2007 Edition of NEW English-September 21, 2007

I just saw in the news headlines that the folks at Oxford, the one in England I presume, are changing the usuage of the hyphen in our fabulous language. I assume they are talking about Dixie-English, but one never knows with the British.

I thought I was just beginning to get a tiny grasp of our language, even though I am still plenty confused about much of it.

When I was a teenager I worked two nights at a restaurant that catered to the Happy Days kind of people. I was more like Opie than I was the Fonz. My cousin Roger would have been the Fonz.

This was in the early 60's mind you. We invented Happy Days and didn't even know it.

Now, back to my two-nights of working the grill and how it relates to the folks in Oxford.
I don't know if I was a car-hop, a carhop, or a car hop!

I have never worked at a hotel, or motel, so I know I have never been a bell-boy, or a bellboy.
I think folks in New York and Chicago call them bell-hops, or bellhops.

And the good old ice-cream I thought I was eating was really ice cream after all, or was it the cheaper version, ice-milk, or ice milk?

I'm a sentimental old cuss, and I frequently cry while watching movies. I don't know if that makes me a cry-baby or a crybaby.

And what about my hobbyhorse that the grandkids play on? I think the English made it a hobby horse.

We use to have a lot of bumble-bees in our yard. They never knew their species, but they are now bumble bees I think.

Now I understand why the British lost their empire.
They don't understand compound nouns.

I'm going to Wal Mart now.

I don't know if I will be hot-footing it there, or hot footing slowly like I normally drive.
I think Mark Twain would approve my use of an adverb once-in-awhile.

Copyright-2007-Jay Hudson-All rights reserved.

Jay Hudson