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Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
A Word, Please: Singular vs. plural? That's the question
A friend emailed recently to ask about the grammar on a T-shirt that read: 'The only minority destroying the country are the billionaires.' His question: 'Am I wrong or is the grammar on her T-shirt wrong? I've looked it up and checked it online and can't find a definitive answer.' He didn't mention what the grammar issue was, but in my view, there could be only one: the word 'are,' a plural verb, instead of the singular verb 'is.' If 'minority' is a singular noun, then you can't use a plural verb with it. That would be the equivalent of saying 'The dog are in the house' or 'Maria are here.' Classic subject-verb agreement problem. But is it? Like my friend, whom I'll call Richard because that's his name, I looked it up. I must have given Richard good advice in years past, because he apparently is part of the small minority who knows you can find answers to tricky plural-vs.-singular questions in the dictionary. For example, look up the word 'ethics,' skim a few lines and you'll see the note 'often used in plural, but singular or plural in construction.' So, using Merriam's examples, you can say: 'Ethics is his chosen field of study,' or you can say, 'The ethics of reuse and upcycling were imbued in the creation of all the pieces.' 'Is' in the first example is singular. 'Were' in the second example is plural. Both are correct. And that's the kind of help you can often find in a dictionary. Often, not always. Merriam's entry for 'minority' doesn't have any helpful notes about whether it's singular or plural. I don't even see them give any examples in which 'minority' is the subject of a verb, so we can't draw a good inference from the dictionary's 'minority' entry. I looked in my other reference books, too, including the usage guide Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, which usually has the answers I'm looking for. But not this time. No entry for 'minority.' Checking the issue online, as Richard did, seems like a reasonable approach. You can get some good information that way. You can also get a bucket of nonsense. And you can't know which is which. Automatically generated AI Overview answers often prove AI isn't as 'I' as it thinks it is. I've seen it give a lot of stupid answers to all kinds of questions. Recently, it told me that a certain disease affects less than 1 in a million Americans, 'which is less than 1%.' Gee, thanks, Google. Searching for 'is it minority is or minority are' on the search engine, the first hit is their AI Overview, and the rest of the first page is filled with answers from message forums, where you can expect random users to be right almost as often as AI is. But I knew from experience that there could be another way to tackle this problem. I have, in the past, written about whether 'majority' takes a singular or plural verb. I found the answer not in a dictionary but in a usage guide, Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, which says: 'Majority is a singular noun in frequent use as one of those collectives that take either a singular or plural verb depending on the writer's notion of the majority as a unit or as a collection of individuals.' You can say 'the majority is unified on this issue' or 'the majority are fighting among themselves.' Depending on your meaning, either the singular or the plural interpretation can work. Can we apply that logic to the word 'minority' and treat it as a singular or plural as we see fit? In the absence of a more knowledgeable source, I'll make the call. Yes, we can. 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@
Business Recorder
02-07-2025
- General
- Business Recorder
Arrogance of power
Dante in 'Inferno' wrote, 'Pride, avarice and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a babel of despair'. Arrogance is a serious disease of the mind. The onset of arrogance is not sudden or immediate; it like the cancerous cells keeps growing and gnawing slowly but steadily at the divinely blessed innate humane qualities of humility and modesty. The meaning of arrogance is an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. (Merriam- Webster, dictionary). The unentitlement of any credit taken for any act or trait is actually arrogance. The absence and general lack of self-awareness leads towards arrogant attitude and behaviour — such dilute in their own eyes, their major weaknesses and exaggerate their wrongfully perceived strengths. The cause of vain glory arising out of possessing superior knowledge, wealth, physical attractiveness, piety, family lineage, social status, official designation, etc. is embedded within us. This gives us an inflated sense of importance. It is a negative trait by all definitions and standards. Obsession with self is the first rung on the ladder of arrogance. Once obsessed, modesty departs. The obsession of being good and better is so fulfilling, that such seek no confirmation from others. Self-love is the best inducement for invoking feelings of pride and arrogance. Arrogance is abhorred. There is no society where arrogant behaviour is appreciated or admired. All religions, sects, holy