The lonely letter c

I did it again. I was looking at a dictionary and my eyes found the page no one ever reads--the list of how to pronounce English. There were 10 selections for "a" (although it didn't list Aaron) and none for "c" which has no sound of its own. It showed K and S and sh (-cion). It's why English has about a million words--the sun never set on the Union Jack. And this was an American list--probably if the editors had tossed in Canada, India, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia they would have needed a few pages for "a"; but still nothing for "c".

Stay awake, not woke.

Normally, I wouldn’t be reading Refinery29, a digital media source established in 2015. It’s owned by something called Vice Media which in turn is Disney, A & E, and other media investors.   It’s for young fashionistas in New York. But then, it’s the modern version of Woman’s Day or Ladies Home Journal which influenced women of the last century with heath and fashion while being obedient to the needs of the marketing department. 

One of the founders and CEOs Christine Barberich  (the other 3 are all males) resigned in June because a minority employee had said bad things about her and the toxic work atmosphere on her Twitter account. Twitter users can say anything and the accused is toast.  Twitter has so much power it has silenced the President of the U.S., and because it is a private company, freedom of speech does not apply.  Maybe you think that’s great because you don’t like the president.  Just keep in mind there is someone out there who doesn’t like YOU too, maybe an ex-, or a member of your club, or even an adult child. The laws about employee and management put in place over the years to protect you, don’t apply to gossip and whispers on social media. Your union or employer will not protect you if the charge (no hearings or trial) contain the magic word, RACIST.  You could have your life’s purpose and meaning closed out and cancelled by Twitter.

But back to Refinery29—why was I reading a digital style magazine for shallow, young New Yorkers? Because it was quoted in the Ohio State University  “OSU HealthBeat” which I received in e-mail. Elizabeth Gulino in Refinery29  was quoting in “The COVID-19 Vaccine Won’t Make You Infertile” the OSU Iahn Gonsenhauser, MD, chief quality and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  Then HealthBeat also linked to two other articles that quoted R29 which quoted an OSU doctor. This raises R29’s credibility as a serious journal, and OSU’s appeal to the younger set. A two-fer.

Here’s the kicker (I actually did some further research on this issue, and completely agree with Dr. Gonsenhauser who is quoted in many other popular websites.)  Refinery29 is so woke and so alert to every possible misstep of intersectionalism, it has begun to cancel women by referring to “pregnant people.”  You may skip right over that when you read about pregnancies (the way God designed the plan for males and females to procreate).  That change has moved into the language and fanciful unscientific beliefs because of women calling themselves men while still hanging on to all their lady parts. It’s along the same line as Pelosi destroying the “gendered family.”  It’s all about cancelling women and their uniqueness.

“There is limited data about the safety of receiving COVID vaccinations during pregnancy. Pregnant people are typically excluded from clinical trials due to concerns about harming the fetus (although many argue that keeping pregnant people out of trials leads to their health needs being underrepresented). Twenty-three of the participants in Pfizer's trial became pregnant over the course of the study, but that's too small of a sample to tell us much. Dr. Olulade says that people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to become pregnant [paraphrase] should talk to their doctor before getting the vaccine (everyone should!). "Ultimately it’s about weighing the risks of the unknown when it comes to the vaccine in pregnant women [direct quote] versus the known dangerous risks of COVID."

You and I are awake, not woke.  We know that pregnant people are women, and that people who are pregnant or breastfeeding are women. Every time you read about “pregnant people,” or see an adjective in front of the word “justice,” you are being manipulated. When the kettle heating the water to boil the frog for dinner gets hot enough, it’s too late for you to jump out and save yourself.

Update:  Facebook gave me a black mark for posting this link to my own blog (owned by Google) to my FB wall.  I'm directly quoting a source that quoted an OSU doctor speaking on Covid, yet Facebook fact checkers find my opinion about being woke objectionable.

Gelid—will probably not use this

The Merriam-Webster word of the day is Gelid.  Never heard of it, and after reading the explanation, I doubt I would ever use it since I’ve gone 80 years without it.

