I’m just “Dad”

I know that all the “rules” out there say you shouldn’t blog about your family and personal stuff and all that, but, y’all who know me know that I sometimes have problems with rules (not all of them, just the dumb ones—not saying that’s a dumb rule. Well, nevermind. Just read on!). So, I’m going to blog about my daughter. Those who’ve been around a while have seen me post videos of her singing and bragging about her and such anyway, so talking about her now won’t really make a difference. And I’m sure I’ll continue to do that, but that is not what this blog is about.

Brittany recently turned sixteen. I thought the biggest thing around this event would be that she got her driver’s license and would get a job. Oh, she did get her license and there are already many miles on our vehicles. I watch these miles (and change the oil) and wonder, “is Oxford really that big? I mean, it’d have to be to churn up all those miles.”

And she got a job, too. After a couple of false starts (neither of them her fault, thankfully), she landed a job with Chik Fil-A. BJ and I had been telling her for a couple of years that she would actually enjoy working—yes, I’m a mean father; I made her get a job. I’ll tell you what I’ve found myself telling my Dad a time or two (although mostly as a joke because it is what he told his mother): you raised yours the way you wanted, I’m raising mine the way I want.

But little did I realize that her becoming a middle-teen would lead to a sudden acquisition of knowledge to make her incredibly brilliant! It’s true. She’s suddenly so incredibly wise in the ways of the world… so much so that I don’t know nothing…and I often fail to realize how brilliant she is.

Let me give you an example. Brittany has a cellphone. As of this writing, I only recently acquired my first one—no you can’t have my number! I didn’t really want one, but because of my recent traveling excursions, it was forced upon me! I still don’t really want one! But not long ago, Brittany got a different phone and was having problems setting the date and time as she transferred all her info to the new phone. I asked her if she wanted me to give it a try. Her response? Since I didn’t own a cellphone, I obviously didn’t have any clue about them and couldn’t figure it out. Obviously. She passed it to me anyway (with a roll of the eyes) andI fixed the date and time in a few minutes flat. Was she impressed? Not so much. Because she’s brilliant and I? I am just Dad!

Let me give you another example. That job that I forced her to get? Guess what? Yep, she actually enjoys it. You think she’ll admit it to Dad? Nope. Because she is near-omniscient now, and me? I’m just Dad.

I’m sure my son will be just as brilliant in a matter of years, but he has five more years before he turns sixteen. Thankfully I’ll still be “smart” around him a little longer.

What is a “Student of color?”

I don’t get to listen to the radio as often as I’d like. Mostly, I listen when I’m driving. I know, I know, I could listen at home, but the problem is that I prefer to select my own music and always have, even as my tastes have changed. So, the radio I listen to is often talk radio and I can’t listen to that at home because when I’m home, I’m generally either reading or writing…and I can’t focus on doing either of those when I’m trying to listen to talk radio.

But, listening to the radio the other day, I caught a snippet of some news report about “students of color.” I have no clue what the report was about (okay, the truth is that I actually can’t remember what it was about), but that phrase—which I’ve heard before—somehow stood out to me at that particular moment…and got me ta’thinkin’. I don’t know that I’ve heard “student” of color before so much as I’ve heard “person” of color.

The more I thought about that phrase, the more it bothered me. As with almost anything in our beautiful language, to say one thing implies other things. So, “student of color” is meant to suggest any student who is not white. Which, is every single other student except white students. Sounds incredibly exclusive and racist to me.

But to say there are students of color is to suggest that white students have no color. While I’m not Dracula, nor am I emo so that my skin is pasty-white, I’m about as white as they get—my skin just doesn’t tan in the sun that well, not like BJ’s, whose skin darkens with five minutes of sunlight. But I go through all that to say that my skin—which everyone would tell you is “white”—has color. It’s a peachy-pinky kinda color. No, I don’t know exactly what it is, my good friend and supreme colorist Emily Kanalz could probably tell you the exact color and give you the number off of some color chart.

Another way to take this slightly insulting phrase is to think that it means white people have no interesting personalities. The radio announcer almost certainly meant Caucasians, but we often say that people with very interesting personalities are “colorful” people. Therefore, in a roundabout way, the announcer is suggesting that white people have no interesting personalities.

Finally, white is indeed a color on the color wheel and is used as a color. Buy any box of crayons and you’ll find “white” right along with the rest of the colorful box of crayons, including red, yellow and black. Why is it then, that when the term “white” is used to refer to race, it is meant as “no color?”

I mean, I often think of myself as a colorful kinda guy … I think I should be offended?

More misteaks by writers

Before you start leaving comments that I misspelled “mistakes” as the title of this blog…yes, I know I did. Thank you…read on.

So, many of you responded that you liked the mistakes part 1…so I present part 2 (who knows, there may be many parts to this idea!).

Continuing the possessive issues, we come next to there/their. These two words are probably mistaken more than either its/it’s or your/you’re. There is a pointer and their is possessive. It was their mistake to make (meaning the mistake belonged to them, of course). “Over there is their car,” means that the car that belongs to them is in that place. “There is a lot of hot air on this page,” means this page contains a lot of hot air. Many times this mistake is often just a mistake, a typo. However, be sure that you know the difference.

Use/used is a lot like suppose/supposed I mentioned in part 1. Most seem to use it correctly when calling something “not new,” as in, it is used. Likewise, most get it right when it is used instructionally as in “be sure to use the left blinker.” The problems seem to come up when a writer wants to put in the place of a historical action: “he used to live on the corner.” To say “he use to live on the corner,” is incorrect.

Since possessives often need the apostrophe, I figure I’ll bring a common incorrect usage of apostrophes. Many writers try to force apostrophes into dates. Thus the year in “the 1930s was a time of incredibly financial hardship,” does not need an apostrophe even though many, many writers try to include them there. The same is said for “ABCs,” it does not need an apostrophe.

Now, here’s a side note on the above. It used to be (as in “once was”) common practice to place an apostrophe in examples like above. Thus, 1920′s, ABC’s, 6′s, etc. However, time has changed the use so that so that we don’t do that unless the meaning would be unclear otherwise. Thus, my kids make “A’s and B’s,” not “As and Bs” is correct because the “As” would be confusing (it would look like the word “as”).

Okay, more next time.