books and scriptures abominate with rebuke, anger and disdain the presence of arrogant traits. Humility is a divorced trait of the arrogant, it is a die-hard foe of arrogance, they refuse to coexist within one person or even the whole society. While it is alright to expect that for standing tall, nobody should have to be at the mercy of endorsement by others; but recognition is best achieved by subtlety than a vociferous announcement. In any case, the praise of another hurts the arrogant. Arrogance is not limited to individuals. In fact, the infectiousness of this ailment is so deep-seated that it envelopes besides individuals entities organisations, societies, nations, cultural values, economic well-being, prosperity, physical appearances, etc. How many nations, societies and tribes, who were extremely powerful and used to insolently, arrogantly with their necks floating in the air roamed upon planet earth stand obliterated today; the sickle of time has mowed down the best and the worst of the arrogant. The element of arrogance in character lends a false feeling of immortality. We conveniently refuse to accept that all shadows lengthen and fade away. Divine Scriptures and Holy Books mention about the Pharaohs as arrogant; so also is the son of Noah and the wife of Lot, and several others, whose fate and end was pitiful and horrifying. As an antidote to this detestation, arrogant leaders are also excellent performers. As hard-task masters they make sure that targets are achieved because failure to do invites their wrath of sudden reprisals. Arrogance of piety is the worst format. The priest, the Mullah from the pulpit in their sermons and the Sadhus in their Bhajans indulge in condemnation of arrogance as a character trait, yet, they are worst examples of pride. They consider themselves holier, hence are disdainful towards others. A superiority complex syndrome attends to their own personalities. This type of arrogance is more harmful to society. Fear the arrogance of the polite and the modest. Their arrogant ways are far more deadlier than the person who declares himself as an arrogant being. The despising of pride and arrogance is a higher degree of arrogant attitude. The declamation of pride is no sign of humility. Arrogance is being haughty and proud. A close cousin is being supercilious, where the individual adopts a cool patronising attitude of haughtiness, reflecting that he or she is better than others. Destruction follows the path of pride, arrogance and superciliousness. The bedrock of arrogance is entrenched in delusional thinking that inspires a feeling of superiority over others. Napoleon Bonaparte (my hero, for many different reasons than arrogance) was so full of himself, his arrogant ways were to the nth level; his ambitious attitude, self-importance, misgivings about being blest by Divinity to rule the world, leading him to Crown himself as the 'Emperor of France'. He ended up, like all arrogant do, dying, a lonely death in the desolate island of St. Helena in the Atlantic. A tragic end of a brilliant man. The arrogant Raza Shah Pehlavi was humbled by a humble person, who lived several thousand miles away in the suburbs of Paris; Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's remark 'I am the Bangla Bandhu' was worth a single soldier's loaded magazine; the arrogant claim 'Dhaka over my dead body' had a life of less than 48 hours; the insolent pride of thumping the table by Gen. Yahya in response to a group of Japanese journalists, who had dared to use the word 'genocide' was humbled by the surrender, that slapped us all so viciously that it still hurts; Indira Gandhi's atrocious arrogance of storming of the Golden Temple was undone by her personally selected bodyguard, Beant Singh, who mercilessly pumped the entire sulphur of his automatic weapon into her. Human history is resplendent with the inglorious end of all and any who possessed even a single grain of arrogance in their behaviour and attitude. Several arrogant leaders in not-too-distant history stood out for their ruthlessness—Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. The common attribute that runs as a thread of continuity is: almost all of them were not only arrogant but ruthless, murderous, unkind, unforgiving, etc. They weren't respected but immensely feared. Arrogance derives power through either de jure means or by the prevalent importance, as exercised, or on a de facto basis. The power of the barrel/ gun is a stark reality of human history since yester years. Leaders who are hoisted not by popular vote but through diabolical means and strategies (Benjamin Netanyahu is a case in point) lack validation. Such leaders rule by arrogance of power, coercion and fear. Israel as a nation has always been full of pride of invincibility. They thought it was proper and right to fly wherever they wished to, across seven seas, to go and hit with impunity other countries. Their arrogance laid to shreds all norms of international laws and civility. That myth has recently been broken—no invincibility but only vulnerabilities—by those who have shown the spine to stand up to the bullying of Netanyahu. The myth of Iron Dome has been busted by Iranian-built missiles. In the current crop of