“I” before “E” except after “C”. Or apparently, any other bloody time some word doesn’t want to follow the rules!
People are lazy. We make a cute sounding rule to help us remember how to spell - and as it turns out we don’t even bother quoting the *ENTIRE* rule when we pass it along.
- Rule
Write I before E
Except after C
Or when it sounds like an A
As in “neighbor” and “weigh”
Hey, that’s much better! That spells it all out. Right? Wrong.
- Use “I” before “E” after “C” if it carries an “sh” sound (e.g., deficient).
- Use “E” before “I” with words with long “ain” sound (e.g., feign, reign).
Now we’ve got it covered! Right? Wrong.
- Five exceptions: caffeine, leisure, protein, seize, weird
And we get mad when immigrants don’t learn English.
A few days ago I discovered - quite painfully - that wasps and bees had decided they were no longer going to share the landscaping at the front of my office building. In fact, they had set up several nests both over the front door and *in* the front door itself. Walking out to check the mail woke them up and by the time I returned I was lucky to make it into the building again with only one sting.
As I was sitting at my desk with a plastic bag of ice on my face, one of my partners (who also owns the building) came in and asked what was wrong. I told him the front of the building had been taken over by wasps and bees.
His response? “Yeah, I know. You shouldn’t use that door.”
Grr! I thanked him for warning everyone ahead of time and suggested an exterminator or at least some bug spray.
Later that day, I was walking by the foyer and saw a sign taped to the inside of the front door. “DO NOT USE. BEES!” For added protection, the door was locked.
Work with me for a moment here. Lets say a visitor or salesperson comes to the building - and they’re silly enough to think the front door is the appropriate way to gain entrance to an establishment. They pull on the front door to open it and it’s locked. A few wasps and bees take flight. They rattle the door again just to be sure it really is locked. They’re thinking, “Gee, there are cars in the parking lot. Why’s the front door locked?” Depending on how quick they are to notice the growing swarm of angry wasps and bees surrounding them, they might even have time to think, “Hmm. I wonder what that blank piece of paper taped to the door is all about.”
I wish we had video surveillance because I’d love to know how many men and women in suits and high heels were seen flailing their arms at the air around them while running away from our building screaming in terror.
My name is Scott.
I hate bees. This is my story.
I was walking back into my office building after checking the mailbox. As I approached the door I felt something on my face at the edge of my glasses.
My ninja-like reflexes kicked in instantly.
First, warrior cry.
“Oh @#$%^!!! Get it off me now!!!”
Second, uncanny physical defensive moves.
Picture the bottom half of my body jumping up into the air while the top half flings itself to the ground. Oh yeah, all at the same time slapping myself in the face and knocking off my glasses. Did you ever see the lead singer of “Midnight Oil” dance? Something like that. Not a child of the 80’s? Think Taylor Hicks, the 2006 American Idol winner.
Peter Garrett, lead singer of “Midnight Oil”
Taylor Hicks, 2006 American Idol winner
Third, mind over matter mastery of pain.
At first I thought I’d avoided the attack. Then the outside edge of my left eye started burning a little. “Oh well, the little bugger got me.” Then it burned a little more. “Hmm, perhaps I should go inside now. Where are those glasses?” Then suddenly I was on fire. “AHHH! I’m on fire!”
The bee was obviously a darker master of the ninja arts than I.
I stumbled back to my office and asked my brother-slash-partner for medical assistance. If you ask him about it, the words “pitifully whined for help” might come up. Don’t ask him. He is not a ninja and he lies.
I was shopping with my girlfriend and saw this tag.
“I AM WASHABLE”
On men’s clothing, okay, I would understand. However, I thought women were good about washing their clothes. 
I just saw the Oliver Stone movie “World Trade Center”. It’s been almost five years since the September 11 attacks and somehow I totally missed the whole story about ex-Marine Staff Sargeant Karnes who drove to the World Trade Center site and was the man responsible for finding trapped police officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno. And what about Chuck Sereika, a former paramedic with an expired license who was one of the other rescuers first on the scene to help the officers?
After getting home from the movie I started looking up some things online. Following is a quote from an article that helps explain why I might have missed Karnes’s and Sereika’s contributions.
But it’s also clear Karnes is a hero in a smaller, less national, less public, less publicized way than the cops and firefighters are heroes. He’s hardly been overlooked—the program I work for, 60 Minutes II, interviewed him as part of a piece on Jimeno’s rescue—but the great televised glory machine has so far not picked him. Why? One reason seems obvious—the cops and firefighters are part of big, respected, institutional support networks. Americans are grateful for the sacrifices their entire organizations made a year ago. Plus, the police and firefighting institutions are tribal brotherhoods. The firefighters help and support and console each other; the cops do the same. They find it harder to make room for outsiders like Karnes (or Chuck Sereika). And, it must be said, at some macho level it’s vaguely embarrassing that the professional rescuers weren’t the ones who found the two survivors. While the pros were pulled back out of legitimate caution, the job fell to an outsider, who drove down from Connecticut and just walked onto the burning pile.
Read the full article here.
Even with an event as historically significant and massively televised as the September 11 attacks, I’m shocked at how much media - and society - control what we hear and what we ultimately remember. Maybe if it had been Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan the “televised glory machine” would have been more interested.