Two negatives make a positive

That's what I was taught back in the Dark Ages. The word "ain't" was verboten. However, with the continued decline in Anerica's education system and the general dumbing down of the American public over the last several decades, more and more the English language is spoken and written improperly, or if that is too strong a word, without regard for rules.

Instead of saying, "He and I are friends" people will say, "Me and him are friends" (that is, they use objective case when nominative case is called for).

Instead of saying, "The big dog chased her and me down the road" people will say "The big dog chasd she and I down the road" (that is, they use nominative case when objective case is called for).

People who should know better say "ain't" instead of "am not" or "isn't" or "aren't". Grammar teachers shudder.

Double negatives are everywhere, invading even gospel music. Here are four examples that make me cringe:

1. "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down"
2. "I Wouldn't Take Nothin' For My Journey Now"
3. In the song "Rise Again" one line says "ain't no power on earth can tie me down"
4. "He Ain't Never Done Me Nothin' But Good"

To give secular music its due, "Ain't misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you" goes back generations. George Gershwin put "It ain't necessarily so" into Porgy And Bess.

Some people just don't know better, their schooling having gone in one ear and out the other. Some people know better but just don't care. And neither do they care, apparently, how they might be viewed by others or how unlikely they are to advance in their careers.

Am I being a snob? I hope not. I don't want to be. We strive to be a classless society in the United States, where everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. Nobody should have anything to prove. But maybe one of this country's greatest assets has produced an unfortunate effect. I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Telescopes and microscopes are both very useful for seeing, but they look at different things.

On the other hand, the New Testament was not written in classical Greek but in koine Greek, the common language of the streets. Also, St.Jerome's updating of an earlier Latin version of the Bible became known as the Vulgate because he used the most common dialect among the people.

Is it important or unimportant? A linguistic scandal or much ado about nothing as long as a person can be understood? One wonders. Let me know in a comment what you think.

Krishti u ngjall! Vërtetë u ngjall!

(This post has appeared on this blog twice previously, first on April 12, 2009, and again on April 5, 2015.)

The title of this post is in old-style Albanian, the language my wife’s parents spoke.

Every year, on a certain day, when Mom and Pop were still alive, we would call them in Florida or they would call us in Nebraska or New York or Florida or Georgia (we moved a lot) and whichever party said “Hello?” heard the words, “Krishti u ngjall!”

The response was always immediate from the other person: “Vërtetë u ngjall!”

Phonetically, it sounded something like this:

KRISH-tee oong-ee-AHL! vair-TET oong-ee-AHL!

What a strange thing to do, you might be thinking.

Not at all. If you’re curious what those strange phrases might mean, here is an English translation: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

The day, of course, was Easter Sunday -- Resurrection Day -- and we were simply doing what Christians have been doing in various places and in various languages for two thousand years.

After Pop died in 1983 and Mom died in 1986, we continued the traditional Albanian Easter greeting with Mrs RWP’s aunt in North Carolina. Now she is gone, too. There is nobody left in the family to speak Albanian to.

So, very early this morning, as the day was beginning to dawn, I said to Mrs. RWP, “Krishti u ngjall!” and she replied, “Vërtetë u ngjall!” Some traditions are worth preserving.

This was not only an Easter greeting, it was something like the communion of the saints, I think. Some of them on earth, and some of them in Heaven. But all in agreement.

In many places around the world, in many languages, many people said these words today. We said them at our own church (Pentecostal, not Albanian Orthodox) this morning. The pastor said, “Christ is risen!” and the entire congregation replied, “He is risen indeed!” The pastor said it three times, and after the third response, spontaneous applause broke out in the choir and among the congregation.

As I said, the communion of the saints.

This afternoon I found on the Internet a photograph of the interior of Saints Peter and Paul Albanian Orthodox Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the church Mrs. RWP attended as a child with her mother, father, and brother. It was the first time my wife had seen this church since 1946. The church is decorated in the photograph, not for Easter, but for another Christian holiday.

Christmas. You may have heard of it.


I thought it would be interesting to post the comments from 2009 and 2015 as well. Here are the ones from 2009:

13 comments:

Reamus said...

We should all keep such traditions alive, Mr. RWP, thank you for sharing a fine post.

April 12, 2009 at 11:32 PM

Pat - Arkansas said...

Alleluia! Alleluia!

April 13, 2009 at 9:52 AM

bARE-eYED sUN said...

beutiful tradition, sentiment and photo. :-)

thank you

April 14, 2009 at 2:10 AM

Jeannelle said...

Oh, Rhymsie, this is a wonderful post! What a treasure to know those ancient Easter words in a unique language! Yes, keep the tradition alive of speaking them.

