They'd Rather Blather

It's been a busy day. It's amazing how many things need to be done when you want to be doing something else. Most everything got taken care of, though.

The ugly specter of PublishAmerica was front and center for a while today. There was a radio debate between a pro-PA person and an anti-PA person. Nobody went out in a blaze of glory, but a few points were made which should be self-explanatory to anyone with their eyes open wide enough to be cognizant of them. I'm afraid the PA proponent, while a seemingly polite and well mannered person, came across as sophomoric and naive. He may be hyped up on the PA Kool-Aid right now but, depending on how much time, effort, and money he's spent promoting his PA book, I predict he'll be changing his tune when he gets a look at his first royalty check. Bottom line: heed the parting words of your opponent -- PA is a scam.

There's another "debate" going on as well, in another venue. Why it's being touted as a "debate" is baffling. It's no more than two (attention-deprived) people, both ex-PA authors, making comments to each other. How can two allegedly anti-PA people debate each other, anyway? Why would they? Isn't a debate by definition between two opposing parties?

Not to change the subject, because most of these come from -- Guess where? -- but Words Gone Bad went on a bit of a rampage today. The most brazen of them were safely rounded up, but don't let your guard down. There are plenty more where these came from.

Colonal -- I don't know, but I think that's a military person with a penchant for getting colonics before invading and colonizing new places.

Accursed me of -- Somebody who's been hexed and accused at the same time.

Denegrate -- I think that's some sort of degenerate, but I'm not sure.

Discription -- A blurb written solely to diss someone.

Deciept -- The obverse of a receipt.

Plageruists -- This one's a bit of a stumper, but I think it may be an underground group of plague proponents.

Preturbed -- Whatever one does in preparation for turbing.



08/07/2006
Update: My good and erudite friend, Dream, has ridden to the rescue with a more definitive darfinition of the word "denegrate" which was arrested yesterday. She says:

From the Latin prefix de + neg[ative] + rate: to zero out a negative rating, as in: I reported her post as spam, but then I changed my mind and gave her some brownie points to make it up.

Please note, this is not as good as taking back the negative rating, and is not as good as not giving a negative rating in the first place. It's sort of like the story illustrating the value of enriched bread: You find a wallet with $100 in it, take out the money, put $5 back in, and return it to its owner. You've enriched that wallet the same way bread companies enrich white bread, by taking out all the nutrition and then putting a little back in. With me so far? Okay, denegrate is an enriched rating -- not as good as one you haven't done anything bad to (that would be the wallet with $100 or whole wheat bread); just better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Glad to have totally confused everyone (hey, I never claimed to be even a PA-published author!),
Dream, World Linguistics Wresting Federation Word Nutritionist and CPA (Certified Prose Accountant)