The End of the Physical Year...

During the past 8 years in the private sector, I heard phrases such as “year end” or “quarterly report”. So last week I was pleasantly amused to be back in “fiscal year”-land where the mispronunciation, and the title of this entry, put a smile on my face. That smile though is a new thing for me. Misused and mispronounced words used to drive me up a wall; it was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. Now, however, I’m trying to be more mindful and not take up brain space with annoyances whenever possible. This does not provide George with a free pass – for some reason, the way he says nuclear, among other words (and actions, like that smirk or the way he walks), will simply always make me cringe.

Now let me begin by saying that I know I’m not perfect when it comes to grammar and word use. There are still words that get me every time so I just don’t use them. That being said, I hope you’ll indulge me while I get just a few of the more common irritants off of my chest once and for all. This can be somewhat of a “letting go” process for me. And perhaps you have some that you’d like to add? Feel free to comment!

• Axe instead of ask
• Pacific vs. specific
• Erf or berf for earth and birth
• Gambit instead of gamut as in "the whole gambit"
• Verb-subject agreement issues like the sign on a co-worker's wall that reads "fried food and sugar is the devil"

Being critical like this apparently begins early as witnessed on MARTA a couple of weeks ago. There were two sixth graders from Woodward Academy on the very first train car with me. I usually ride up front as I tend to get “car sick”. Plus, I can watch the MARTA train operator ignore the “no food or drink” signs that are posted every two feet as he drinks his soda fountain beverage, eats his chicken wings, and throws the bones out of the window (okay, the bones out the window only happened once). For those of you who have been in the first car on a MARTA train, you may know that the door between the operator and the passengers is a flimsy piece of metal with gaps all around it that are not sealed. Thus one can also hear the operator chatting on his/her cell phone every now and again. Anyway, we were coming up on the Martin Luther King Memorial station and the operator announced over the intercom “next stop, King Memoria”. The sixth grade girl said to her friend “did she just say ‘Memoria’?” And her friend said “yes, I think she forgot the ‘L’.” Later these two youngsters went on to discuss whether or not the train operator got paid a lot of money because no one else wanted to do that job. Once again, I think that’s a story for another day….