Robusted

"Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty." >>Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog



If you ever meet David Knopf, a Kansas City Star columnist, please use the word robust correctly. Knopf may not correct you, but he will almost certainly be inwardly cringing. The columnist, writing about overused expressions, recently took a stand against misusing the word robust.

Knopf has developed what he calls Acute Language Hypersensitivity. "With ALH at my disposal, I've become a lightning rod for words and phrases that we mainstream Americans adopt and repeat and repeat, all with an astounding lack of self-awareness," he wrote.

His belief is that robust is fine to use when describing marinara sauce, but not a suburban Philadelphia police department's robust plan to promote better relationships between officers and residents. Knopf's hypersensitivity doesn't stop with robust. He also takes issue with "reaching out" being used instead of asking for a favor. Knopf suggests we just say support or join forces with instead of overusing "having your back" or "standing with."

Joining robust on making Knopf crazy are "gaining traction," "on the ground," and "at the end of the day." Defending his irritability, he wrote, "I never said I was a nice person."

One of my own pet peeves is the cutesy use of the letter "k." I've driven past a preschool named Kids Kollege and a restaurant called Kountry Kitchen. Equally frustrating is the ongoing debate between plural and possessive. It's most definitely not Horse's for Sale. A friend of mine who is a retired high school English teacher maintains a polite demeanor while quietly squirming over the misuse of ironic, literally and nonplussed.

I remember two things from fourth grade. First, the entire class wept while listening to Mrs. Maupin read Lassie Come Home. Second, Mrs. Maupin's own pet peeve was the repetitious, "my brother, he went to the store" rather than "my brother went to the store." We were taught in no uncertain terms that the addition of "he" was incorrect, unnecessary, and maddening. 

I wonder if David Knopf had Mrs. Maupin as a teacher??

If any of these examples of misspelled words, incorrectly used words/phrases or optional punctuation make you shudder, you're not alone. And that led me to buy Word by Word by Kory Stamper. If I had a career do-over, I'd want Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, as my mentor. Stamper takes readers along for an engaging examination of evolving language, the Internet, verbal fatigue, and whether she is a professional lumper or splitter. (Look it up!) 

If you're looking for new fiction this month, watch for:

Seven Stones to Stand or Fall - Diana Gabaldon
Camino Island - John Grisham
Dangerous Minds - Janet Evanovich
The Silent Corner - Dean Koontz
The Child - Fiona Barton
The Force - Don Winslow
Ministry of Utmost Happiness - Arundhati Roy
Beven and Luthien - JRR Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien
Love Story - Karen Kingsbury
Do Not Become Alarmed - Maile Meloy
Once and For All - Sarah Dressen
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. - Neal Stephenson
Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate
The Switch - Joseph Finder

Get a head start with summer reading:
The Identicals - Elin Hilderbrand
Beach House for Rent - Mary Alice Monroe
Sunshine Sisters - Jane Green

New memoirs:
Roxane Gay - Hunger
John Prine - Beyond Words
Kevin Hart - I Can't Make This Up
Nina Riggs - The Bright Hour

New Nonfiction:
The World is Your Burger - David Michaels
Hue 1968 - Mark Bowden
If I Understood You... - Alan Alda

And for toddlers - Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney

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June is National Iced Tea Month, National Zoo & Aquarium Month, and Audiobook Appreciation Month.


                                      June 

3     - BookCon in New York City

4     - 100th anniversary of Pulitzer Prize

8     - George Orwell's 1984 published in 1949

16   - Birth of Katherine Graham, Washington Post, 1917

21   - First Day of Summer (Reading!)

23   - 1868...Luther Sholes patented his typewriter

26   - 1974...first bar code swiped. Trivia: where and what?

Answer: A pack of Wrigley's gum in Troy, Ohio


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