Wallah!! Circle the bulls ...

I'm an editor in "real life"; have been for almost 30 years now. I work in a fairly narrow field—education. As Managing Editor for an international publisher, I set the editorial standards for the company. Our clients and commissioned authors are, in the overwhelming majority, teachers. You would expect a certain level of literacy from them in the manuscripts they submit for possible publication.

You would be wrong.

I always keep in mind my attendance at a Style Council many years ago, where I was first introduced to the term "the wounded bull syndrome", as it applies to editors. This is when we (editors) collectively and singularly begin to see ourselves as "protectors" of the language. When we see what we perceive as an attack on our beloved language, we form a circle, heads lowered, the same way bulls circle to protect one of their own who is hurt.

It's something to be constantly wary of. The language does not "belong" to us, nor are we its "guardians". The English language has managed to grow, change, evolve for many years now without (or despite) our help. In fact, its ability to do just that is one of its greatest strengths.

But does there come a point where the absorption of new words, phrases and structures actually weakens our language; in this case, Australian English? I think it does, to the extent that we begin to lose our own words, which are part of our unique heritage. For example, I commonly see now the word "curb" to refer to the raised ridge beside the road, rather than the (correct) use of "kerb". Similarly, the term "medium strip" (instead of median strip) has achieved a measure of respectability. Why? What's "medium" about it, as against "median", meaning "middle"? Why am I constantly seeing "sidewalk", "flashlight", "candy", "cookies", "fries" and "should of"? What's wrong with "footpath", "torch", "lollies" (or "sweets") and, most definitely, "should have"? Why do young people greet each other with "Hey!", and why are we all "guys"? We now have travel agencies advertising "vacation" specials; and we think nothing of "grabbing a cab". We "meet with" and "talk with" and I've had an (Australian) teacher teaching positional prepositions to students use "in back of" to mean "behind".

Please, while I'm being picky ... we have "swimming meetings", not "swim meets". So, I'm anti-American? Not at all! I admire them immensely, their freedoms, their "can do" attitude, their glorious countryside. Apart from repetition via the mass media, I just don't understand why we have to adopt their phraseology at the expense of our own. Oops ... hang about! I think I saw a baby in that bathwater you just heaved out!!

And then there are the sheer headshakers: signs in the supermarket that tell us the express lane is for 12 items or "less" (it's "fewer"), the ascendancy of the "polite I", where it is thought more correct to use "I" than "me", which leads to abominations such as "Mum spoke to my sister and I" or "Santa gave both Jessica and I a present". I've had "to all intensive purposes" (what does that mean) instead of "to all intents and purposes". Mind you, the one that threw I ... errr ... me most was when I first saw "wallah!". I had to go back and scan the context to find the wanted word was, naturally, "voila!" Sadly, I've seen it in increasing numbers of late. Even that former bastion of Australian English, the ABC, is drifting into a netherworld where sentences such as "Each of the accused men were interviewed by the police" are heard and read. And commercial television constantly reinforces the belief that it is totally ignorant of the rules for positive — comparative — superlative; both when and how to use them, and their formation. All hail the rise of "more—" and "most—" and mourn the loss of "—er" and "—est". I am not "more clever" than my younger brother, but my youngest brother is certainly the "cleverest" of us all.

And I haven't even started on the fate of the comma or its poor, endangered and elevated cousin, the apostrophe.

Perhaps later.

On two wheels

We have a new motorcycle. Well, new to us at least. My brother-in-law brought it in to Australia from the USA as a personal import vehicle.

For those who care about these things, it's a 2003 model twin-spark BMW R1150RT with just 40k kilometres on the clock and in showroom condition. It has a twin Corbin comfort seat, with rider's and pillion's backrests, larger touring screen, cylinder head guards, top case and what I'm pretty certain (yet to fully check it out) is a Stebel Nautilus airhorn that lets others know you are nearby in no uncertain manner! I've wired the Autocom intercom system and GPS into it and added a headlight protector.

Oh ... and it's red, 'cause red's faster.

"Big Red" at Mindarie Keys, Western Australia

Red is a step up from our previous bike, a 1997 Yamaha XJ900S Diversion, on which we did many thousands of happy kilometres together. The keyword is "together"; I enjoy riding far more when I have Dearly Beloved behind me to share the sights, sounds, smells and joys that riding brings. The BMW is, however, a quantum leap in terms of comfort for this poor ancient body. It's more of a "sit up and beg" riding position, with no weight on my wrists or shoulder muscles. And it's quieter ... no matter what you may think of screens on bikes, the larger screen on the BMW certainly cuts down on wind roar around my helmet. After 40+ years of target and field shooting, I am anxious to preserve what hearing I have left!

Mind you, I still miss the Diversion's four cylinder induction howl when I wound the throttle open and the revs started to climb ...

Anyway, here's the Old Girl ... and the bike. (Sorry, love, just joking.)

At Lancelin, north of Perth, WA

We had a "shakedown cruise" on the BMW when we took a couple of days off work, added them to a weekend, and headed south into the wine region. We did about 1200 km over four days and I am pleased to report I could still hear — and walk erect — at the end of it all. You can't ask for more than that.

I've been asked why we ride a bike (the "at your age" is implied!) and where we go and what we do on it.

I'll post more on that when the muse is upon me.