“Gelid first appeared in English late in the 16th century, coming to our language from Latin gelidus, which ultimately derives from the noun gelu, meaning "frost" or "cold." (The noun gelatin, which can refer to an edible jelly that undergoes a cooling process as part of its formation, comes from a related Latin word: gelare, meaning "to freeze.") Gelid is used to describe anything of extremely cold temperature (as in "the gelid waters of the Arctic Ocean"), but the word can also be used figuratively to describe a person with a cold demeanor (as in "the criminal's gelid stare").

Examples of GELID

"A fleet of military aircraft and navy and merchant ships continue searching the gelid waters north of Antarctica for a Chilean Air Force cargo plane that went missing on Monday evening with 38 people on board." — Pascale Bonnefoy and Austin Ramzy, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2019 "Back at school, January is gelid. The roads around campus are two inches deep in slush left behind from a New Year's Day snowstorm." — Koren Zailckas, Smashed, 2005 Latin and typing were the most useful classes I ever had in high school.  Every job I ever had and all during my retirement (now 20 years) I have appreciated what I learned then.

Happy New Year—you have no privacy

I confessed in my piece about Elizabeth Warren that I shopped on Panic Saturday (Dec. 21). Macy's was so happy to see me again that today I received a 14 page bill (some pages were blank) for spending $221.07 on Christmas gifts for my husband! I'm so old I remember when credit card bills were half a sheet of paper 2 sides.

But I was warned. On pg. 1 it referred me to pg. 7 for details on changes being made to my Credit Card Agreement. On pg. 3 it warned me about changes coming on 2/24/20 which it will do in detail on p. 7, and again repeats all the billing information on p. 1--Polo sleepwear, Hilfiger sleepwear, Hilfiger necktie, Tasso Elba neckwear, Alfani shirt, Perry Ellis neckwear, Clubroom shirt. BTW, the Alfani fabric felt cheap after I removed 105 straight pins and washed it. On p. 5 and 6 the only information was that the annual percentage rate is 26.74%, variable rate.

Finally the glorious p. 7 where I am told how much I am appreciated and how they look forward to serving me in the future. The changes revealed on p. 7 are
increased late fees,
returned payment fee and
returned convenience check fee.
The minimum payment due calculation is changing and
the Promotion calculation is recalculated beyond my ability to understand.

"For additional language regarding how and when these fees will be charged, please see the section called "Fees" in your Credit Card Agreement.
Then in a box the explanation of penalty fees--late payment and returned payment. I only have a master's degree, and couldn't decipher this even with the sentence diagramming I learned in 4th grade.

On p. 8 the good folks in Macy's advanced college English class explain making payments--
Minimum Payment Due,
calculated new balance
past due account,
excess of my credit limit,
amount due on each Club Plan,
adding in any amount required by
the Promotion Calculation
the calculated new balance, rounded up
applicable late fee
subtracted interest charges accrued during prior billing cycles
Special event balance
Calculated new balance = New Balance - any balances subject to a Club Plan or the Promotion Calculation

At this point I'm only half way through p. 8 and am worn out.

Page 9 explains who all can see my personal information. It's like Trump's tax returns. If Macy can do all this, why can't Congress? It clearly says, Macy's can share my personal information with anyone they damn well please. Honest. It does.

Social security number and income,
account balances and
employment information,
credit history and
transaction history,
anything they need to run their everyday business. . .
even court orders and
legal investigations or
credit bureau information.

Why do they need this private, personal information? According to Macy's p. 9 of 14,
for marketing purposes,
for joint marketing with other financial companies,
for their affiliates everyday business purposes, and
Macy's everyday business purposes so
they can market to me and
their nonaffiliates can market to me.

And when I am no longer Macy's customer, they claim the right to continue to share my information described in this notice.

DSNB does this, not Macy's. Department Stores National Bank. And on p. 10 there is a long list of what it collects.

Page 11-14 are math problems. 3%, 2% 1% rewards spent at restaurants which are stand-alone merchants in the U.S. that primarily serve food. If you accumulate 1,000 points, yada, yada. . .
But exclusive for you: free shipping from Al's family farms 18 lbs of Florida Honeybells for only $49.95 delivered with a bonus of Orange blossom honey.

Happy New Year. Capitalism is almost as much fun as taxes.

