From Dane Cook to George Orwell to me

That's right, I'm going to talk about Dane Cook and George Orwell (really Eric Arthur Blaire) in the same passage. And I'm going to talk about myself as well.

Dane Cook has a skit about the Kool-aid Man. He's talking about having to fix the wall before his Dad get's home because the Kool-aid Man came bursting through it. "Yeah, coming through the wall is real *&$#!@ cool! Coming through the front door is cool!" It's a good point.

Now for my point. STOP USING FOREIGN WORDS IN ENGLISH ESSAYS PEOPLE! It is not cool. It is ostentatious. I've been going through a lot of books because I am a research minion for one of my professors. Today, I encountered Ayn Rand saying something stupid and unnecessary.
"Man is born with an emotional mechanism, just as he is born with a cognitive mechanism; but, at birth, both are 'tabula rasa.'"
-Pg. 26 The Virtue of Selfishness
Ayn, darling, the emotional mechanism and cognitive mechanism are not "tabula rasa." (Now, I'll admit I had to look this phrase up.) First, "tabula rasa" is a singular noun. Plural would be rasae. Second, the word means clean slate, or having no preconceived essence or form, and doesn't really make sense because it's not an adjective. Third, not being an adjective, it needs an article when used in an English essay, WHICH IS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T USE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Fourth, just don't.

It's even worse when people use phrases like that and then define them in the text. How stupid. Orwell thought the English language should be purged of using terms like this. They should only be used when absolutely necessary to capture the intended meaning. Orwell is rolling over in his grave somewhere.

Finally, me. What about me? Well, the very fact that I would write this "blog" entry, dropping names like Ayn Rand and George Orwell, falls under the same principle. It's ostentatious. Is anyone going to be intellectually or otherwise benefitted by reading my rant about the usage of latin phrases in English exposition? No. How many people write "blogs" for the same masturbatory reasons? STOP IT PEOPLE. If it doens't benefit others or provoke honest thought, then write in your diary. (Now that doesn't mean using these blog things to tell others about your life or keep them updated about you. That's part of the whole purpose. I'm just referring to stupid displays of one's own wit or intelligence.) Shalom.

Nordles