I just had the oddest moment.
It started out normal, my mom and grandma are hovering over a patternless crossword, (they're addicted-- to the PATTERNLESS kind. Hardcore.) and they ask me for a dictionary; to make sure they have all the vowels right in the word "chafes", not particularly a hard word, but "you never take chances in pen...". So I automatically wrap my hand around the side of this shelf-desk thing, and feel for the duct-taped old leatheryness of "THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY-- Second College Edition, and bring it to them, only to be met with, "Well, why didn't you bring the new one? It's more accurate."
What "new one"?
I was actually a little hurt by this. I'm emotionally attached to a dictionary.
It was copyrighted in 1981, and I understand words like "w00t" are constantly being added, but the spelling of "chaffes" will not change. That dictionary and I go waaaay back, and even though the cover is falling off and there's 4 layers of tape going down the spine, I refuse to throw it out. "THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY-- Second College Edition" were pretty much the first words I ever wrote. In painstaking careful, yet still sloppy 4 year old lettering. I still remember my mom making me do that. I'd read "The American..." and she figured if I could read it I could write it. So, good use of an hour in 4-year-old-time. I think she still has the paper I copied it onto. Most of it is this big, all caps serif font, that was easy. But "Second College Edition" is in small subtitley italics.
Haaaarrrddd. >:(
I did it anyway, and THAT is a show of dedication. I'm in love with a dictionary.
My question: Do you have any similar attachments to an inanimate object?
3 comments:
A tragic tale of how, eventually, everything becomes obsolete.
Brilliant.
Soon enough people will have stopped printed dictionaries in favour of the electronic sort. Google Dictionary and such. (is there a Google Dictionary? I will put it in the Google box...)
HOLY CRAP! Google never ceases to amaze. Check out all these Google box functions: http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/#dictionary
WHOA. Google is a freaking genius. Time to go test these out.
Yea, but I still love that "old huge book" smell. Try to smell the Internet and what do you get? Electrocuted, that's what.
I'm not as attached to dictionaries, but I am quite sentimental about books. It makes me sad to see people buying Kindles; yes, they're smaller and lighter, but do we really have to make ourselves dependent on technology just to read a freaking BOOK? >:(
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