Glory be to the Father

Have you ever wondered why we say, "world without end" in the Gloria Patri? Me neither. I guess I've said or sung it so often I'd never thought that it meant the world would go on forever and never stop. But someone did ask (on radio), so here's what I heard. It's a very awkward idiom that comes from Hebrew, then Greek, then Latin, then squeezed into English. In other words, a bad translation for "will be for ever." In none of the other languages does the word world appear.

Found a longer explanation. https://nathanlemahieu.weebly.com/gloria-patri.html

What’s is an inkhorn?

I might be ostentatious, but I'm not an "inkhorn." I prefer plain English. In fact, I'd never heard the word inkhorn used this way.

"Picture an ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to his belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century England, such ink bottles were dubbed (not surprisingly) inkhorns. During the Renaissance, learned writers often borrowed words from Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar English alternatives. But in the 16th century, some scholars argued for the use of native terms over Latinate forms, and a lively intellectual debate over the merits of each began. Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used inkhorn as an adjective for Latinate or pretentious language." Merriam Webster Word of the Day.

Anglo-Saxon, the language of the Germanic barbarians who invaded the British Isles, was useful for swearing, cursing, naming common things like animals, counting money and time, but for just about everything else, Latin and French words needed to be imported by the Normans (originally were Vikings) when they invaded Britain in the 11th century (which is also the origin of both my maiden and married names). I also don't do a lot of swearing and cursing. In fact, none.

As of January 1, 2019, there were (estimated) 1,052,010.5 words in the English language. (Global Language Monitor) Shakespeare invented about 1700 words, and the KJV Bible changed the language forever. Today the internet accounts for many changes like OMG and BFF.

Other than that, they are loyal Americans

"The Left is crystal clear.

They have a new rainbow flag, they want to remove Washington, Jefferson, Betsy Ross and the rest of the founding.

They want to replace the citizenry with new people.

They want to ignore federal law, dissolve the borders of the United States and transfer many elements of sovereignty to global structures.

They want to end constitutional protections such as free speech, religious liberty, due process and any and all constitution limits or common law traditions which don't fit their plan of the day.

They do not respect elections, or democracy, or any splits of power, such as the electoral college, apportionment of districts or separation of powers, unless they win. All other exercises of power are illegitimate.

They want to swap all definitions, holidays, street names, statues, history text books, flags, rules, traditions, religions, borders, people, structures, institutions, moral codes, sexual mores, family structures, civic organizations, decision structures, leaders and primary language, plus they want to libel, destroy and remove the rights of anyone wanting to retain any of those things.

Other than that, they are loyal Americans.”

Jeffrey Varasano

Our language is always changing

640 new words were added in April to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. I've been saying one of them incorrectly:  I say, "to-go cup" when I’m at Panera’s with my friend Adrienne, and apparently the approved, in the dictionary term is "go-cup."

My senior class high school English teacher, Mrs. Price, insisted we buy Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionaries, and I'm still using that model (I have the 11th, which you can buy for about $30 or download for free, and I got mine for $1 at a used book store), and I have the 2nd International unabridged Merriam Webster (about 25 lbs) for interesting browsing which my grandmother gave my parents for x-mas in the 1950s.  One of my cousins probably has their mother’s copy.  Grandma was big on giving presents like magazines, books, and art supplies.  My mother continued that tradition with her grandchildren.  You can never know too many words.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/shop-dictionaries/dictionaries/collegiate-dictionary-eleventh-edition

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new-words-in-the-dictionary?

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/11/friday-family-photo-its-dictionary.html

Neologisms

Latinx and other made up words

More phony words from leftists. ". . . Latinx Pop Culture class take us on a journey into his co-curated exhibit, Tales from La Vida: Latinx Comics, at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State." (announcement from Ohio State University) 

Wikipedia: “Latinx is a gender neutral term sometimes used in lieu of Latino or Latina. The -x replaces the standard o/a ending in Spanish and Portuguese forming nouns of the masculine and feminine genders, respectively. The term is a political neologism that has gained traction among advocacy groups combining racial and gender identity politics.”

