Idiomatic Entanglements
It started with me saying, “I’m done.” Then another person in the meeting said, “In French there is an expression: ‘Je suis fait comme un rat.’” Being a speaker of French, but not, as is said, a native one, I heard the phrase echo in my head in these words, “Je suis cuite comme un […]
Does It Make a Difference?
It’s raining so hard that leaves fall from the trees. The temperature is in the mid-range that comes in early autumn and early spring. Is it autumn or spring? Seeing the leaves fall reminds me of the sometimes murky rules of style. For example, in English, there is never a space between a word and a […]
Life without Cardinals?
« I can’t imagine life without cardinals, » I wrote to a friend in California, because when I sent her this picture she texted that her state did not know them. I next sent the photo to an aunt in France, and she replied likewise. This made me check online, where I learned that this beautiful red bird mainly […]
A Notice and a Tax Specialist
The Internal Revenue Service recently sent me a notice stating it “believed” my recent tax return had a mistake and that I therefore owed the IRS several hundred dollars. This was unclear, because a belief (“We believe there is a miscalculation on your…1040”) does not lead to a truth (“As a result, you owe”). Rather […]