keep your chickens in the barnyard
“Now that’s funny,” said Thalia with crinkles around her eyes. “Keep your chickens in the barnyard!”
“Yes, and…there’s nothing quite like a little algebra with our coffee,” said Urania with a sigh.
“Oh…I didn’t give the math any attention,” said Calliope. “There’s a reason we bookmarked this video…today it’s saving us from being a no show,”
“Ha! We read about its vs. it’s yesterday…in the lexicographer’s book…she devoted like…three pages to the three letters,” said Thalia.
“To apostrophe…or not apostrophe?” asked the Shakespearean muse of many questions.
“Is there a School House Rock video about that rule?” asked Urania.
“I’m not certain,” said Thalia, “and I bet I’ll be singing Conjunction, junction, what’s your function and Interjections! Show excitement…or emotion…generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point…this morning.”
“Please hold off until we’ve finished here?” asked Urania. “Multi-tasking leads to mistakes. I hate it when we publish typos!”
“Mistakes make us relatable?” asked Calliope.
“She dog-eared a page in that section…,” said Thalia. “This sentence seems to apply to more than language…The fact is that many of the things that are presented to us as rules are really just the of-the-moment preferences of people who have had the opportunity to get their opinions published and whose opinions end up being reinforced and repeated down the ages as Truth.”
“Interesting,” said Calliope and Urania in unison.
“Jinx!” said Thalia. “I’m certain it’s time for more coffee…Can I start singing now?”
References:
Word by Word by Kory Stamper
School House Rock
What wrapping a rope around the earth reveals about the limits of human intuition