ANNUAL BELLE AIRE COMMUNITY YARD SALE

If you love a good yard sale, then come one - come all-- to the ANNUAL BELLE AIRE COMMUNITY YARD SALE which will held on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7,  from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Our participation at 717 West Elm Street will be as a fundraiser for our animal rescue organization RESCUED ANIMALS READY FOR THEIR FUREVER HOMES.

If you cannot attend the yard sale, all donations are welcome, and being an Ohio nonprofit corporation, 501 (c) 3) organization, donations are tax deductible. 

Hope to see you at the SALE!

FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO

Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican culture, food, beverage, and customs unique to Mexico.

I've met numerous people who think that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day, but the date for that is September 16.  

Cinco de Mayo is not greatly celebrated in Mexico;  in fact, it is not a national holiday, but it is an official holiday in the State of Puebla, where El Dia de Batalla de Puebla (the day of the Battle of Puebla) took place.  The celebration has become popular outside of Mexico, in communities with a large number of Mexican immigrants and people of Mexican descent.

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, led by the bravery of Texas-born General Zaragoza with his greatly outnumbered militia.

Cinco de Mayo is my excuse to eat Mexican food, which I greatly enjoy, but I also enjoy sharing the history of the celebration.

CLICK HERE to read about the history of Cinco de Mayo from The Encyclopaedia Britannica while I enjoy caldo de Cameron, ceviche, romeritos, and for dessert pan de muerto.

APOSTROPHE PURGATORY

After reading Monday's article about exclamation points, a friend reminded me about her constant source of anguish which is the rampant misuse of apostrophes.  She asked, "Remember your article called APOSTROPHE HELL?  You need to re-publish it because I am in Apostrophe Purgatory!"

                                             APOSTROPHE HELL




So many people to hate, so little time.

If there's an APOSTROPHE HELL this has to be it. If you see that fellow with his banner, ask him, "Why do you love the apostrophe so much? Repent and believe in grammar."

But don't let that banner push you away from apostrophes either. There are places where an apostrophe has its place.

Finally, rest assured there's no Hell, grammar or otherwise. You don't need to pay for the overuse of apostrophes in another life. Overall, the universe's apostrophe store stays in balance. It seems our linguistic world was intelligently designed; for every gratuitous apostrophe there's an instance where it's omitted.

My thank's to the reader who sent me that mans photo. (yes, of course I did the "thank's" and omitted the apostrophe in "mans"on purpose!)

TEACHERS OF ENGLISH

A friend sent this graphic to me because she's been with me when I have made corrections in public places. 

Of course, it should have "TEACHERS OF ENGLISH", but who am I to quibble? Oh, I almost forgot, the reason she sent it to me is because I am a QUIBBLER (sounds like a Batman antagonist, doesn't it?).

Family and friends know that I do not hesitate to make corrections in public places. Why else would I carry a red pen with me at all times? Gerald says this is the reason some people will not be seen in public with me.

If I see "CONGRADULATIONS" one more time, I'm going to scream.

In a local restaurant which has a chalk board for the daily specials, the word "potato" was spelled "potatoe". Instead of ordering, I asked, "May I have a piece of chalk?" "WHUT?" was the reply from the order-taker. I said, "I want to correct the misspelling on your bill-of-fare." "Isn't that how it's spelled?", was the answer.  I said, "No, you and Dan Quayle should know it's spelled p-o-t-a-t-o!"

At a department store, I went to "will call" to pick up a large item, and I noticed "DO NOT BRAKE" hand-printed on a package. I asked the attendant, whom I gauged to be in her fifties, "Shouldn't that be B-R-E-A-K?" She laughed and said, "Yeah, and the guy who wrote it went to college!" I asked, "Does it mean the package shouldn't be broken open?" She answered, "I don't know; I'll have to ask him." She and I commiserated about the lack of basic education.

I love a restaurant which has a chalk board in the restroom. It cuts down on graffiti, I'm sure.

Someone had written "Jesus Saves"; I couldn't help myself: below it I wrote "Moses Invests" (a little Jewish humor).

LAUGHING AT YOUR OWN JOKE

My brother has lectured me about my overuse of exclamation points in my writing! I told him that one of my New Year's resolutions was to guard against it! [Yes, of course I realize that I just wrote two sentences and ended each with an exclamation point!] 

Obviously, I have failed my resolution but  I shall try to follow the admonition of one of my literary heroes Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald:

The URBAN DICTIONARY has a word for the problem: BANGORRHEA. See below.

bangorrhea

1) Overusing exclamation points in a vain and failing attempt to make your writing sound more exciting. Trying to put more "bang" in your prose, but looking instead like you have exclamation point diarrhea.

"Checking in with a bad case of 'bangorrhea' -- the official grammedical term for exclamation-point overdose -- is Kanye West. In a single blog post, West used 188 exclamation points. At least we think it was 188. We tried counting and the ordeal made our eyeballs twitch." --Martha Brockenbrough, MSN Encarta columnist

MAY DAY

May Day has been celebrated throughout the world for centuries.  One of the most popular May Day traditions is to hang a basket full of flowers on a sweetheart's door.  The trick is not to be seen doing it;  if one is caught, one is supposed to get a kiss.

My question is:  Why wouldn't one want to be caught?

Probably the most famous May Day celebrations are in Communist countries where it is celebrated as International Worker's Day.

In the United States, on May 4, 1886, 1886, a rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago was organized to protest the killing and wounding of workers who had staged a strike at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (later International Harvester).

The peaceable demonstration became violent when riots began in response to police brutality.   When the police tried to disperse the protesters, a bomb was tossed into the crowd by an unknown person, killing eight people and wounding numerous others.

Although  eight men, labeled as "anarchists", were charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, no evidence was ever found to connect them to the bomb.  In fact, one of the men was not even at the rally, and another was on the speaker's platform.  These men became known as the Haymarket Martyrs.

Of the eight men, four were hanged, one committed suicide on the eve of his death sentence, and three were eventually pardoned.  This tragedy is an example of what can happen when xenophobia, anti-union sentiment, and justice run amok.

Depending on one's view of history, the incident is known as either the Haymarket Affair or The Haymarket Massacre.