of us, is USD. The average college/university grad probably knows more acronyms than they know useful words. This is probably why they no longer read books. They just read texts composed mostly of acronyms. Years ago, there seemed to be better acronyms, such as: (SNAFU). When I die, in the year 2051, on my headstone, I plan to have just one short acronym, nothing more. I have been asking my friends for suggestions. They say it is too early to decide. I say that it is very too early for anything. What about you? On your headstone, wouldn’t you prefer an acronym, as a sign of the times in which you lived? What might that be? Regards, GammaGlobulin

Are you sure? Analog computers don't operate this way, for example. Quuantum computers don't operate this way, for example. Making blanket statements is risky business. Anyway, what is the meaning of ++++-----?

If only you might have lived a few hundred years ago, before spelling became standardized, then you might have been less at odds with present-day understanding. By the way, world demographics show that populations are aging rapidly. Also, there are spelling rules we all must follow in order to to write the contraction "doin'". Even the Chinese strictly adhere to rigid spelling rules for Pinyin. For example, "Gua yangtou mai gourou" is an idiom or phrase which would not mean the same to anyone if it were misspelled. Very soon, the younger generation will be a very Lonely Crowd.

What if I had said, "All is Nothing", instead of "Anything could mean Anything"?

One further thought about grammar: I have spent a great deal of time listening to the vocalizations of Thai Myna birds. Even Thai Myna birds depend upon a common-understanding of grammar for survival. When the green snake or the brown snake approaches the chicks of the Thai Myna bird, the Myna birds immediately begin to vocalize grammatically... And then, the snake is driven off, due to proper grammar. Linguistics is a beautiful Social Science, the study of which can lead to the understanding of everything, even Thai Myna birds.

One more note. Let's please not underestimate the importance of a common grammar. English grammar is becoming crazier and crazier on sites like YouTube, and also around the world. Grammar is the key that allows us to communicate. Without grammar, we would still be swinging from the trees. Even Mathematics has grammar. Anybody who knows the grammar of Mathematics can easily communicate with anyone else around the world, no matter if they speak French.

When you state, "I'm out", what is your meaning? According to your simplistic linguistic argument, it is permissible for any phrase to mean almost anything, if any small part of a younger generation agrees that it means something. Proper spelling is crucial for accurate communication. Likewise, the meaning of words we use must mean approximately the same thing to the majority of speakers in the group. When the meanings of words and phrases become distorted, contorted, and splintered between subgroups, then communication between groups suffers. All that I know is that when I tune in to the debaters at the Oxford or Cambridge Forums, most of what I hear is as plain as day. And, most debaters there are young people from around the world. But when I watch YouTube, or try to deal with the guys in call centers in Bombay, I haven't a clue what most of these ESL speakers are going on about. Just imagine yourself in the year 2033, when everybody speaks Bombay English. Please pass me the Bombay gin, because communicating will be a nightmare...

So then, judging by your simplistic logic, it is no longer important for a younger generation to communicate with an older generation. Is this correct? Or, are you stating that the older generation should learn to speak a bastardized version of proper English in order to communicate with an EVER-DIMINISHING segment of the world's population? This makes no sense because.... You need to take a closer look at the recent DEOMOGRAPHIC PYRAMIDS of today. In case you have not recently done so.... Read it and weep, my friend! (smile)

For that matter, proceeding with your logic, proper spelling is not important. Is this also part of your simplistic argument? Nothing means anything, simply because anything can, potentially, mean everything?

Sorry. I think too much, Type too much. But, the English language is now evolving too much, Too fast.

Please read further concerning the present-day transformation of English in Singapore. Many scholars have been reporting this during recent years. And, this is not just a phenomenon of the younger generation.

Do you really think that we lived pathetic lives in the 1950s? No! For a fact, compared to the 1950s, it is we who now live in December of 2022 who are living truly pathetic lives. Welcome to the Age of Exponential Pollution, Baby! Enjoy it while you can before you get cancer and kick the bucket or continue suffering from continuous low-grade PTSD. Enjoy your dillusions. Unbridled exponential growth...IS BACK!

You better believe it! Dead on! The sudden return of the low-flying aircraft overhead, these days, is killing me. I will not be able to tolerate this much longer.... I gotta move.

