Sunday, April 18, 2010

CORRECTION

A blue ninja tree?

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I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos. They were taken while driving on a fairly busy street. Kids, don't do this at home without adult supervision.

Sometime last autumn, I noticed what I took to be a tarp-shrouded tree in front of a building that I pass several times a week. I assumed that it was a tree that was just a bit too fragile to handle Kansas winters. Because of the conformation, forced-as I thought, by the constraining ropes-I thought of it as a blue ninja tree.

Last week, the tarp was removed. The object of my imagination was reavealed as-a statue of what looks like a Chinese historical figure. I've no idea what the story behind that statue, although the person I saw working on the front lawn might be of Chinese ancestry.


Not a ninja, after all.

The word of the day for Sunday, April 18, 2010 is "correction" — Pronunciation: \kə-ˈrek-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 : the action or an instance of correcting: as a : AMENDMENT, RECTIFICATION b : REBUKE, PUNISHMENT c : a bringing into conformity with a standard d : NEUTRALIZATION, COUNTERACTION [correction of acidity].
2 : a decline in market price or business activity following and counteracting a rise.
3 a : something substituted in place of what is wrong [marking corrections on the students' papers] b : a quantity applied by way of correcting (as for adjustment of an instrument).
4 : the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders through a program involving penal custody, parole, and probation; also : the administration of such treatment as a matter of public policy—usually used in plural.

Our quote for the day is from William Wordsworth (1770–1850), "Michael: A Pastoral Poem":

Would Michael exercise his heart with looks
Of fond correction and reproof bestowed
Upon the Child, if he disturbed the sheep
By catching at their legs, or with his shouts
Scared them, while they lay still beneath the shears.


;^)

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