Scotch, whisk(e)y, and everyday black and white

I’ve wondered about the difference between black and white and monochrome, terms that seem to be used interchangeably. However, as I researched, I found out that’s only partially true. The differences and similarities are the same as those between Scotch and whisky/whiskey. Grab your glass and read along.

Grammerly points out the differences in the spelling of this type of alcohol:

Whisky (no e) refers to Scottish, Canadian, or Japanese grain spirits. Whiskey (with an e) refers to grain spirits distilled in Ireland and the United States.

Now if you picture the drink, no matter the spelling, as the large circle of a Venn diagram (Dan, I know you would draw this but I don’t know how to do it online). Scotch whisky (not wiskey) is made only in Scotland while adhering to certain laws. So Scotch is a small circle inside that large whisk(e)y one. Bourbon whiskey (not whisky) is made in the US and mostly from corn, so that’s a separate small circle in the large circle making up whisky/whiskey. So large whisk(e)y circle with small Scotch and bourbon circles inside it but not overlapping each other.

SO…all Scotch is whisky but not all whisk(e)y is Scotch and all bourbon is whisky but not all whisk(e)y is bourbon AND Scotch and bourbon aren’t the same.

Now I’ll cut to the chase, hoping you’re still enjoying this. All black and white (the Scotch or bourbon of photography) is monochrome, an image composed of one color (the whisky/whiskey of photography and the big Venn diagram circle.) But any image composed of one color that isn’t black and white (or the more accurate term “grayscale”) is monochrome. All black and white/greyscale (small circle) is monochrome (big circle) but all monochrome is not black and white.

So if anyone asks you the difference between black and white and monochrome, you can tell them black and white is Scotch, while monochrome is whisk(e)y. That should start a lively conversation. And that means my photos over the next few days are whisk(e)y, Scotch, and greyscale. Cheers or Slàinte mhath in Scottish. pronounced slan-ge-var. Go figure.

P.S. Today I’m taking my parents to get theirs (and my) second Covid vaccination shots (Moderna.) Tomorrow I’m taking my husband to get his first shot. These are blessings!! Hopefully we’ll have no side effects, but both mornings will be full so if I don’t get to your post right away, my apologies. You know I’ll always be back. 🙂

Fun with editing

These bushes growing in the water and providing great reflections attract me for some reason. Then I got to playing with editing and this is the result. Happy Tuesday.

That “I’ve been in lockdown too long” feeling

Every time I walk by this poor ball, I think maybe its situation is really a metaphor for the times. So I present it to you for some fun on Friday and I hope your weekend is a good one. Because all kidding aside, if you’re healthy and have a job, anything else is a first world problem!

(Even though the video looks sideways, at least when I see it, it will play correctly when you click on it.)

Feeling alienated?

Yesterday during my walk I found 8 lovely lemons (which I had to carry with me for over half an hour!) I also saw this. And I wasn’t even anywhere near Area 51! Bulk trash pickup is what they say, but I don’t believe it!

Deconstructing plants

I did mention I had more edits from from with editing the other day. Here are a few I had fun making using the Matter app. Thankfully I’ve never seen anything like this at the park, although it would be quite something! 🙂

Around and around and around

Deer me, just playin’ around.

Used an iPhone photo taken through a window with a screen, boosted the color, then used Lomo-ish from Picasa with a bit of a vignette. I think it looks a bit like a painting. Just gotta have some fun.

Language abuse: spelling misteaks

Spelling is often abused, not always with humorous outcomes, although auto correct has its moments.  However, these spelling bloopers might, to quote a famous rock group, “make a grown man cry.”  I suppose now it should read “make a grown person cry”, but as they say: “Whatever!”

1. The pistol of a flower is its only protection against insects.
2. Vestal virgins were pure and chased.
3. In Pittsburgh they manufacture iron and steal.  (Dan, is that true???)
4. They gave William IV a lovely funeral.  It took six men to carry the beer.  (Seems like “Dilly, dilly” should be the response.)
5. To celebrate at feasts, the inhabitants of old England sometimes cut the head off the biggest bore and carried it around on a platter.
6. Carats, 2 for 39 cents.
7. Please leave your umbrella and goulashes here.  (Is that cultural appropriation?)
8. She had a seizure–her third one–and she fell and went unconscious.  She was in a comma and she never woke up.
9. Editors and Proff Readers–Must be good in spelling and grammar.  (We can see why!)
10. Mr. and Mrs. Garth Robinson request the honor of your presents at the marriage of their daughter Holly to Mr. James Stockman.  (That’s why you invite 300 of your closest friends, right?)

Again, all from Anguished English, by Richard Lederer.  Please, if you don’t buy it, at  least check it out (literally as well as figuratively) from the library!

 

Language abuse: bienapropisms

What on earth is a bienapropism??  Richard Lederer says that “The best malapropisms are those that leap across the chasm of absurdity and land on the side of truth” and dubs them bienapropisms, in the spirit of the French roots.  My interpretation?  Bien (good) + appropriate + malapropism = lots of fun!!  Here are some examples, again from Anguished English.  Read ’em and weep.

1. The cookbook is being compiled.  Please submit your favorite recipe and a short antidote concerning it.
2. We sold our house and moved into one of those pandemoniums.
3. To be a leader, you have to develop a spear de corps.
4. Senators are chosen as committee chairmen on the basis of senility.
5. The hills were worn down by eroticism.
6. Apartheid is a pigment of the imagination.
7. Certainly the pleasures of youth are great, but they are nothing compared to the pleasures of adultery.
8. The defendant pleaded exterminating circumstances.
9. Finally, this one that we’ve used for fun in our family for years:  It’s a fragment of your imagination.

Happy Tuesday!

Language abuse: malapropism

Mrs. Malaprop was a character in 1775 comedy by Richard Sheridan who misused words in a way that created unintentional humor.  From her, we get the word “malapropism”, a particularly enjoyable type of humor.

Malapropism:

: the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context

• “Jesus healing those leopards” is an example of malapropism.

One of my favorite books of comedy, Richard Lederer’s Anguished English, has a number of examples, a few of which I’m sharing with you today.  You survived Monday; you deserve some good laughs!  And if you enjoy word play and, as Lederer says in his subtitle, “accidental assaults upon our language”, I urge you to get the book immediately!!  You won’t stop laughing for hours.  But beware.  It’s addictive!