Beech Tree News Network

Sauntering down the cowpath, kickin’ clods and thinkin’. Can a computer relate a story to give meaning to a fact, or word; or tell a joke; smile, frown, or make a billy-face? Or put a kid on the shoulder and say, “good job”? No. but a good teacher can.
    Constantly following rules to produce a fine worth of art, music, literature, horse shoeing or flower arranging, will most time result in less than a satisfactory outcome. Learn the rules first, then put them on the back burner. After the rules, plug in vision and creation. Don’t “paint by the numbers.”
    To be a good pilot one must fly the airplane as if it were an extension of his/her hands, arms, feet, and brain.
    My mother never learned how to drive an automobile. She “couldn’t see what the front wheels were doing.”
    From sometime back it’s come to me that the proper use of our English Congress is in bad decline. We hear, “I haven’t ATE yet”, “My battery has RAN down”; “I’m so hoarse I don’t think I could have SANG” (said by an English teacher no less). Correct: RUN; SUNG; EATEN.
    More decline:
---“I made some serious money.” Money cannot be serious or non-serious. It is simply a medium of exchange.
---“My Commanding officer kicked some serious ‘backside’.” A backside can be fat, wide, hairy, smooth, dirty or clean, but it can’t be serious.
---“My sweaty shirt smelled to high Heaven.” NO. A shirt is an inanimate object; it cannot smell. Your shirt had a bad odor… just as underwear worn all winter and not shed till spring.
--- “I brought my car to a mechanic.” No. You TOOK your car to a mechanic. When he fixed it, you BROUGHT it home. When you go, you take; when you come you bring.
    Then there are what are known as MISPLACED MODIFIERS:
--- “So throw the cow over the fence some hay.” No. Several strong men would be needed to throw the cow over the fence. Correct: “So throw some hay to the cow over the fence.”
---“The flag was hoisted up the flagpole followed by a fat lady singing the Star Spangled Banner.” (same as the “throwing the cow over the fence.”)
---“ I will end with a Jewish misplaced modifier: “Abey. Come in and eat yourself. I’ve eat myself and Poppa’s on the table.”
    You noticed? The weather has turned real cool of late. I hope I haven’t waited too long to take my FALL BATH.
Kindest regards…