I woke up too early and decided to change my blogpost to publish on April 15, but after seeing the CHRISTMAS photo on your post, I'm leaving it for today, the 14th.

A belated Merry Easter to you!

April 14, 2009 at 5:25 AM

Egghead said...

What a beautiful gift you gave your wife. That is the sweetest thing I have heard in a long time.

April 15, 2009 at 6:28 PM

rhymeswithplague said...

Thank you to everyone who commented:

Reamus - This tradition will probably end in our family with the two of us. Our children don't speak Albanian, let alone their spouses. Perhaps we can teach the grandchildren, though.

Pat - Arkansas - So you liked it then....

bARE-eYED sUN - Welcome, first-timer! I'm glad you enjoyed the post. Come back often.

Jeannelle - And an even more belated Merry Easter to you!

Egghead (Vonda) - We've been doing this every Easter for 46 years now.

April 15, 2009 at 10:01 PM

Anonymous said...

Krishti u ngjall!

April 19, 2009 at 5:32 PM

A Lady's Life said...

Very beautiful church.

April 21, 2009 at 7:23 PM

RachelS. said...

Dua kishën aq shumë! se foto e kishës është e bukur! Unë jam shqiptare si ju!Kristi Ngjall!

April 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM

rhymeswithplague said...

A Lady's Life, I think so too!

RachelS., thanks for commenting! I used translate.google.com to learn that you said, "I love church so much! that picture of the church is beautiful! I am Albanian like you! Kristi Risen!"

April 14, 2012 at 10:10 PM

Qafzez said...

Krishti u ngjall! Albanian American from Philadelphia and I attend this beautiful Church. I don't speak much Albanian either but we are Albanian Orthodox and its in our soul. Important to pass these traditions on to future generations. Come visit!

May 5, 2013 at 7:24 AM

rhymeswithplague said...

Welcome, Qafzez, to this little corner of Blogworld. Ask some of the very oldest people in your church if they remember Jim and Carrie Cudse (Dhimitri and Ksanthipi Kuci) or Nelson and Christine Pitchi. The names of the children in the two families were Mike, Eleanor, Nancy, and Johnny. These were Mrs. RWP's parents and uncle and aunt. They all moved to North Carolina around 1946.

May 5, 2013 at 8:29 AM

Klahanie said...

What a wonderful, thoughtful tradition to be upheld.

I sense the ambience.

Thank you, my kind friend.

Gary

April 7, 2015 at 10:50 PM

...and here are the comments from 2015:

4 comments:

All Consuming said...

A lovely tradition indeed, and educational for me as well. Do teach the Grandchildren yes! ? And does Mrs RWP speak Albanian too? Or have you said that and I missed it, (brain being slow as it is at present).

April 5, 2015 at 1:54 PM

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Like other Christian festivals or special days, Easter has its origins in pagan history. Oestre was a goddess of the springtime and of hope for the future. (RWP cage now rattled. The beast within growls. Grrrr!)

April 6, 2015 at 6:41 AM

rhymeswithplague said...

All Consuming (Michelle), Mrs. RWP understands spoken Albanian but never learned to speak it (or read it or write it) herself. She and her mom would have the most unusual bilingual conversations, her mom in Albanian and Mrs. RWP in English. It was strange to behold. I have managed to learn a little bit on my own. For example, Mirë mëngjes (Good morning), Unë të dua (I love you), and of course, Krishti u ngjall! Vërtetë u ngjall! (Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!)....

Yorkshire Pudding (Neil), au contraire! I regret to inform you that the beast within is not growling and the RWP cage has not been rattled. Of course Oestre was a goddess of springtime and there is also Ishtar and Astarte and Ashtoreth (some of them are even fertility goddesses). My post was not about them. We didn't wish one another a "Happy Easter"...my post is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, not green grass or baby chicks or bunny rabbits. I cannot explain Jesus any more than someone in the dark can explain a flashlight. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said 700 years before Christ, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. " And that much, as pertains to me at least, is true.

April 6, 2015 at 9:27 AM

Hilltophomesteader said...

Well said, Mr. RWP. My prayer is that all in the darkness will see the light. Sorry to be late, but He is, indeed, Risen, and I am glad.

April 7, 2015 at 1:02 AM

More evidence I am slipping

...can be found in the sad fact that April 18th is now 21/24ths over in my time zone (Eastern Daylight Time, EDT) and I have neglected to tell you that today is the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride, an event that inspired the 19th-centuy Anerican poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) to write a very famous poem called, what else, "Paul Revere's Ride" which begins:

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year."

