May Day Ramblings: Hi & Lo!

Usually the month of May marks romantic versifying for poets and poets 2B.
This morning I'll try to continue that tradition, but reality sometimes must be dealt with first.

So I'll start with a LO-rambling.

Last Saturday's Post about observations of the mainstream media (English) is demonstrated by some clear examples lending weight, to wit:

(Extract)...Now you can see Shaolin Tiger's grounds about ..."It's sloppy, there are spelling mistakes, factual mistakes, research mistakes and so on, it's basic Journalism 101, please check your facts before publishing"...?

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

Some headlines/headings from The Star, May 1, 2006:

page 6: Wing sets up shelters
for women and children

wing: collective noun, treated as "singular", forming the Subject;
hence followed by "sets" singular Verb,
which is absolutely CORRECT, fulfilling a fundamental rule in English grammar termed Subject-Verb Agreement(Syabas to this sub!)


Contrast page 18:

This year's line-up include big names such as:

::(NINE international bigwigs listed)

line-up: collective noun, treated as "singular", forming the Subject;
but followed by plural Verb "include",
which is WRONG! It breaches the Subject-Verb Agreement rule! (Sack the bugger!)

But I hear Howsy whispering from across the English Channel:
"Don't throw pearls at the swine!"

But I also hear Twisted Heels serenade:
"It's May Day troday; Let's perfume the air with french Chanel!"

2ASIDES:

Aside1~~~It'd have been counted as TWO HOWLERS in the above examples -- the second for "inconsistency". But if some ER don't get IT, it might be a case of your reading The People's Paper too mush!

Aside2~~~I suspect all the NINE names listed (an 'exhastive' list)were all the VIP speakers, so the word "including" IS MISLEADING. Desi would rephrase "The line-up features ..."

But who am I? Some Rambling thorn in the flesh of all the Roses...on a starry, scary night.

DESIDERATA:
I used to write the Desiderata.English column on Sundays until I took a break for INTER:LUDE originally planned 2B a short hiatus on Taman Negara, but is now extended from a picnic to a holiday on the Se7en Seas. Bear with me if I digress, sometimes I fight in vanity the enveloping waves to keep kepala above H2O.

Th reason I cited the above for a case-study is that, IMHO, the
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE IN GRAMMAR TO OBSERVEas if your dear life depends on IT.

When in doubt, read the sentence ALOUD. You're ALLOWED you know, even if it's in the examination hall. You undersatnd the meaning of "whispering hope", right?

See how "jarring" the following would sound:

"You is my best friend and must comes to my wedding dinner, okay?"

My friends and I comes at 7.00 tonight, dearie. So don't you worries."

I do worry when the leading English newspaper commits such HOWLERS consistently -- EVERYDAY! -- and flags off a regular MIND YOUR LANGUAGE column.
I think the New Straits Times fares much better in this department.


~~~~~~~~~

Okay, in the spirit of springtime in England where I have a few Blogger friends -- and many fellow Malaysians who are not coming back to serve the NegaraKu because of purported "low pay" and the "obsesion with record-breaking" which Desi posted up yesterday -- DESIDERATA and Buddies wish you HAVE A MEANINGFUL MAY DAY.


MAY DAY's a day for universal salute to the Human Being as A Worker, and we are all workers, including the self employed and freelancers like Desi. If nobody recognises thy labour, it's alright, at least the Bee Gees do. Also from a Japanese crooner -- Emi Fujita, from her album, MEMOMILE BLEND, gifted by mGf in recognition of Desi's WORDS, "And words are all I have, To take your heart away..."

Just some opening strains so that some mGf don't get too nostalgic; otherwise, this scribe may jest 'cry me a river' and can't continue his wandering/wondering ways; you don't want that to happen, do you? And that's a rhetorical Q! ~~~

"When I was small
and Christmas Trees were tall,
We used to love
while others used to play..."

But Desi's generous to share this with you,~~~~~~~

In the name of a poet's dignity
in the warm seas of humanity
across mountains and valleys
braving the se7en seas~~~~~~~

My Muse In Thee

Please Don't Stop The Music
In your presence
Feeling the tender beating
Of the dance of Life

Doing it in our time
In our rhythm
To our rhyme

I wish it's Eternity
In a world of intimate conversation
In speechless embrace of the eyes

Please don't stop the music
Of our special symphony
Of sweet, and sometimes wordless, melody

I find my Muse in you
I hope you too in me
So we can sing love songs
happy and sad songs
Okay, sometimes a nonsense song
where we belong
But it's always a hot 2-in-ONE
of ecstasy and agony
when May comes around
I still miss the
Muse in Thee

(C) copyleft to My Muse


And a specuial tribute to artistes the world over, past and present, who suffered for their "sanity", struggling to keep body whole scrapping the bottom of the barel and palette to earn three square meals. So often talents are unappreciated in their living days, only worshipped when body had turned to dust and the soul and spirit still wandering about -- how many of my dear ER know the following is paying homage to VINCENT van Gogh?

I am haunted often by the verses, hope it's APpropriate for those with the means -- having the right AP anyone? -- to pay some tribute to those who truly struggle to lend beauty to this world...


Song: Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) Lyrics
<.
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...