The Census Bureau made up the words Latina and Latino and Hispanic to reflect the ethnicity/heritage of someone from Mexico, Central America, South America (except Brazil) and some of the islands (not those with French or Dutch colonial history), but not Spain the nation. When the Left decided gender, a grammar term, was actually biological bad science, that got messy. Spanish is a language with gender sensitive nouns and adjectives so the mighty American Left which speaks English, a Germanic language, has decided gender in fake Spanish needs to go.

“In 2015, over 9,000 Latinx people were diagnosed, and nearly 80% of these were among MSM. The CDC has estimated that if such rates persist, one in four Latinx gay and bisexual men will have HIV in their lifetimes.” (Resource Center for Latinos)

A rank, fly bitten codpiece . . .

Insults in Shakespeare--perfect for today's social media.

Words, will they make a comeback?

We have a new sheriff in town.  Remember when mothers would tell their toddlers, "Use your words, not your fists."  We may regret that. Meanwhile. I think I've heard "Islamic terrorist" more in the last 2 weeks than the last 8 years.

There are over a million words in the English language, and it is global and borrows as needed. There are over 50 words just for sheep.  But in the U.S., the word police have thrown so many words at the wall, any wall, they no longer have any meaning.  Tolerance. Diversity. Privilege. Multicultural. Gender. Sex. Rape. Hunger. Poverty. Microaggression. Disparities. Justice. Fairness. Comprehensive. Invalidation. Underserved population. People of color. Traditional marriage. Hitler. Nazi. Orwell. Male. Female. . And a host of pronouns. . . (feminists killed the pronoun even before the transgender debate).  And now, all of a sudden, Democrats have discovered the Constitution, patriotism and the Bible.  Who knows where this could lead?

The Ghost of Christmas Future Imperfect Conditional

 
The Ghost of Christmas Future Imperfect Conditional

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/continuousconditional.htm

http://www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/conditional/

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/Grammar/conditional2.htm

The most influential Bible in the founding of the United States--The Geneva Bible

 https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/1599-Geneva-Bible-GNV/
 

"All but forgotten today, the Geneva Bible was the most widely read and influential English Bible of the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower.

Mary I was Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 until her death in 1558. Her executions of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the sobriquet "Bloody Mary." It was her persecution that caused the Marian Exile which drove 800 English scholars to the European continent, where a number of them gathered in Geneva, Switzerland. There a team of scholars led by William Whittingham, and assisted by Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, Anthony Gilby, John Knox, and Thomas Sampson, produced The Geneva Bible, based on Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and a revision of William Tyndale's New Testament, which first appeared in 1526. The Geneva Bible New Testament was published in 1557, with the complete Bible appearing in 1560.

A superb translation, it was the product of the best Protestant scholars of the day and became the Bible of choice for many of the greatest writers and thinkers of that time. Men such as William Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and John Milton used the Geneva Bible in their writings.

The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of its extensive marginal notes. These notes, written by Reformation leaders including John Calvin and others, were intended to help explain and interpret the Scriptures for the average reader.

With its variety of scriptural study guides and aids—which included cross-reference verse citations, introductions to each book of the Bible, maps, tables, woodcut illustrations, indexes, and other features—the Geneva Bible is regarded as history's first study Bible.

In 2006, Tolle Lege Press released a version of the 1599 Geneva Bible with modern spellings as part of its 1599 Geneva Bible restoration project. The original cross references were retained as well as the study notes by the Protestant Reformation leaders. In addition, the Old English glossary was included in the updated version."

Why then do so many conservative churches only support the King James Version of the Bible (which has been updated and refreshed in modern language many times)? The Geneva version was filled with explanations and notes--it was a study Bible--which questioned the authority of the monarch. You can see why it was so popular with the colonialists who had left England in search of religious freedom.

http://genevabible.com/

"Recognizing that the Geneva Bible and its notes were undermining the authority of the monarchy, King James I of England commissioned the "Authorized Version," commonly known as the King James Bible, as its replacement. The King James Version did not include any of the inflammatory footnotes, of course, but it also altered key translations to make them seem more favorable to episcopal and monarchial forms of government.

But the people were not fooled. The Pilgrims and Puritans preferred the Geneva Bible over the King James Bible, not trusting the king's purported good faith. The Geneva Bible was brought over on the Mayflower, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the Geneva translation and footnotes were the biblical foundation for the American Republic. . .

