European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 19, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Take bring More fusses that recur and reoccur James j. Kilpatrick the writers Art word lovers Are a contentious Breed. They will fight Over who and whom. They will argue endlessly about take and bring. Small matters perhaps but there Are those who love them. Today we look at a few feuds. Last month Dale Mcfeatters of Scripps Howard recalled that president Nixon acquired three Homes one of them a lavishly renovated at taxpayer As a consequence Congress tightened Laws a to prevent a half a dozen readers seized upon that word a a reoccurrence and gave it a terrible drubbing. Their common theme was that a reoccurrence Quot is like a Tirre Gardic ssh a there is no such word. Things recur. They done to reoccur Well things do reoccur. The word dates from the mid-19th Century. The Oxford English dictionary cites a sentence from a Book of homilies a in the first chapter of genesis such passages As this occur and both websters Iii and the random r up occurrence of presidential spending in san Clemente. House unabridged list a a reoccur and a reoccur run Cen without comment. An entry in websters dictionary of English usage confirms my own impression. A a recur and a a recurrence carry a connotation of frequent repetition. Low tides recur full Moons recur the recurrence of certain cliches gets to be tiresome. A a a reoccurrence is rarer and More specific. A visit from Hailey a Comet occurred in 1910 and re occurred in 1985. The Scripps Howard writer had it exactly right. Disputes Over Quot take Quot and Quot bring will never be resolved. Not Long ago 15 children suffered minor injuries in a bus Accident near Gulfport miss. A reporter said the children Quot were brought to area Quot. One of my readers snarled at that he wanted a me. In certain contexts the familiar Rule works Well. We Are told to use a a bring when the action moves toward the speaker and a take Quot when the action goes the other Way. A please bring your a a Beer a and a kindly take the Gin to your dear old but As often As not either verb works sensibly. Jack and Jill Are going on a picnic. A will you bring an umbrella a she asks. A yes a he says a and ill take a Bug bomb Here the Point of View is immaterial. Taking and bringing Are All the same. Its not something to get mad about but after 13 years of writing this column on language i can assure you that people do get mad about it. Plural constructions bring out whole regiments of combatants. Not Long ago i wrote of ordering a two Ham on ryes and a should i have written a two hams on Tye several readers reproached me but i persist in believing that a Ham on Rye is a unitary kind of thing. Stylistic digression its almost always better to be specific than to be general. To write that the actress drove a red convertible Jaguar tells us something that is lost in a the actress drove a red sports its More effective to write about a Field of Black Angus steers than to write about a a Field of to be sure the car had better be a Jaguar not a Mercedes and those cows had better be Black Angus and not polled herefords but in descriptive writing the use of accurate details can make a scene come to life. Down in san Antonio last month columnist Roddy Stinson stirred up a splendid kerfuffle. He wrote a it would be a shame if credit did not go to whom credit is his editors at the express news helpfully changed this to read a it would be a shame if credit did not go to who credit is some help my brother Stinson had it right the first time. In that construction a a who is not the subject of a is the subject of a is due is the preposition a a to demands the objective As Stinson says if you have absolutely nothing better to do please join the fray. A. Universal press Syndicate. A hardest parts in dealing with the cast system Tony Kornheiser you la excuse me if in a not answering my Home phone this week. In a trying its just that with this cast on my broken ankle in a not As Quick to the phone As id like to be. By the time i actually pick up not Only has the caller Hung up his 4gl k has kicked in. Yes a cast. At work concerned people see my exposed toes sticking out like cocktail weenies and ask me How this terrible tragedy occurred. Honestly it is not concerned a a people so much As concerned a women Quot men Are about As sensitive and sympathetic As singaporean customs officers. In a situation like this one is tempted to make up something preposterously heroic and melodramatic but 1 Tell them the homely truth that while competing in the preliminary trials for the 1996 olympic triathlon running 20 Miles while listening to the Quot books on tape version of Proust a Remen t Bra rices of things fast narrated in the original French by Charles Aznavour i suddenly became aware of an errant javelin heading directly for a baby Carriage parked nearby. At the last possible second tragically injuring my foot in the process i lunged to my left catching the deadly projectile in my Teeth thereby. Saving the life of the child who turned out to be grandson of the archbishop of Canterbury i stepped in a Hole of. Has so pathetic Isnit it this is what happens when you get old the act of walking is too stressful. It Breaks your Bones. Its gotta be Calcium right in a not getting enough Calcium and so my Bones have More cracks than Henny Youngman thank you very much you be been a great audience. They Tell me three glasses of milk a Day will help but i feel stupid drinking milk at my age in a hoping i can substitute five Kahlua and Cream and then my Bones will be Strong enough to absorb the blow when i fall off the bar Stool. We interrupt this column for a special Public. Heath advisory remember a few weeks ago when i warned Yon about the terrible flesh eating bacterium that was consuming a those people in England rotting their flesh from the inside out remember How you laughed thinking it was just a British problem Well its Here its in six states. It ate a Man in Michigan pro weeks ago. But done to worry. It Proba Bly wont get this far for weeks. But just to be Safe be War r the first symptom appears to be an involuntary belch after swigging soda quickly. Just kidding the first symptom is a tendency to have uncontrollable lascivious thoughts about attractive co workers. Anyway i go to the doctor and he puts on a hard cast which is Fine because a hard cast is right out there in the open screaming a a in a Hurt. Pity me a a woman might be embarrassed by a cast she might think it makes her seem awkward. But for a Man its a badge of Honor because a cast says a just like it did in High school a a a Here a a studly Guy who a bearing up unbelievably Wail under this terrible though in my Case i suppose it might also say a look at this Schmoe. No matter How Nice Vou dress him hell step in a drainage unlike in High school you can get colors on your cast now. I was offered a variety of hot colors and patterns Pink yellow a Barney Dinosaur pattern and a camouflage pattern a which i suppose would have made me invisible if i invaded Haiti. I asked a have you got anything in an insouciant Chardon nay a i chose a Lime Green because i thought it would attract girls named a Constance Katherine Buffington but people Call me one big problem with a cast is itching. What can you do personally i use a wire coat Hanger. I shove it Down there and claw away like in a hacking through the rain Forest. Doctors Tell you not to put anything Down your cast but some doctors will swear they re not drunk when they re taking out your Gall bladder too. The Man who set my cast told me that recently a teen age boy patient began complaining of a rancid odor coming from his cast. This went on for weeks growing More and More hideous of my god was it the flesh eating spore from England until the cast was Cut away. And they found half a Ham and cheese Sandwich Down there. Which leads us into the problem of showering. You done to want a cast to get wet because it will crumble and mildew and stink but you need to Bathe or so will you. I have solved this problem by tying my left leg up in a hefty bag so that 1 look like something out of Robert de Niros trunk in Good fellas and then i hang my leg Over the Side of the tub pretty much like a leg of Lamb. If anyone came in the bathroom and saw me washing this Way it would be As embarrassing to me As Patti Davis is to Ron and Nancy. The worst problem though comes when you walk around the House. You re Fine on carpet. But once you hit tile or Wood the cast slips and you re pretty much like a dog on a waxed floor paws going every. Which Way. In be already fallen on my Keister three times since i got the cast and i fully expect to break at least two More Bones before this one heals. A creators Syndicate Page 24 sunday june 19, 1994 Quot
