
Community fest wins state award
The Minnesota Community Education Association (MCEA) awarded Prior Lake-Savage Area Community Education Services with the MCEA Project Award at Monday night's School Board meeting.
MCEA Board Member Wendy Webster presented the award based on the local community education services success at the Community Fall Fest in fall 2006.
Webster applauded event coordinators for creating a festival that pulled together the Prior Lake and Savage chambers of commerce, community businesses, as well as students, parents and other residents.
'This event fostered collaboration,' Webster said. Nine MCEA project awards were given out statewide.
-Joanna Miller
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
Improve Your Communication By Improving Your Language
If you were to look up the word 'secretive' (meaning, disposed to secrecy) in an old analog paper dictionary, you would find that the preferred pronunciation was with the accent on the second syllable. Although you might think that that made the word sound biological, it was correct—at the time. Language. Open book with language hand drawn doodles and lettering on white background. Education ... More vector illustration. Flash forward to any digital dictionary today and you'll find that the preferred pronunciation is with the accent on the first syllable, while the accent on the second syllable has been relegated to merely acceptable—a vivid demonstration that language is dynamic and constantly evolving. John McWhorter, an Associate Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University and the author of numerous bestselling books, as well as podcasts, blogs, and newsletters, described the continuous evolution of language in his New York Times column: 'we all know language inevitably changes; it's the way we got from Latin to French or from Beowulf to Tom Wolfe. But while that change is happening, we tend to see it as decay, sloth, maybe even a scourge.' So to culminate June as Effective Communication Month, which is 'dedicated to highlighting the importance of good communication in our personal and professional lives,' this blog will focus on how you can improve your communication by eliminating one slothful word that has become overly popular in today's language and by adding a word that deserves to become more popular. The slothful word in question is 'literally.' Sound familiar? I hear it used repeatedly as an intensifier, such as in, 'I literally ate the whole pizza.'The word is intended to mean in a literal sense rather than figurative, but the usage in previous sentence is to add emphasis. Merriam-Webster derides that usage, 'It is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis, but it often appears in contexts where no additional emphasis is necessary.' I derided the word, too, in my prior Forbes post but it continues to be overused, if not abused, prompting Taiwo Sotikare to write on Medium, 'Language evolves, I get it. Words change meaning over time, slang infiltrates the mainstream, and sometimes, a little creative license is acceptable. But the rampant, egregious, and utterly baffling misuse of the word 'literally' has pushed me to the brink.' Steve Eighinger agrees in a post on Muddy River News, 'Do we really need to put an emphasis on what happened? I would argue that if it's a genuinely interesting event, there isn't a need for an extra word – especially that one. So, challenge yourself this week, month or forever not to use 'literally' anymore.' Three other words have become pervasive in our business language: 'believe,' 'think,' and 'feel,' as in 'We believe/think/feel that our new product/service will make us the market leader.' This usage has proliferated because companies want to avoid making forward-looking statements. But those words express uncertainty and imply doubt—not a useful image when a presenter is trying to be persuasive. This is not to say that you should start making forward-looking statements or forecasts in your presentations. Doing so is risky business in this day and age when corporate attorneys insist on avoiding class action suits. To avoid litigation and avoid using the weak words 'think,' 'believe,' and 'feel,' replace them with one word: 'confident.' One powerful word with two big benefits: you avoid being predictive and you sound far more assertive. As William Shakespeare had Hamlet say, 'Suit the action to the words, the word to the action.'


Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Buzz Feed
5 Word Games For All The Vocabulary Buffs Out There
These quizzes are all about words. How to say them, how to write them, how to define them, and how to use them. If you love correcting other people's spelling and grammar mistakes, you're about to be very happy. You're welcome 😇. Have You Been Saying These Commonly Misused Words And Phrases Wrong Your Entire Life? I certainly hope nobody out there says "to be pacific," but if you do, it's never too late to change! Take the quiz here. Here Are 25 Commonly Misspelled Words — Only People With A Super IQ Of 140+ Can Correctly Spell Them You never know when you'll need to get by without spell check. Take the quiz here. If You Can Define These 7 Extra Long Words, You're Actually The Smartest Person I Know These words are extremely challenging. You'd still be the smartest person I know if you've ever even heard the word "brobdingnagian" before. Take the quiz here. Americans Commonly Misuse These 25 Same-Sounding Words — Could You Choose The Correct Word? Telling homophones apart will test your spelling and vocabulary skills, so you can consider the previous quizzes training for this one. Take the quiz here. These 15 Words Are Always Mispronounced – We Wanna Know How *You* Say Them This poll will tell you how other people pronounce these words, but we also included the correct pronunciation according to Merriam-Webster. Take the quiz here.


Los Angeles Times
10-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
A Word, Please: When phrases lose their popularity
Not long ago in this column, I talked a bit about the expression 'step foot,' as in 'I wouldn't step foot in that store.' The first time I heard it, I was embarrassed for the speaker who, I was sure, meant 'set foot.' The second, third and fourth times I heard it, I sensed a change was underway — and I'm not a fan of change (that's an understatement). Eventually, I looked it up and learned that 'step foot' is slowly gaining on 'set foot,' whether I like it or not. Figures of speech, like words, evolve. Take 'vicious cycle,' for example. For a solid century, there was no 'vicious cycle' — at least not in published writing. Pretty much everyone who could get near a printing press agreed the expression was 'vicious circle.' The idea behind the expression, of course, is that of being stuck in a loop, a bad one. Merriam-Webster defines 'vicious circle' as 'a chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty.' As the 20th century dawned, 'vicious circle' continued to dominate, but suddenly it had some competition. 'Vicious cycle' was emerging as a contender. 'Vicious circle' held onto its lead until just about a decade ago, when 'vicious cycle' nosed ahead. At the same time, the original and originally correct expression 'vicious circle' started to dive. I'm not optimistic about its future. 'Top up' is another term that caught my eye lately, and not in a good way. I started seeing it in travel articles pondering whether it's worthwhile to buy airline miles to 'top up' your existing balance enough to book a flight. My whole life, the expression I heard was 'top off.' According to Merriam-Webster, 'top off' is a phrasal verb that has two definitions: The first is 'to end (something) usually in an exciting way.' So an athlete may top off their career with a final victory, or a nice dinner can be topped off with dessert and coffee. The second definition is similar to the first: 'to fill (something) completely with a liquid.' Be it a mug of coffee or a tank of gas, when it's not quite full and you fill it all the way, you're topping it off. 'Top up,' meanwhile, was a perfectly fine way to say 'top off' if you're British. But it wasn't for us, I thought. We were top-off people. Turns out that's not quite right. 'Top up' has been in print as long as 'top off,' and though the American version has always been more popular in American publishing, 'top up' has never been far behind. I was wrong about that, but I was even more wrong about 'You've got another think coming.' I couldn't understand how anyone could make the embarrassing mistake of using 'think' in this expression. Obviously, the correct version was 'You've got another thing coming.' I never considered the context. The expression follows a stated or implied statement of 'If you think X …' so 'another' makes sense because you've already had one think. Of course, a think is a thing. So it's not wrong to say you've got another thing coming. And that's lucky for modern English speakers, because Ngram Viewer shows that 'another think coming' started to decline in popularity about 10 years ago while 'another thing coming' is becoming more popular than ever — just when I was getting used to 'think.' For me, there are two takeaways from these trends. One, the language will keep changing. And two, change will continue to annoy me. — June Casagrande is the author of 'The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.' She can be reached at JuneTCN@