. . . If it is worthwhile to read Shakespeare and Milton, then it is worthwhile to read the Bible that informed the minds of Shakespeare and Milton. If it is worthwhile to preserve our American Republic, then it is worthwhile to draw fresh inspiration from the book that ended the age of kings. . .

. . . The 1599 Geneva Bible -- has "modern typography and spelling. All of the original footnotes are there. The original translation is there. Every word that put fire in the bellies of Reformers and Patriots is included."

 http://www.reformedreader.org/gbn/en.ht

 The 1560 Geneva Bible was the first to have Bible chapters divided into numbered verses. The translation is the work of religious leaders exiled from England after the death of King Edward VI in 1553. Almost every chapter has marginal notes to create greater understanding of scripture. The marginal notes often reflected Calvinistic and Protestant reformation influences, not yet accepted by the Church of England. King James I in the late 16th century pronounced the Geneva Bible marginal notes as being: "partial, untrue, seditious, and savouring of dangerous and traitorous conceits." In every copy of each edition the word "breeches" rather than "aprons" was used in Genesis 3:7, which accounts for why the Geneva Bible is sometime called the "Breeches" Bible. The Church of England never authorized or sanctioned the Geneva Bible. However, it was frequently used, without authority, both to read the scripture lessons, and to preach from. It was pre-eminent as a household Bible, and continued so until the middle of the 17th century. The convenient size, cheap price, chapters divided into numbered verses and extensive marginal notes were the cause of it's popularity.

 http://www.reformedreader.org/gbn/tft.htm

A THREAT TO KING JAMES

     In 1620 the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth with their Bibles and a conviction derived from those Bibles of establishing a new nation. The Bible was not the King James Version. When James I became king of England in 1603, there were two translations of the Bible in use; the Geneva Bible was the most popular, and the Bishops' Bible was used for reading in churches.

     King James disapproved of the Geneva Bible because of its Calvinistic leanings. He also frowned on what he considered to be seditious marginal notes on key political texts. A marginal note for Exodus 1:9 indicated that the Hebrew midwives were correct in disobeying the Egyptian king's orders, and a note for 2 Chronicles 15:16 said that King Asa should have had his mother executed and not merely deposed for the crime of worshipping an idol. The King James Version of the Bible grew out of the king's distaste for these brief but potent doctrinal commentaries. He considered the marginal notes to be a political threat to his kingdom.

     At a conference at Hampton Court in 1604 with bishops and theologians, the king listened to a suggestion by the Puritan scholar John Reynolds that a new translation of the Bible was needed. Because of his distaste for the Geneva Bible, James was eager for a new translation. "I profess," he said, "I could never yet see a Bible well translated in English; but I think that, of all, that of Geneva is the worst." 

A THREAT TO ROME

     In addition to being a threat to the king of England, the Geneva Bible was outspokenly anti-Roman Catholic, as one might expect. Rome was still persecuting Protestants in the sixteenth century. Keep in mind that the English translators were exiles from a nation that was returning to the Catholic faith under a queen who was burning Protestants at the stake. The anti-Roman Catholic sentiment is most evident in the Book of Revelation: "The beast that cometh out of the bottomless pit (Rev. 11:7) is the Pope, which hath his power out of hell and cometh thence." In the end, the Geneva Bible was replaced by the King James Version, but not before it helped to settle America.

From American Vision's Biblical Worldview February 1997

The word police on campus

"Language has been described as complicated, intriguing and beautiful.” So opens the University of New Hampshire’s “Bias-Free Language Guide,” whose unstated purpose is to make language a lot more complicated and less beautiful. “We offer this guide as a way to promote discussion and to facilitate creative and accurate expression,” the authors assert. “This guide is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed.” 

Oh boy. So what is offensive? Well, the photo with the guide shows no one of European origin--not Irish, German, Serbian, French, Russian, or Finn. Everyone is thin, good looking and dressed alike in denim and white. No one is disabled. No males in the photo, although one person appears to be gender-neutral or transitioning.

 https://web.archive.org/web/20150730183429/http://www.unh.edu/inclusive/bias-free-language-guide?