leadership across the globe, Netanyahu and Narendra Modi stand out as the best (worst) examples of arrogant leaders. Both of them are equally guilty of indulging in rampant murder of the innocent. Their political thought and ideology are based on deep-seated hatred against the enemies, real or self-perceived is unimportant. Both have been genocidal in their approaches— massive and insolent indulgence in, rape, loot, murder and plunder of innocent men, women and children. The manifestations and formats of arrogance are several. Those who are articulate and speak well exhibit in their behaviour pride arising out of this advantage over those who cannot; so anybody who even understands that their uniqueness of possessing a certain quality or skill-set is an act of Divinity still bask in public glory as if it is their self-learnt art. Such become perennially arrogant. The meed of deeds, good or evil, is settled many times now, then and there, and in few cases the retribution comes on a delayed basis; but it is usually more lethally destructive. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
CBS News
27-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Kansas furniture store owner on being forced to shutter due to tariffs: "We decided to liquidate everything"
Merriam, Kansas — Most will see just a furniture store when they visit My Home Contemporary Furniture in Merriam, Kansas, but for owner Henrik Svendsen, it's the culmination of his life's work. "I opened up four years ago," Svendsen told CBS News. "I thought it would be the retirement for the kids." Svendsen is closing his store in August. He said President Trump's trade war is making the furniture he sells unaffordable to import and unaffordable for customers. "It's [the tariffs] affected it to the fact that we decided to liquidate everything," Svendsen said. He showed CBS News a sofa, imported from China, which he said would have previously retailed for $1,999. In May, the United States and China reached a temporary deal that saw the U.S. place tariffs of about 30% on Chinese goods. Both nations announced this week that they had reached the framework of a more permanent trade deal, although no details were confirmed. "With the tariffs right now, it will be $2,500," Svendsen said. "And it could be more." Svendsen says he has paid about $162,000 in tariffs since the president launched his trade war. He said choosing to close his store was a hard decision, but at the end of the day, he couldn't absorb the tariffs because "we work with an everyday low sale price." "The margins are slim," he added. According to Svendsen, 99% of his furniture is imported, and 50% of that imported inventory comes from China, with the rest coming from Mexico, Thailand and nations in Europe. Svendsen does sell American furniture. However, he said "a lot" of the components of that furniture are still made overseas, so they are not untouched by tariffs. The store's closing also means layoffs for Svendsen's 10 employees, including Henning Mikkelsen. "It is scary to not know what the future, you know, is going to bring," said Mikkelsen, who doesn't know what he plans to do next. "I am not sure yet," Mikkelsen said. "We all have to try and get food on the table."
Los Angeles Times
02-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
A Word, Please: How this simple word can be intimidating
You probably don't read a lot of books written in the 1820s. But if you did, you'd see the word 'belie' a lot more. According to Google Ngram Viewer, in the early 1800s, 'belie' appeared in books about four times as often as it does now. Maybe that's why I find the word a little intimidating. I never use it, partly because its definition is confusing, but mostly because its past tense is terrifying. Today I belie, yesterday I belay? Belaid? Belied? And what about in its -ing form? Beling? Belieing? I never know. That's ironic when you consider how well-versed I am in the past forms of 'lie' and 'lay.' Today I lie, yesterday I lay, in the past I have lain. Today I lay the book on the table, yesterday I laid the book on the table, in the past I have laid the book on the table. I've written about 'lie' and 'lay' so many times I no longer have to look them up. But for 'belie' … well, better to just avoid the word altogether than to botch its past tense. At least, that's how I've been operating. That changes today, starting with some good news for anyone who's ever struggled to figure out the past form of a verb: Definite answers — not just opinions that amateurs post on the internet — are always handy. Open any major dictionary, digital or physical, turn to any irregular verb, and the first thing you see after the entry word will tell you how to conjugate it in every form. For example, in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, after the entry for 'begin,' you see in bold 'began, begun, beginning.' Dictionaries list the simple past tense, 'began,' first, followed by the past participle, 'begun.' The easiest way to understand past participles is to think of them as the forms that go with 'have': I have begun. For a lot of verbs, there's no difference between the past participle and the regular past tense, which is why you say, 'I laid the book on the table' and also 'I have laid the book on the table.' In those cases, the dictionary lists only the one past form, 'laid,' indicating that it serves as both. For past forms of 'belie,' Merriam-Webster's lists only 'belied.' So that's the past tense, 'Her gentleness belied her strength,' and the past participle, 'Her gentleness has belied her strength.' Not as difficult as I feared. The progressive participle, 'belying,' seems pretty easy now that I realize the obvious: that 'belie' is more closely related to the 'lie' that means to deceive than to the 'lie' that means to recline. And we all know how to conjugate that type of lying: Today I lie, yesterday I lied, in the past I have lied, I am lying. 