Semantics

This is one of those blogs that breaks a cardinal rule – Have a point. The problem is, I don’t have a point. I have two. But they are linked by a common thread. Stick with me. It will all come together as you read.

Daylight Savings Time
I hate Daylight Savings Time. I don’t think it’s the fact that I lose an hour each Spring, gaining it back each Fall. Of course, when you lose something, only to gain it back later, you should be paid interest. And as valuable as sleep is for me, I should be gaining more interest than a teenage boy has in his dad’s Playboy collection.

Nope, it’s the way everyone refers to Daylight Savings Time. Ask someone who likes DST why they’re a fan. They’ll almost always answer, in a perky little voice: “Because you gain more daylight!”

My response: “No you don’t! There’s exactly the same amount of daylight. We just changed the clocks! Don’t you realize that we can’t change the sun! We can’t change the amount of daylight! Something far bigger than you, me, or Jimmy Carter is in charge of this little issue – the earth’s orbit around the sun!”


“I Taped It”
I hate it when Nicole says, “I taped it.” It irritates me beyond any reason. She used to tape things all the time. That was before we had DVR. Now, she doesn’t “tape” things. She “records” them. That’s because with DVR, there is no “tape”. There are 1’s and 0’s and computer hard drives and…and…well, I don’t know how it works, but it’s digital, not analog, and that means there is no tape!

There are lots of tapes in our house and we can still “tape” things – on the VCR is the bedroom. But she’s talking about the DVR and it irritates me.

And now that she knows how much this irritates me, she keeps doing it, just to dig in the needle every once in a while. I think she’s trying to irritate me half the time, and the rest of the time she just says “taped” out of habit. I’m still irritated, because she hasn’t changed what she says to reflect the fact that we have digital technology in our house.

The Reason This Irritates Me
I spent eight years as a radio show host. It was a talk radio station. In addition to the talk segments, I was also the news director. That means I was writing two 3 to 3 ½ minute newscasts each day. Using Microsoft Word, Times New Roman, 14 Point, that’s about three and a half pages each day. You would think that would have made me a Grammar Nazi. If I had been writing for print, it might have. I was writing for radio. Grammar wasn’t as much of an issue.

So end your sentences with a preposition, leave the “-ly” from adverbs and speak in run-on sentences all you want. I’ll notice, but I can keep that to myself.

The thing that irritates me is “semantics”. I admit it. I am a “Semantics Nazi.”

The Dictionary.com definition of semantics is, “the study of meaning.” Semantics refers to what words mean. I think our language should reflect our meaning. The correct words should be chosen. When incorrect words are used, it’s a problem.

So when people say there’s “more daylight,” I feel compelled to be the jerk that points out that daylight is a function of astronomy. Not of clocks.

It also bothers me that we’re now living longer on Daylight Savings Time than we live on regular time. Because we want “more daylight.” Grrrrrrrr. Just typing it pisses me of. We couldn’t have just gotten to work an hour earlier and left an hour earlier? That way, we would be enjoying more of the daylight that was already there. There have been arguments that DST doesn’t save the money or energy it’s supposed to save. That’s here. And there have been arguments made that DST has real life and death consequences. If you’re interested, those arguments are here.

And eventually, I’ll break Nicole down. I’ll keep making the point that there is no “tape” involved in the recording process until she changes. I’ll be successful, because I’m more irritated than she is committed to saying something incorrectly. As least I think so.

I just had another thought…

We really shouldn’t say “rewind” anymore when the DVR is being used, because there is no “winding” in the recording or playback process. It would be more proper to say “review,” which, by the way, is what my newest remote control says. Oh boy. I’m not sure that I’ve got enough fortitude to break the wife down on that one. Wish me luck…