Friday, November 23, 2007
Sticks in Your Ears
This morning, while I was looking at my morning newspaper, I found a children's educational cartoon called "Kidspot", by Dick Rogers. This installment of Kidspot read as follows:
Before and after: One word will fit between the two words to make a new word before it and the word following (Example: In-door-stop).
1. Blue b_ _ d house
2. Eye b _ _ l room
3. Trap d _ _ r step
4. Moon L _ _ _ t house
5. Ear d _ _ m stick
6. Saw h _ _ _ e shoe
The first one has the answer of "bird", as that makes "bluebird" and "birdhouse". But the tendency is to read the entire group of three words as if it were one word or phrase. After all, that's the way it is displayed. So number 1 suggests "bluebird house", or "blue birdhouse" to me, both of which make sense.
But what about number 2? I don't think I want to be in an eyeball room. I don't want to be in a room with googols of eyeballs on the ceiling, floor, and walls, all googling at me. Google "eyeball room" and you may find something that looks like this. The night has a thousand eyes. Big Brother is watching you. Homeland Security is watching you. Sounds creepy to me. Further, eyeball rooms don't have much to do with either eyeballs (which usually are in a person or animal before they are in a room) or ballrooms.
It gets worse. I don't think I want to walk onto a trapdoor step (yiiiii!!!). A moonlight house sounds really romantic, but it may also suggest to some a house with a moon on it; for example, an outhouse. I have never heard of anyone putting shoes on a sawhorse. I suppose maybe sawhorse shoes could be used to protect the floor from the legs of the sawhorse.
But the worst of all is eardrum stick. This one will have health professionals shrieking. I don't think it is a good idea to encourage children to stick drumsticks in their ears, or something they may call a drumstick, such as a Q-tip. Health professionals say not to put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow. This one could result in a busted eardrum. Let's hope it doesn't.
So I hope Mr. Rogers is more careful with his column. His examples are sensible, silly, and sometimes dangerous. Let's hope he keeps the dangerous ones out of his cartoon.
Before and after: One word will fit between the two words to make a new word before it and the word following (Example: In-door-stop).
1. Blue b_ _ d house
2. Eye b _ _ l room
3. Trap d _ _ r step
4. Moon L _ _ _ t house
5. Ear d _ _ m stick
6. Saw h _ _ _ e shoe
The first one has the answer of "bird", as that makes "bluebird" and "birdhouse". But the tendency is to read the entire group of three words as if it were one word or phrase. After all, that's the way it is displayed. So number 1 suggests "bluebird house", or "blue birdhouse" to me, both of which make sense.
But what about number 2? I don't think I want to be in an eyeball room. I don't want to be in a room with googols of eyeballs on the ceiling, floor, and walls, all googling at me. Google "eyeball room" and you may find something that looks like this. The night has a thousand eyes. Big Brother is watching you. Homeland Security is watching you. Sounds creepy to me. Further, eyeball rooms don't have much to do with either eyeballs (which usually are in a person or animal before they are in a room) or ballrooms.
It gets worse. I don't think I want to walk onto a trapdoor step (yiiiii!!!). A moonlight house sounds really romantic, but it may also suggest to some a house with a moon on it; for example, an outhouse. I have never heard of anyone putting shoes on a sawhorse. I suppose maybe sawhorse shoes could be used to protect the floor from the legs of the sawhorse.
But the worst of all is eardrum stick. This one will have health professionals shrieking. I don't think it is a good idea to encourage children to stick drumsticks in their ears, or something they may call a drumstick, such as a Q-tip. Health professionals say not to put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow. This one could result in a busted eardrum. Let's hope it doesn't.
So I hope Mr. Rogers is more careful with his column. His examples are sensible, silly, and sometimes dangerous. Let's hope he keeps the dangerous ones out of his cartoon.