'Belie' mirrors that. The definition of 'belie,' though, is another matter. It's confusing. The main definition is to give a false impression of something, as in Merriam's example, 'Her gentleness belies her strength.' But the secondary definition is 'to show something to be false or wrong,' as in, 'The evidence belies their claims of innocence.' In other words, it can mean to conceal a truth or to reveal a truth. Some experts disavow this second definition. 'The word does not mean 'to disclose or reveal,' as is sometimes thought,' writes Garner's Modern American Usage. 'That is, some writers wrongly think of it in a sense almost antithetical to sense 1.' It's always unfortunate when a word has a secondary definition that contradicts its main definition. (Read the full dictionary entry for the word 'literally' and you'll see what I mean.) So even though 'belie' is easy to put in the past tense, I'll continue not using it in any tense. — 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@
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Yahoo
KILGORE'S CORNER: No rhyme, reason for what turkeys do
Adjusting the turkey season three years ago in an attempt to stabilize the population of birds, the season now goes from April 16 to May 16 with a limit of one tom turkey statewide. The youth season is open April 12 and 13. The wild turkey is Oklahoma's largest game bird and their chief predators are bobcats and coyotes. Advertisement For hunters, the one thing I've learned about turkeys is that many times there's no rhyme or reason for some of the things they do. I've witnessed a mature and very wild tom turkey, seeing his reflection, peck the chrome bumper of a Ford F150 pickup truck, which happened to be mine. Also, and not funny at the time, a gentleman, with a classic 1956 or 1957 Chevrolet, was staying in an area state park. He requested a report be taken for his auto insurance. You guessed it, a tom had indeed done some serious damage having pecked off the paint almost to the point that it looked as though someone had peppered it with buckshot. As with most hunting, nothing takes the place of scouting and boots on the ground. If you don't have access to private property, there are a number of opportunities and resources available to hunt turkeys on public land. Advertisement There are a number of easy-to-use calls on the market. If you have time to practice and have an understanding family, including your loyal canine, the diaphragm mouth calls are some of the most practical simply because they reduce movement and free up both hands. If you own a set of shooting sticks, by all means take them with you. Speaking from experience, a gun gets awfully heavy when you're having to sit motionless for any length of time and a good rest is not to be found. The keys to a successful spring turkey season are locating an area with turkeys and scouting to learn the terrain looking for turkey tracks and turkey scat. Find areas along creek bottoms or ridges where they tend to roost in mature trees. Advertisement Having a plan in place and knowledge of the area will help swing things your way. If you can hear a turkey gobble, he is closer than you think. Hen and tom decoys work well together or even a hen decoy by itself. One rule of thumb that I have learned over the years is, the less you call, the better off you are. Overcalling is tempting, but doesn't always yield results. Let the tom dictate the conversation. If you have a bird coming your way and hasn't gobbled in some time, the chances are he's coming in silent. In the Green Country area of Oklahoma, we have the Eastern, Rio Grande and Eastern/Rio Grande hybrid breed of turkeys. The Rio Grande breed tends to be more vocal than the Eastern breed. A Rio Grande tends to be easier to call in, at least in my experience. Throughout the central and western of Oklahoma, you will find the Rio Grande breed. In the far western panhandle of the state, there are a mix of Rio Grande's and Merriam's breed of turkeys. Advertisement The Osceola breed is located only in parts of Florida. If you complete the harvesting of all of these four breeds of turkey, it is considered a 'grand slam'. For a 'world slam,' you add in Gould's wild turkey which is found in Mexico, and small parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Generally, turkeys many times will hang up just out of range. Another bit of advice — patience, patience, and patience. As with any hunting, gun safety is paramount. Make sure of your target. Reach John Kilgore at jkilgoreoutdoors@
