UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

NEW SPECIMENS OLD SPECIMENS THE SCIENTIST MY LOG CONTACT ME
2002-11-16 - 7:08 p.m.

WHOLE WORD

The schools I attended as a child believed in teaching reading with the whole word method. Nevertheless, I cannot blame my reading quirks on the methodology there because I was reading before I came to school. I suppose I could blame my parents but I believe in taking responsibility. Perhaps I should blame my inattention to detail.

I have read many a surprising headline that wasn�t. When my mind is still idling, I occasionally substitute a similar looking word for the word in the newspaper. �Gray� and �gay� are similar looking but they are not the same either in definition or sound. Gray whales are rather ordinary. Gay whales? Well, I was surprised to read that they had spotted gay whales off the coast. Finding gay whales, perhaps. Being able to tell simply by having a pair of binoculars struck me as extraordinary. But, of course, all they were spotting was the species of whale. My weird reading habits had struck again.

The recent election provided another such moment. We have a state assemblyman named Gard. He is a Republican in an assembly in which Republicans are the majority. After the election, the Republicans set their leadership in the state assembly. I knew that they would. I also knew that many Republicans openly espouse their religious positions. Still, I was very surprised when a quick glance told me that the GOP had selected God as one of their leaders. I was surprised enough to look again and discover that it was just Gard.

Sometimes, my reading quirks deprive me. I miss the humor everyone else catches. When local politician Gary George attempted to run for governor in the primary, there were billboards urging the populace to vote for George Gary. I saw those billboards. I read those billboards and, because I was whizzing by in the car, I simply thought I read wrong. Oops!

When I speak in public, I never write everything out. In general, writing everything out is a bad approach. When you read as I do, it�s a terrible approach. Nerves could cause anything to happen as I read. While I could read my notes wrong, using notes forces me to use my brain as well and I have to count on that attention to weed out my crazy word calling.

Forget whole word. I need a whole brain.

LAST YEAR: Waving Principles

LAST FIVE ENTRIES:

Secrets
The Art of the Possible
Not a Tragedy
Watching Out for Missions
Making Kool-aid

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