For my second installment of Words You Use But Don’t Know, i’d like to introduce you to the word throe.
It sounds just like throw when you say it, so i’ve seen a handful of people write about hearing their phone’s death throws or even remark on the sounds of their neighbors in the throws of passion. What they’re actually saying though is throes, which means violent convulsions or struggle. It’s mostly used as a hyperbole these days, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to know which word we’re using, right? Right. 
Today i’m beginning a short series that i like to call: Words That You Use But Don’t Know. You say a phrase you’ve heard before and it sounds right, but when you spell it out it becomes evident to people like me that you don’t actually know what word you’re using. Luckily, i’m here to help.
I’m going to kick it off with “pique,” because i’ve seen that one everywhere lately.
I received some email last week promising that a new promotion would “peak my interest.” I saw another person on twitter whose interest was “peaked” by something which, sadly, i don’t recall because i was fixated on his or her usage of the wrong word. Pique is a derivation of the French word that literally means prick, but is used to mean arouse excitement or interest. So, what these lovely people meant to say was that interest was piqued, not peaked.
As usual, for the more succinct explanation, see this link. Thank you!
I was going to write two separate posts about my birthday and the Iowa State Fair, but once again i’ve procrastinated too long and so i’m just going to post photos and talk a little bit about them.
For my birthday Nathan got me tickets to three different shows that happened here in Des Moines right around my birthday: Rooney, Phoenix and Tegan & Sara. Rooney was first, and it was a really fun little show in an intimate venue, and it was early in the day which turned out to be nice for us working types. Phoenix was the very next day, and their show was a little too loud and a little too packed and a little too blinding as far as the light show, but it was still fun.
Next came my actual b-day, which i spent trying on wedding dresses, watching Eat, Pray, Love and playing Apples to Apples with a handful of my lovely friends.
A few days later we saw Tegan & Sara, which was definitely an interesting show. They performed at Hoyt Sherman which is a really lovely old venue here in Des Moines. There was no opening band, and T&S played two sets: an acoustic set and one with the full band. During the first set they did some Q&A sessions which got to be a little long-winded, but they’re funny people so it was interesting to hear them talk about some adventures they’ve had both in the recording studio and on the road. We had to cut out of the second set a little early, but i still got to hear all of my favorite T&S songs.
Nathan’s gifts (comic books & concert tickets!)
First thing i saw when i got to work Monday. Love it.
The day after Tegan & Sara, we went to the Iowa State Fair. If you haven’t been to our fair, it’s pretty much the best one in the country. And i say that because i think Martha Stewart said it, or something. It’s all about excess: who grows the fattest pig, the biggest pumpkin, the most enormous stalk of corn; how many calories can we pack into a single $6 fried-on-a-stick commodity; how many big ol’ corn-fed Iowans can you pack into a few hundred acres? I used to absolutely hate it and now i think it’s great fun.
I really wanted to steal a little chickie. They’re SO CUTE.
Our famous Butter Cow. Life-size, all butter.
The biggest pumpkin weighed over 1,000 lbs.
So *that’s* why they call it eggplant.
That cabbage in the back was the size of a beach ball.
…And these were tiny! I like photographing produce…
A sampling of the many, many pretty quilts
This year we ate: mini doughnuts, some rootbeer, a couple of exorbitantly priced brewskis, fried cheese curds (a must), i had 2/3 of a tenderloin (it took a while to find one that wasn’t the size of a dinner plate), and a turkey leg which we took home and made stock with. Have i mentioned that we’re getting really into the whole “domestic” thing?
Someone contacted me via flickr a few weeks ago asking permission to use one of my English error photos in some video, so i told them that would be fine. A few days ago i received an email containing a link to the finished video: The Apostrophe Song. I guess it’s actually a promo for an iPhone app that teaches you how to use apostrophes correctly. So here’s the video, and one of those photos was taken by me. 
Kinda catchy, eh? “Don’t put an apostrophe in ‘its’ unless you mean ‘it is.’”
Everyone already knows how much i hate it when people misuse the word “literally,” so no need to write about that again, even if my annoyance only continues to rise. But there’s another English peeve i have that i haven’t mentioned here yet.
I find my teeth clenching uncontrollably when people write “I’s” and they aren’t talking about multiples of the letter I.
“I’s” is not English. You should say “my.” You would never say “I’s house” when talking about your dwelling if you weren’t faced with the grammatical problem of describing a place that belongs to both you and another person, so don’t say it when you are. The IMproper phrase would be “Nathan and I’s house.” The PROPER phrase is “Nathan’s and my house.”
Please scroll down to the Compound Possessives section on this page. Study it! Remember it! People like me will thank you!
Thanks & have a nice day.