Month: January 2015

Mondegreen

Published on by bgarnish3 Comments

I discovered the word mondegreen while listening to James Gleick’s book, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood.   The book is a strange work of non-fiction focused on the history of information calculation, and communication.

In a chapter about the development of written language, more specifically the emergence of the Oxford English Dictionary as a way of codifying the English language, Gleick mentions the concept of a mondegreen. The word reminds me of a “Sniglet” –“any word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary, but should.”  Mondegreen was first used in 1954 to describe the mishearing a poem or song lyrics in a way that creates new meaning.

A couple of the most common mondegreens:

“Excuse me while I kiss this guy” instead of “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” (Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix)

“Wrapped up like a douche” instead of “Cut loose like a deuce” (Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann)

And I remember one of my own mondegreens:

“Have a spaz!” instead ofAC/DC’s actual lyric: “Hell Bells.”

I’m not sure how I came up with that interpretation. There were clues I clearly missed–not the least of those being the name of the song!

We have a marvelous ability to be certain of something. So certain we will sing it out loud for others to hear. I am well known for singing out loud (whether I should or not.)  What we seem to lack is the ability to be OK with the realization later on that we got it wrong.  We may laugh uncomfortably and make excuses.   What would it take for us to see the error as an opportunity?  To be corrected without losing something?  To realize we may have created something new and wonderful by our unique interpretation?

As you ponder this, keep in mind,

Lucy knows this guy with diamonds…

Fishing

Published on by bgarnish2 Comments

Jeffy is a  basenji/chihauhau mix.   Basenji’s are a newer breed in the US.  They were originally African hunting dogs.

I took the picture below from our deck.   It turns out, Jeffy loves to fish.  It’s an odd activity for his combination of desert dogs.  But he loves it!  He can spend hours staring into the lake looking for fish.  As far as we know, he has never caught one but it doesn’t stop him from trying.

DSCF2863

It got me thinking about effort and rewards…

In her book, Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck talks about 2 mindsets people have:

Fixed mindset – believing a skill, ability, etc. is something some are born with and others are not.

Growth mindset – believing that with effort there is always the possibility of improvement.

I confess I’ve lived much of my life in the fixed mindset.  Example: my 11th grade math teacher stopped class, walked over to me, and said,”your brother got this, your sister got this, why can’t you get it?”  I believed they were born with ‘math skills’ and I was not.  I gave up on math.  I sought a college that would not require me to take math, I changed majors to avoid statistics.  I didn’t have ‘math skills’ so why waste time on it?

After reading Mindset, it occurred to me the only thing preventing me from learning math is me.  Then I started to wonder, how many other things have I avoided or given up on because I didn’t think I had the talent?  We have heard it takes 10,000 hours to master something.  When I heard that I immediately thought, well, I don’t plan to devote 10,000 hours to anything so I guess I’ll just go with the talents I’ve got. It never occurred to me that if “mastery” takes 10,000 hours, what does 5 hours get me?  10?  100?

What ever I gain, what I lose is the ability to stay where I am–to rest on my laurels.  It’s opened my mind to possibilities for growth and improvement and removed an awful lot of excuses.

It’s kind of a rude awakening…if I want something badly enough, the only thing preventing me from getting it is me.  My willingness to make the effort.

So, I’ve picked up some books on Calculus.  I’ll let you know how it goes!