New PFP Feature: PenQuips!

Let me introduce you to Penchant for Penning's fun new "PenQuips"!

Definition: A PenQuip™ is 1) a picture and heading combination appropriate to the theme of a brief text anomaly quoted from the Internet; or,

2) a picture and heading combination with your own amazing, brief text of wit, opinion, fact, or (gasp!) wisdom.

PenQuips™ are my eccentric way of exploiting dumb public comments that illustrate society’s current lack of intelligent thought. Sigh … we have not progressed much past the Dark Ages. Yes, I fear we are headed in the same direction as that of the Roman Empire.

While we could expound at length about the whys and wherefores of modern society’s decline, let’s face it. Humanity has never been particularly peaceful and in my humble opinion, wars are just plain dumb.

Bottom line, we are ruled by Greed, Money, Power, Sex, and Violence. Not always in that order. And each category has its own set of dumb. So we have an infinity of fodder to fossilize in PenQuips.

How I began PenQuips: The Dumbing-Down of America ...

When Did We Become a “Snot” Society?

Although the title may mislead you, this is not an article lamenting the ever-growing gap between the haves and have-nots of our society … though that deserves a diatribe, as well.

No, take note, future and prolific writers, today we are examining two of my defining moments in proper grammar – or should I say lack of – in this so-called “modern” world.

When I was a kid – don’t you hate that intro? But seriously, as an elementary student of yesteryear, certain experiences forever changed my use of a couple of words / phrases. Namely: “warsh” and “it’s not.”

The first one is obvious … when speaking, Minnesotans and other Midwesterners often throw an “r” into perfectly-spelled words. Oh, they don’t write it that way, but that “Fargo-ish” colloquial speech insists they “warshed” their clothes or plan to go “warsh” their car.