Abbreviation

We are lazy bastards, we English speakers, and we like to squish words together. When we do so, the apostrophe is a little pointing finger that indicates where the missing letters should be. Thus

>...[snip] Jen is a bitch

becomes

>...[snip] Jen's a bitch

That's a contraction, not an abbreviation. (I'm sorry, Fay. I couldn't resist. I tried... sort of. Says the ellipsis abuser.)

I've been drinking since 4:30.

Is it too early to pour myself a drink?

It's cocktail hour in Brooklyn!

Poor Tilda. Throwing up is no fun.

I'm going to start the risotto soon--- so that involves wine

We were grazing all afternoon (our two-apartments-down neighbor turned 1 today), and so dinner will probably be a leftover latke with a fried egg on top. You know, health food.

dinner will probably be a leftover latke with a fried egg on top. You know, health food.

Hey, it's good for the soul. Sounds delicious.

Dude! We have one bottle of stout still in the house! One beautiful, delightful bottle, bless its dark little heart.

I'm watching World's Most Romantic Bedrooms and am dying of the Big Green Mean Envy.

The dog's dinner

That's actually not a good demonstration sentence, because "The dog is dinner" is a valid, if icky, sentence.

Edit: Hubby rightly corrected me that the "if icky" does not apply to those with a preference for the traditional Asian tastes.

I love you people. I have saved Fay's post because I am totally going to use it to teach my seniors how to use apostrophes. They will love the salty talk, yes they will.

And now, MY chance to be didactic!

My favorite joke being "even the Statue of Liberty has turned her back on Jersey" (she faces Europe to greet the immigrants sailing into the harbor).

Actually, the Statue of Liberty was created as a symbol of French/American friendship during the revolution and shared ideals about republic democracy, and its association to immigration didn't come until later. The sculptor, Bartholdi, was horrified when he learned that an immigration center (Ellis Island) was going to go next to his shiny statue. In her fantastic essay "More Than Just A Shrine: Ellis Island," Mary Gordon writes the following:

By the 1880’s, the facilities at Castle Garden had grown scandalously inadequate. Officials looked for an island on which to build a new immigration center, because they thought on an island immigrants could be more easily protected by swindlers and quickly transported to railroad terminals in New Jersey. Bedloe’s Island was considered, but New Yorkers were against the idea of a "Babel" ruining their beautiful new treasure, "Liberty Enlightening the World." The statue’s sculptor, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, reacted to the prospect of immigrants landing next to his masterpiece in horror; he called it a "monstrous plan." So much for Emma Lazarus.

For those who don't know Emma Lazarus, she's the one who wrote the famous "Give me your tired your poor" poem that was mounted on the statue later. This was an early lesson I used in my senior English seminar. I could go on, but I'm going to stop now.

JZ, surviving a pukefest is worthy of a drink. Poor Matilda. I hope she's none the worse for wear.