Elizabeth (Alaska)’s Comments

Elizabeth (Alaska)’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Note: Elizabeth (Alaska) is not currently a member of this group.

This was the last time we had an alliteration task, I believe. There might have been discussion in the mod’s group later that this wasn’t a good task in future. (But I admit my memory on that point might be in error, just as it was above when I posted that not all words needed to apply.)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Perhaps having a task that requires us all to speak the same doesn’t work well.

Few of us would consider this alliterative, I think, but I suspect some of you would: Shooting Schedule

I know we had an alliterative task in the past, but it wasn’t so restrictive as to have all the words fit. Karen’s title would not have then been questioned.

And just out of curiosity, how else could caught be pronounced?

I’m 99% certain I speak according to how my parents spoke because it was from them I learned to speak. They were from Missouri, not the west. I’m sure they were influenced by their own parents, who came from Ohio and Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.

I’m not sure we have lost them, Kathleen. I hear accents all the time. For example, my town is about 5% Filipino and another 18-20% Native Alaskan. And that says nothing about the literally boatloads of tourists we have for 5 months out of every year.

I do think if we have a task where sounds have to be the same, then there should be some standard that we all work from. Sort of like an MPE. It seems very wrong to let “oh well, that’s just the way they speak” be a determining factor that the rest of us don’t know anything about.

And, of course for Bingo, it fits

N3 - the free square

I4 - short stories or essays.

It looks like neither of those fit your 2-bingo plan, but if all else fails, I think the mods would allow you to count it after your 2 bingos are completed.

Karen Michele wrote: "Well, it doesn't actually fit 20.1 either. It's only rated 3.54, so I will have to search for a spot. Hopefully, all of my confusion is only temporary!"

Did anyone eat cheese?

Thank you, Karen.

The discussion prompted by my rant (!) has been very interesting, though. You and I speak American English and we know even that is not standardized as I'd like to think. More than one of us scrambled to find how to pronounce wh. Many answers suggested there is no difference between wh and w. I also found the word digraph which shows wh as having a different sound than either the w or the h alone.

There are others in the group who speak British English or Australian English. I know from watching BritBox that British and American English are different (and the Brits have multiple accents!), and from sports I can often hear the Australians have yet another way with the language.

Further reason not to listen to audio books if narrators cannot properly speak the English language.

hoo wut wear wen wi hou

Joanna wrote: "This was the clearest explanation of the difference that I could find:."

I found similar results. As you can tell from the above, I completely and wholeheartedly disagree. Yes, my family came from Scotland. But not recently. My last Scots immigrant ancestor appears on the 1842 census in Quebec.

Anyway, I'm not in agreement that "why" is alliterative with "willows" and "weep". (Can "why" be pronounced "Wy"?) You may choose to decide differently.

My alliterative title will be with Ms and I doubt anyone would pronounce them different one from another.

Valerie wrote: "I wondered if regional accents come into play with words like that."

That must be the case. Although some of my reading on this subject indicates that "older" English speakers actually pronounce them differently. For me, wh and w have never - and never will - be pronounced the same.

Maybe I should let you know from whence I come: we always had an unabridged dictionary in our house from before I was old enough to speak. I can remember many times - many! - when there were discussions at the dinner table that needed to have that dictionary referenced, both for definition and pronunciation.

Your horse will be a youngish English speaker.

Wow! Just wow! I'm so sorry to hear this about wh and w, Joanna. This is not the English language.

English speakers:

Do you pronunce wh and w the same way?

I hope our language hasn't deteriorated enough that we do.

which and witch are not homonyms and do not sound the same.

whit versus wit
while versus wile
when versus wen
whoa versus woe

20.6 Fall Equinox

The Final Deduction by Rex Stout

As I've said many times before, reading the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout is so much fun. Always narrated in the first person by Archie Goodwin, we know only what Archie knows. But he knows his boss and is almost as smart. That said, Archie pretends - pretends! - to belittle himself in Wolfe's shadow and draws the contrast.

Here we have a woman showing up at Wolfe's door when her husband has been kidnapped. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of $500,000 in used bills, none larger than $100. She is heading to the bank to get it. She wants to make sure her husband is returned alive and expects Wolfe to pull a rabbit out of a hat to ensure it. Oh yes, Wolfe's genius is legendary.

If you, too, are a fan of this series, the following probably won't do anything to add to your fandom. I do like to get out for a bit of exercise, but I can't hold a candle to Archie. Still, this is the sort of characterization while pursuing a crime that I like.

I like to walk. I liked to walk in woods and pastures when I was a kid in Ohio, and now I like to walk even more on Manhattan sidewalks. If you don't walk much you wouldn't know, but the angle you get on people and things when you're walking is absolutely different from the one you get when you're in a car or in anything else that does the moving for you. So after washing and shaving and dressing and eating breakfast and reading about Dinah Utley in the Times, nothing I didn't already know, I buzzed the plant rooms on the house phone to tell Wolfe I was going out on a personal errand and would be back by noon, and went.

OK, so that's almost nothing to do with solving a murder, but it's not filler either. The walk got him somewhere that *did* have to do with murder.

I don't know that this is the best of the series, but it was a very enjoyable few hours. I'll color in a 4th star, though it just barely makes it. Maybe I was just ready for Archie and Wolfe.

By the way, I read this and the others in Three Aces: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus, which is the edition my library had.

+20 Task
+10 Combo (10.9 - Noel, in between bites of sturgeon or cheese or rhubarb tart ... 20.4
+10 Review

Task total = 40

Season total = 345

15.8 Sweet Sixteen Bingo

O3 - set at least partially in a tropical country

The Other Side Of Silence by André Brink (Namibia)

+15 Task
+ 5 before 2000 (1982)

Task total = 20

Season total = 305

My husband and I watch TV together for about an hour and a half every evening before falling asleep. But that's after I've already gotten in my 3-1/2 hours a day reading.

Valerie wrote: "Also, I like to listen to a book when I am weeding, which I find to be a very boring task."

I think Anika likes audio books when she's doing quilting. I can understand people wanting audio in certain circumstances.

I often said I'd do audio books when my eyes went.

I'm a slow reader and no audio books. I want to read, not be read to.

Today was my local Friends of the Library annual book sale. It always gets me in trouble with having too many books. In fact, these sales are one of the reasons I have so many unread books on hand.

So I went today with the resolution that I wouldn't get more than 3 books. I won't break my arm patting myself on the back, but I came home with only two books. Neither were on my over-burdened wish list, but both by authors I know I will read. And both fit one of this season's tasks, should I decide I don't already have enough planned.

Code to Zero by Ken Follett
Prairie Nocturne by Ivan Doig

Apple wrote: "Still not sure how people manage to finish over there, it’s at least 75 books a season…"

I'm not sure either, but they have no page minimum, for one thing, so a book of only 40 or 50 pages can still work. Also, children's books and YA can count. Unless they've changed the rules, and since I haven't checked in close to 15 years, I suppose they might have done so.

Apple wrote: "I have 6 books I have read for another group (come on, I see half of you over there!)"

I came here from SRC. It was wonderful when Sam, still at SRC, gave us the ability to get extra points for things like Oldies and Jumbo. Now I only have RwS. It's enough to keep me busy.