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Renee Writes Now!

Monthly Archives: December 2012

Readers won’t do “half hazard work”

28 Friday Dec 2012

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books, literature, shades of grey

bigstockphoto_Dear_John_621861For several weeks each year, I work for a company that buys used textbooks. I must evaluate the condition of each book and frequently find papers tucked inside its pages. Based on the assignments that slip into my lap (as well as the nearly-new condition of the English literature and composition books that I buy) I’ve come to the conclusion that few students actually read.

As a result, they often have hilarious notions of how the written language represents what they hear.

One young man wrote an essay on being charged with a “mister meaner.” Another blamed “inclimate weather” for moving to Florida from a northern state.

The professor must have requested a personal evaluation, because I read a student’s admission of “half hazard work” and his belief that he wasn’t smart enough to go to an “Ivory League school.”

Relationships also appear to be popular essay subjects: A young woman resented being “taken for granite” by her boyfriend. Another student (possibly her boyfriend?) wrote of his policy of keeping relationships “strictly plutonic.”

I hear many of my young customers express relief at being finished with English classes. But as I purchase their books, I confess that I worry about the future of written language.

Will novels like “Fifty Shades of Grey” get these kids reading again?

Or will success elude them in their “doggy-dog world?”

Realistic expectations

13 Thursday Dec 2012

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Architecture, Build, Construction, Holiday, Homes, Moving

  • House_under_constructionIf your home is under construction on or during the holidays, be realistic with your expectations of time and people.

 

  • Building a home or moving can take place in any season of your life. There’s never a perfect time for a major change. Just don’t miss the significance behind it all.

 

Excerpted from “Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart”

Jingle all the way

01 Saturday Dec 2012

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Christmas, entertainment, Holiday, Home, music

Christmas_hornJust before Thanksgiving, my car radio began blaring “Jingle Bell Rock.” Next came, “White Christmas,” but not the version Lady Gaga recorded last year. It was Bing Crosby’s original – the largest selling record of all time – released 70 years ago.

When it comes to Christmas music, the oldies appear to be the goodies.

Contemporary artists still record new holiday albums each year. As a Floridian, I’m hopeful that Colby Caillat’s “Christmas in the Sand” album has at least one original song that will become a classic.

However, newly composed holiday music is rare and most albums are filled with tunes like “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which were written in 1943!

One recent addition came in 1979, when Sir Paul McCartney wrote and recorded “Wonderful Christmastime” and, according to Forbes magazine, it has earned him roughly $500,000 every year since.

Another exception: Mariah Carey’s 1994 song, “All I Want for Christmas is You,“ was a rare holiday hit that ranks highest in digital downloads since 2003. “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” from 1958, is in second place.

As I pop in my Nat King Cole CD and sing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” I admit a special fondness for music that’s older than I am – and just as resistant to change. Quite a holly jolly thought.

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