Not moribund…

Filed under:Adminlike — posted by squires on 8/28/2006 @ 5:10 pm

Just busy - traveling, packing, moving…I probably won’t be posting til well into next week again, but I will definitely be posting again. Please stay tuned.

For now, linguafolk, would you mind taking a look at my “languagey” blogroll to the right and suggesting to me any valuable languagey blogs I have neglected or just not known about? In the interest of keeping up-to-date with our little corner of the b’sphere. What do y’all like to read? Thanks.

Thanks Virginia

Filed under:Words & Phrases — posted by squires on 8/4/2006 @ 6:35 pm

I had to cancel all my utilities today, since today was Move Out of Beloved Apartment Day. It sucked. It’s been like 100 degrees all week with 60% humidity and my apartment only has one air conditioner that can’t even begin to compete with this weather. But then, THEN, the day improved when I got this delightful email from the City of Charlottesville after using the online request system for disconnection of service:

We have received your disconnection notice. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Virginia

Is Virginia the name of a customer service representative who received my request, or does this Virginia refer to the state of Virginia? [The email address doesn't contain "Virginia" - it's a generic account name for the utilities services.] Using the first person pronoun to refer to the email’s author - “If I can be of further assistance…contact me” - seems to give away that it’s an actual person named Virginia, but on the other hand it would be So very Virginia if the email were designed to seem written by the state of Virginia itself. Mysteries!

LUMBERSOME:

Filed under:Words & Phrases — posted by squires on 8/3/2006 @ 10:04 pm

Is this word a word? If it is, does one say it because he knows it’s a word, or does he say it because he’s portmanteauing lumber and cumbersome?