Dearest Friends, Another frenetic Sunday is upon us. And now is the perfect time to once-again consider a further question of import while wending one’s way home from the bar, and while thinking of mending one’s ways on the way back from the bar. Or, if one is having a Sunday brunch at 11:00 AM, then why not consider the question concerning the health of the English language, as follows? Namely, the question begs: Is the English language, as we once knew it just a few decades ago, now dead, or quickly dying? Where did/does English come from, in the first place, anyway? It does not come from India. It does not come from Singapore. It does not come from Israel, for sure. And, one's guess, is that it also does not come from America, Canada, or even Australia. Why do they call the English language, ‘English’, anyway? There must have been a reason for calling it English and not French, for example. Up until the 1990s, before the Internet spread rampantly like a plague upon the world, we all recognized the clear demarcations between what was once considered Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. We knew where English came from, too. English came from Germany, and other places like Denmark. But, these days, where is English coming from? English is evolving rapidly, and so some people say that the English language will never become a dead language. But, I disagree. Think of it this way: Anytime evolution happens too rapidly, then the spirit of the organism dies. We know this from biology. For example, if an organism is exposed to too many Gamma Rays, then this causes too many mutations, too rapidly, and the species dies. It is exactly THIS that is happening now to the English language. There are just too many additions to the DNA of the English language, and these are coming in, Helter-Skelter, from places like Singapore and India, and especially from sites like YouTube. How can the English language hope to survive with its basic integrity still intact, if this continues for another decade, or so? One thing that really bugs me is that nobody cares about consistency in the use of Pronouns. These days, due to YouTube and other silly factors, Pronouns are no longer important. Just throw in any old pronoun, and let the reader guess what the writer or speaker means. We have all read the recent news reportage of how the small former colony of Singapore is turning proper English into a mishmash of spoken garbage which, in few cases, resembles what we once considered proper English. And, just like what happened to Singapore, we can look forward to the same thing happening around the world. And not only around the world, this same contagion will spread to the UK, itself. I am, and have always been, an unabashed Anglophile. I grew up in my pre-teens reading Sherlock Holmes. I loved to read about 221B Baker Street happenings. And, I read about these happenings on pages filled with proper English written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle KStJ DL. How do you think I feel everyday watching and listening to what is spouted on YouTube and in the chat rooms from the rest of the world? What a horrendous travesty of the English language! And, like the contagion that it is, this travesty of the perversion of the English will quickly come back to haunt the populace of England. Mark my words! Are you as scared as I? If not, then why not? Don’t you care if somebody is using your language the wrong way? What’s wrong with you people, anyway? Best regards, Disgruntled GammaG Please Note: I have nothing against the Appalachian People, or even Peckerwoods

If one is speaking strictly "lyric", then one of the saddest might be: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; ‘Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver— let him rescue the one in whom he delights!’ Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shrivelled; I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me; they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Swan Song. Never a sadder song. The saddest song for me was when Old Yeller yelped his last yelp, 1957. I'll never forget that day.

a. Your correct spelling of hydrangias is proof you know how to spell. b. No matter what. No matter how old. There is always the itch. And The Seven Year Itch is the itchiest of all. Can you spell Rock-man-enough to keep her by your side?

The book has a glossary of Clockwork-Orange terminology. "The Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow, a nice warm vibratey feeling all through your guttiwuts....." https://youtu.be/_ltwX603Ft4 The above link cannot be embedded due to....who knows why. Fairly innocuous, in my opinion, especially by today's standards. Kubrick made life just a little bit better for all of us. "And soon it was trees and dark, my brothers, with real country dark."

Concerning why I loved Moll Flanders when I was young and innocent as she: "Moll's mother is a convict in Newgate Prison in London who is given a reprieve by "pleading her belly," a reference to the custom of postponing the executions of pregnant criminals. Her mother is eventually transported to Colonial United States, and Moll Flanders (not her birth name, she emphasises, taking care not to reveal it) is raised from the age of three until adolescence by a kindly foster mother. Thereafter she gets attached to a household as a servant where she is loved by both sons, the elder of whom convinces her to "act like they were married" in bed. Unwilling to marry her, he persuades her to marry his younger brother. After five years of marriage, she then is widowed, leaves her children in the care of in-laws, and begins honing the skill of passing herself off as a fortuned widow to attract a man who will marry her and provide her with security." I have always felt great empathy for Moll Flanders.

It's a fact that most important books should be read between the ages of 11 and 13, when one's juices are fully flowing. Books like Moll Flanders can only be savored, fully, while one's juices are oozing and dripping. Even now, after so many decades, anytime somebody mentions Moll Flanders, I drip for the thought of her, in the fields, among the sheep. When I was growing up, halfway through puberty, books like these were my porn. I had no television, no access to Hustler. Just me and Moll Flanders, and so many others. I would not have had it any other way. These days, it's impossible to read any good books, for the very first time. The last good book I read was that written by Philip Roth, "Nemesis". Nothing like long and complex, and beautifully written paragraphs. Hard to find a Roth, these days. Hard to find another Beethoven, these days, too. I was spoiled by Moll Flanders when I was young and innocent. I long for the innocence of the days of Robinson Crusoe, living together with Friday, when nobody snickered.

No. Please just read the books. No need to watch the movie, actually. First read Dostoevsky. Then, read Heller. Enjoy. Please note, however, that one should read both, for the very first time, when one is no older than age 13. Both authors should be read while one is just reaching puberty. This is my best advice to all young people.

6:21 AM