The poem went on to tell of the expected British invasion of the American colonies and how Paul Revere on the opposite shore would be, ready to ride and spread the alarm to every Middlesex village and farm, for the country folk to be up and to arm if his friend would climb to the belfry of North Church and signal him via lantern light whether the invasion was by land or by sea, specifically, one if by land and two if by sea.

You ought to read it sometime.

Revere was a silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the colonial group The Sons Of Liberty at the beginning of the American Revolution.

Another 19th-century American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), wrote another poem to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord that took place the following day. The poem, called "Concord Hymn", begins:

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."

I end this post by telling you that a word that means 250th anniversary is semiquincentennial (literally half-500th).

I will sleep well tonight.

What’s in a name?

William Shakespeare had Juliet Capulet say of Romeo Montague, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"; Robert Burns wrote, "O my Luve's like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June"; William Faulkner gave us A Rose For Emily; Gertrude Stein repeated herself with "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" (not "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" as some erroneously think).

Would it make a difference if Shakespeare had decided to have Juliet say gladiola instead? What if Burns said his Luve was like a yellow dandelion? What if Faulkner had written A Chrysanthemum For Emily? If Gertrude Stein said "Aster is an aster is an aster is an aster" would it have been an unmitigated disaster?

I jest, and yet names, which are thought to be important, are changed all the time:

• Denali in Alaska became Mt.McKinley in 1896, then Alaska changed it back to Denali in 1975. The federal government still referred to it as Mt. McKinle until 2015, when it agreed with Alaska and began calling it Denali as well. Now President Trump wants it to be Mt. McKinley again.
• Cape Canaveral in Florida was called Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, when it became Cape Canaveral again.
• George Washinton's cabinet included a Department of War. In 1947 it was renamed during President Truman's administration and became the Department of Defense.
• Speaking of Departments at the Federal level, there was a Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) until President Carter carved out a separate Department of Education. What remained was not called the Department of Health and Welfare (HW) but the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
• Terminus, Georgia became Thrasherville, Georgia, which became Marthasville, Georgia, which became Atlanta, Georgia.
• Hot Springs, New Mexico, changed its name to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico.
• Fort Christina, New Sweden is now called Wilmington, Delaware.
• Burma is Myanmar, Siam is Thailand, East Pakistan is Bangladesh.
• A whole post could be devoted to the name changes of countries in Africa. Today's map looks nothing like the one of my youth.
• The Gulf of Mexico is now being called the Gulf of America. For how long, nobody knows.

None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See Department: This is not about name changes, just names in general. When I lived in Bellevue, Nebraska, in the 1960s, I could look across the Missouri River and see Pottawattamie County, Iowa. I thought at the time that the name Pottawattamie was very funny. It is, of course, the name of a Native American tribe, not funny at all. It never occurred to me until today that Bellevue is in Sarpy County, Nebraska. (Moral: When you point a finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself.)

Civil War Week

My all-time favorite joke is this one I heard Red Skelton tell on his television show 50 years ago:

A spaceship from Mars lands on earth. Two Martians get out, look around, and start walking up the street. They see a parking meter, and one Martian turns to the other and says, "Do you have change for a hern?"

Maybe it's an acquired taste. I think it is hilarious, but then I am weird. I like weird movies, too, really quirky ones like Harold And Maude and Big Fish and Raising Arizona, and I like weird television series like Twin Peaks and Six Feet Under and Northern Exposure..

Younger readers, if there are any, have no idea what I'm talking about. Suffice it to say that I told you I am weird.

I have dubbed this week Civil War Week because (a) 164 years ago today on April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, South Carolina; (b) 160 years ago this past Wednesday on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Appomattox, Virginia, bringing an end to the Civil War; and (c) also 160 years ago this week, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.

In between were famous battles and sieges with names like Manassas (Bull Run), Vickburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Atlanta, and on and on. Over 698,000 Americans lost their lives at a time when the nation's population was 31,443,321 according to the census of 1860. Some modern research concludes that a more accurate estimate is closer to 750,000 with a range from 650,000 to 850,000. According to the National Park Service, there were 642,427 Union casualties, including 110,100 killed in battle and 224,580 deaths from diseases like dysentery and typhoid, and that there were 483,026 Confederate casualties with 94,000 killed in battle and 164,000 deaths from disease. Whatever the actual numbers were, around 2% of the total U.S. population at the time perished in the Civil War.

By contrast, the U.S. casualty figures for World War II are 416,800 military personnel killed and 671,278 wounded. More than 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during World War II. Since the U.S. population in 1940 was 132,164,569 the deaths of Americans in World War II represented 0.003% of the nation.

