Down at the beach in the late 60s it wasn't unusual to go around barefoot all day long, especially if you were a teenager. So my cousin was complaining that his foot hurt all day -- it wasn't until that evening when he had his foot propped up on a coffee table that my aunt noticed he had a flat-headed tack embedded in his sole....

Since I've started swimming, I keep finding bits of skin on the bottom of my feet below the toes and on the heels just shredding from the rest of the sole, bleeding quite badly if they get ripped away (I've taken to cutting them with clippers). Using flip-flops to walk from the locker room to the pool isn't helping, so I figure it's happening on the rough surface of the pool itself (maybe when I push off from the sides of the pool).

In non-glass/blood/physical harm news,

The chief copy editor of the New York Times answers readers questions

[link]

The serial comma is addressed

So my cousin was complaining that his foot hurt all day -- it wasn't until that evening when he had his foot propped up on a coffee table that my aunt noticed he had a flat-headed tack embedded in his sole....

This was me in my teens. We would crush cigarettes with our feet. Didn't matter. Now my baby soft feet cry at every tiny thing.

Off to read about serial commas,,, (just can't help myself)

Serial, not comma

Most newspapers eschew the serial comma. That usage may be based in the days when each character was a separate piece of type, and eliminating a comma here and there could save lead, time and space.

That makes sense. The nuns taught me never; people here make me put them in anyway. I'm a sheep.

I was always taught to use the serial comma, so I just can't help myself!

Loved this from the article:

[T]here are no laws regulating grammar. (If there were, the first people to be arrested should be those who think an apostrophe and the letter "s" create a plural, as in a sign that says "All Shoe's on Sale.")

Whether you are for or against the serial comma, this is just crazy talk:

One use of a comma is as a replacement for "and" or "or," so to use a comma before the last word in a series is to say, for example, "the flag is red and white and and blue."

LOVED The Riches last night! I'm going to watch it again tonight, I think. Really starting to love the kids.

ION: Random stuff I learned today.

The 23rd is National Puppy Day! Tomorrow is National Common Courtesy Day, and the 31st is National Bunsen Burner Day. This is also National Frozen food month.

Names for the @ symbol:
apenstaartje: Dutch for "Monkey's tail"
snabel: Danish for "Elephant's trunk
kissanhnta: Finnish for "Cat's tail"
klammeraffe: German for "Hanging monkey"
papaki: Greek for "Little duck"
kukac: Hungarian for "Worm"
dalphaengi: Korean for "Snail"
grisehale: Norwegian for "Pig's tail"
sobachka: Russian for "Little dog"

I've seen the comma=and argument in the past, and I think it's a crock of shit. Especially since, as the Times woman admits, when you're using semicolons instead of commas, in a complicated list, you do and must include the final semicolon before the and.

CNN's reporting that they've found that missing Boy Scout alive. Yay.