Senior citizen, elder, and elderly have been banished from the guide—back to “old people.” When I was a college student I thought anyone over 25 was an old person. HA!  Micro aggression has been subdivided to micro-assault, micro-insult and micro-invalidation.

Depending on how you count, it’s close to a million

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2006/04/word_count.html

Global Language Monitor estimates * that—as of this writing—there are exactly 988,968 words in English. GLM has done a remarkable job suckering even the respectable press into believing that we're on the verge of adding the millionth word to English—at which point we'll presumably see another flurry of articles about GLM. Even so, its claim is a bogus one.

The slippery slope of words

Michael Smith writes: "What does it say about a society that has grown comfortable with cursing so ubiquitous as to be a normal part of conversation while being uncomfortable with words like "illegal alien", "gay" or "Merry Christmas?""

I like the term "undocumented Democrat" as a replacement for "illegal alien" which offends the sensitivities of people in Cleveland, Ohio, who don't live near the Texas/Mexico border.

"Gay" used to be a pejorative (addicted to pleasure and dissipation), but has come into its own, and now even "queer" has become quite acceptable, as is "trany."

I think, since the word "holiday" comes from holy day (hāligdæg, hālig "holy" + dæg "day"), we could compromise with "Blessed holy days" as an acceptable substitute for Merry Christmas, bringing in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and any others who want to join in on pleasant greetings of the season. The Bible used the Greek word makarios, which means to be happy or blissful. So why not have a happy blissful holy day?

A short list of acceptable words

          

“When discussing issues with liberals, it’s practically impossible to know what’s considered racist [or homophobic or sexist] and what isn’t. After all, these are people who see racism in dry asparagus and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Even the words Chicago, golf, crime, chair, Constitution and Founding Fathers are considered racist. Calling Juan Williams by his first name is also racist, as Newt Gingrich found out last year. For some, even God is a gun-toting white racist.” . . .

Who can forget a “chink in the armor,” or “niggardly,” or “handicapped,” or “woman,” or “traditional marriage,”  --all of which are objected to by some victim group. In hip-hop or pop music, however, everything goes—bitch, nigger, slut, nappy headed ho, fag, etc. If Bush is shown in a cartoon with giant ears, it isn’t racist, just political, but for Obama it is racism.  It’s OK to abort a child with an extra chromosome, but not OK to call him mentally retarded—use intellectually challenged.  It’s OK for the government to bully citizens with threats of IRS audits of donor lists, but not OK for school children to tease each other. That only leaves the obese, unborn (it, product of conception, parasite) and the elderly as unprotected classes of words.  A short list, isn’t it?

Swearing, cussing and four letter words describing genitals and bodily functions are OK with the left and right both.

http://www.conservativefiringline.com/a-short-list-of-words-not-c/

Conversation or kicking the can down the road?

We need to have a conversation about this phrase, "We need to have a conversation about . . ." because when anyone says it, you know they mean a monologue and do it my way or let's move on to something else. Right or left, doesn't matter. I'd put it right up there with "Let's do lunch sometime."

I Googled it—557,000 matches.

Racism. Race in America. Education. Technology. School security. Truth and art. Guns. Rape. Your lack of seriousness. Changes in our pension plan. PTSD. Minimum wage. How to do better. Unwed mothers. Gay marriage. It. Sex education. Character and values. Immigration.  Chicago.  What’s been goin’ on. Australia Day. Refinancing debt. Cops. Standardized testing. Abortion. Smurfs. Rules of the game. Big Data needs. Renewable energy. Living. Covering fires in near by towns. Classroom etiquette. Choices for seniors [elderly]. Your cat. Quaker history. Immorality. How we define that. Where we're going and how we're going to get there. A breakfast casserole. Twitter. Drugs in hip-hop music. HIV/AIDS. Hardcore atheists.  Ableism. Health benefits. New literacies. The future. Missed curfew. Spending priorities. Pluralism in Islam. Mental health.  All these things.

I looked through about 15 Google pages; not once did I see the word ACA or Obamacare.  I guess those have been talked to death.

Grammar fails

http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/grammar-mistakes-on-signs/