Category: Allgemein
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Biography of Martha Hughes Cannon
The biography I wrote, Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, Plural Wife, 1857-1932, was published by Signature Books in 2022. This short biography was a labor of love and the result of extensive research done since my first published article on Cannon in 1976. Research was difficult because Cannon’s son — at her request — burnt…
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Grammar again
I can’t seem to get off this subject — probably because any time I, or someone else, speaks or writes, grammar is the scaffolding in the background that enables us to form comprehensible thoughts. Someone else said this (and unfortunately I have lost the reference) about language being an ever-changing communication device. It reflects on…
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less or fewer
“More” is easy. You can have more sisters and more sand, more items and more money; more cookies and more cake. But just try to have less . . . er, fewer! Let’s see: fewer cookies or less cookies? Fewer sand or less sand? Does your ear tell you which is correct? I try not…
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Repetitions
I am collecting phrases we all use — sometimes without thinking — where the repetition is unnecessary. Here are two that I heard just yesterday. Send me any that you hear! “two twins.” Source: just about everyone. I have twins and I have heard this far too often: “Oh! Two twins!” You do know that…
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A phrase I never want to hear again.
I am still in a grammar and word state of mind. There is one phrase that must have been first coined by a politician who had time to kill and wanted to sound even more bombastic than usual — as if that were necessary! The phrase is “at this point in time.” Five words. Seventeen…
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The death of “me”
May I rant and rave for a moment? Someone, somewhere had an English teacher who put the fear of saying “me” into him or her. As in: “Him and me went to the movies.” Use “I”! (not to mention, “he”). Ever since then, the survival of “me” has been precarious. Now, everyone is using “I,”…
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“a nation of whiners”
So, General Wesley Clark thinks we are a "nation of whiners." Bravo! Why is it so difficult for us to hear criticism? I’ll ‘fess up here to being a world-class whiner. I whine when the weather is too hot, or to cold; when my dinner is too late, or too early; my weight up; when…
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The political tango
Why all the secret meetings (which everyone knows about) and leaks from the Obama and Clinton campaigns with differing stories, all purporting to be true, and all supposedly leaked by someone "close to the candidate." A little — now what’s the current buzzword? ah yes! — more transparency is in order. Tonight John McCain gave…
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Florida and Michigan
I am growing weary of the Democrats’ dilemma about seating delegates from Florida and Michigan. The two states broke Democratic party rules by scheduling their primaries too early, effectively calling the national committee’s bluff. Who would have thought two states would risk losing having delegates at the convention? As undemocratic as it may appear, the…
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Keziah’s Closet
My blog is named "Keziah’s Closet" for two main reasons. First, Keziah Howard Thorpe was a great-great-grandmother who I never met. Her name, Keziah, has always fascinated me, so I name this blog after her. Second, like a closet containing many different items, this blog will reflect a plethora of topics — whatever has caught…
Constance L. Lieber 