World War II casualties in the United Kingdom were 383,600 military deaths and 450,700 civilian deaths according to one chart. Germany's figures are staggering, 5,533,000 military deaths and 6,600,000 to 8,800,000 civilian deaths. A very large proportion of the civilian deaths were victims of the Holocaust carried out by the leaders of the Nazi regime. In the Pacific, Japan's figures are 2,120,000 military deaths and 2,600,000 to 3,100,000 civilian deaths, of which several hundred thousand perished when the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Yokohama and Nagasaki.

As General William Tecumseh Sherman once said, "War is hell."

I love the old spiritual song that goes, "I'm gonna lay down my burdens down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside. I'm gonna lay down my burdens down by the riverside, ain't gonna study war no more."

I can admit it when I am wrong

Somewhere I read or heard or latched onto the idea that Donald J. Trump's mother had been involved in a well-documented and fairly lengthy religious revival that had occurred on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. I was wrong. She wasn't.

Mary Trump neé MacLeod was indeed born in the village of Tong, four miles from the town of Stornoway (home of blogger Graham Barry Edwards) on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1912. In 1932 she emigrated to the United States, met and married Fred Trump, and bore several children, the youngest of whom, Donald John, was born on June 14 (Flag Day) in 1946. President number 45/47 took the oath of office in 2017 with his hand placed on his mother's Bible. For some reason, I was under the impression that the fairly well-known revival involving Duncan Campbell took place in the 1930s when two elderly sisters, aged 82 and 84, began praying. I discovered only recently that the revival in fact occurred during the years 1949 to 1953, long after Mary MacLeod was no longer there. I do think her Scottish upbringing accounts for the fact that Donald called himself a Presbyterian when he entered the political arena. He no longer does, by the way.

All of which is neither here nor there; I just threw it in as an interesting factoid. Here are two more [factoids]: Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon's mother was a devout Quaker. Dwight Eisenhower's mother was a River Brethren pacifist whose son became a five-star General and Supreme Allied Commander Europe before he was elected president.

Sometimes, apparently, the apple manages to distance itself from the tree.

Wikipedia states that Eisenhower's mother joined a Bible study group that later evolved into the Jehovah's Witnesses. Although her home became a meeting place for the group, none of her children ever joined it.

As I said, sometimes the apple manages to distance itself from the tree. I will now quote from the song "Some Enchanted Evening" by Oscar Hammerstein II: "Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? Fools give you reasons; wise men never try."

Let's move on.

Time, as you undoubtedly have noticed, marches on. People come, people go, and so do words. Some words remain in use for a very long time but some become archaic. Here are a few English words that you will probably not be hearing any time soon:

anon
forsooth
odd's bodkin!
daguerrotype
stereopticon
nickelodeon
lavaliere
antimacassar
floppy disc
eight-track tape
reel-to-reel
pompadour

Can you think of other words that have fallen by the wayside?

You’ll never count sheep again

The other night when I couldn't go to sleep I passed the time with a new time-waster of my own invention, which I now pass along to you for using whenever you like, not just during periods of insomnia. It could prove very useful while waiting in a doctor's office, for example, or when sitting for hours in an airport.

What I did was simply go through every pair of letters in the entire alphabet systematically and tried to match each to a real-world entity. Starting with AA, AB, AC and going all the way to ZX, ZY, ZZ you will consider 676 pairs (26 times 26). It is interesting to see how many answers you can come up with, and also how many you can't. I'm sure every person's list will be different. Here's how mine started off:

AA - American Airlines, Alcoholics Anonymous
AB - Alberta (province of Canada)
AC - air conditioning, alternating current
AD - Anno Domini (Year of our Lord)
AE - initials of the poet A.E. Housman who wrote "When I Was One And Twenty" and "Loveliest Of Trees, The Cherry Now"
AF - Air Force
AG - Attorney General
AH - Anno Hegirae (Year of the Hijrah), the Islamic calendar which commemmorates the beginning of the Prophet Mohammed's journey from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD
AI - artificial intelligence

and so on through AZ (Arizona) and on to BA (Bachelor of Arts), all the way to ZZ. It may take awhile. Several days. Several months. Knowing the periodic table of elements helps (AU is gold, FE is iron, HG is mercury, PB is lead).

The only rule is that each answer must come out of your own memory banks spontaneously without referring to anything in a book or on your phone or computer.

It won't put you to sleep, though. Just the opposite, actually. It will keep you awake. To go to sleep, try doing something really useful like praying for your family and friends. It works every time because our old enemy doesn't want us to do that, ever.

This has been another fun suggestion great idea annoying contribution to humanity blogpost from (who else?) moi, the one and only rhymeswithplague.

P.S. - PB is also peanut butter.