Unbecoming Levity

Hear Hear or Here Here?

Abacquer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:04:00 -0500

So today I found myself agreeing with someone online and went to type "hear hear" but then remembered seeing someone else type "here here" a couple days earlier.

I was pretty sure the correct phrase was "hear hear" as opposed to the other variants I'd seen ("here here", "hear here", "here hear") but I'd never actually looked it up. So I decided to check popular internet usage using Google:

"hear hear" = 1,740,000 hits
"here here" = 3,880,000 hits
"hear here" = 307,000 hits
"here hear" = 334,000 hits

Well dang. According to popular usage twice as many people say "here here" than say "hear hear". But is that correct? Wikipedia says no:

Hear hear (Wikipedia):
...Hear, hear is an expression used as a short repeated form of hear ye and hear him. It represents a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker.

It was originally an imperative for directing attention to speakers, and has since been used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as "the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons", with many purposes depending on the intonation of its user. It is often incorrectly spelled "here here", especially on websites...

A quick double check of OneLook Dictionary Search confirms this. Six dictionaries list "hear hear" and only one lists "here here" (and that one happens to be the wiki article above.)

Popular usage drives the movement of meaning, though, so at some point in the future "here here" may end up being the correct phrase if we don't do something about it.

So if you want to avoid yet another English colloquialism that will have your great grandchildren scratching their heads and saying "WTF?" (or whatever kids will be saying in those days) then type "hear hear" at every opportunity.

Go on, say it, you know you want to.

Equal Night

Abacquer — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:07:00 -0400

8:07 PM EDT today, March 20, marks the Vernal Equinox and the official start of Spring 2007. Today at that time the sun will pass over the equator from the southern hemisphere to the northern. This is what you probably already know.

But I learned a couple of things today that I didn't know. First is that "equinox" means "equal night", which makes sense because on the equinoxes the length of day and night are exactly equal. Here in the northern hemisphere the days will continue to get longer until the Summer Solstice at 12:06 PM EDT on June 21, 2007. Since the last Autumnal Equinox we in the northern hemisphere have been getting less direct light than the southern hemisphere. As of 8:07 we will officially begin receiving more direct light than the southern hemisphere.

The other thing I should have known is that, for the southern hemisphere, this time will mark the Autumnal Equinox. I mean, I was aware that the seasons of the south are the reverse of the seasons of the north, winter here summer there, fall here spring there, but it just never occurred to me that the solstices and equinoxes were similarly flipped. Silly that should never have occurred to me.

Oh, one other little thing I learned is that "solstice" means "sun stands still". Since the solstice marks when the sun stops moving north or south and reverses direction, that's a very sensible thing to call it.

Another interesting tidbit, apparently the great Sphinx of Egypt is oriented so that it exactly faces the sunrise on the morning of the Vernal Equinox.

What Type of American Accent do you Have?

Abacquer — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 08:51:00 -0500

Tip of the hat to Pandora's Tea Room for providing a link to this fun quiz.

You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.

Oldest American Writing Discovered

Abacquer — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:45:00 -0400

Some Mexican road workers uncover a strange stone block covered with hieroglyphs while building a road. Then, nearly 10 years later, a team of archaeologists get a look at it and detemine that it is the only existing example of the writing of the Olmec people, and the oldest surviving writing in North or South America. How cool is that?...

Name Those Movies -- Audio Only #2

Abacquer — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:00:00 -0400

Here's another little audio challenge, which I think you may find harder than the last challenge, or maybe not. This time the clips vary in size from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, and each one includes spoken dialog from a movie. But there's a catch...

New Rule

Abacquer — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:38:00 -0400

The word "gigabyte" is from this point forward banned. From now on, the appropriate phrase will be "giggle byte". I've already used the phrase once today, and I encourage you to do the same.

That is all.

Yes, I'm still on my meds, before you ask!

Should Of Paid Attention in English Class

Abacquer — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:22:00 -0400

I've seen the construct "should of" written several times in the last couple days, including appearing on a slide at a company presentation where I work. It drives me positively batty...

Further Proof That I Kick Ass

Abacquer — Mon, 08 May 2006 13:17:00 -0400

Okay, I just couldn't resist that title. Check out this Scrabble game I played last week against a higher rated player on the Internet Scrabble Club...

Stream: Sleaze

Abacquer — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:06:00 -0400

The scene opens with an interior shot of an automobile driving through the city. Chad is at the wheel. Carly sits in the passenger seat reading aloud from a flyer which says "LIVE and IN CONCERT -- ROTARY NICKLES" on the back. In the backseat...

What's a Stream?

Abacquer — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:00:00 -0400

For those of you who've never read a ULev Stream, and are wondering what it's about, or for those of you who have read one and are still wondering...

Introducing QI, KI, ...

Abacquer — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:12:00 -0500

The Internet Scrabble Club has finally updated their dictionary. And largely because of this, I was able to defeat a player with an 1100+ rating today...

How to Spell Hanukkah

Abacquer — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 14:15:00 -0500

Step one, think carefully about the sound of the holiday's name as you say it, for me that's "HAH", "NOO", "KAH". Step two, grab a large club and whack yourself in the head eight times. Step three, attempt to write the word. You probably got it right. Okay just kidding, but it wouldn't at all be an understatement to say that there are literally dozens of "correct" ways to spell "Hanukkah"...

Stream: Hopscotch

Abacquer — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 09:00:00 -0400

The scene opens with Carly and Chad sitting on a park bench. Behind them we see a stand of trees and a small fountain. Before them is a path and the edge of a playground. Chad is hunched over a book that says "Logic Puzzles" and Carly, wearing sunglasses, is stretched out and leaning back with her face toward the blue sky. The lighting suggests midafternoon...

Can a Haiku Rhyme?

Abacquer — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 01:05:00 -0400

My friend Brian and I had a friendly disagreement about haiku today. I'd call it a gentlemen's disagreement if I didn't think Brian would look over his shoulder and say "who walked in?" As the title suggests, the question was: can haiku rhyme? Brian felt that if it rhymes it's not haiku, and I felt otherwise...

Hey, I'm Over Here...

Abacquer — Fri, 27 May 2005 12:09:00 -0400

My daughter has had trouble in school this year. She has a hard time remembering stuff she's taught, and she clearly has an anxiety disorder just like Dad. When I was a kid, my anxiety debilitated me socially... I couldn't get along with others. With my daughter, it debilitates her educationally. Socially she is fine, but if she becomes anxious, her educational performance goes downhill fast. Earlier in the year I had warned her teacher about this...

OU2

Abacquer — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:02:00 -0500

So the other day I wrote an article about OU--in my opinion English's most persnickety vowel pair. Following that article I wrote a quick survey and sent it around to the people in my office who are a fair mix of different cultures, to get their take. The survey had only one question...

Oh You!

Abacquer — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 10:41:00 -0500

Or more precisely "OU". In all of English, this is the letter combination that my daughter finds the hardest. I don't blame her... I think it's the worst. Consider the sentence: "Though he may have difficulty, enough thought should get him through the tournament in four hours." To my ear each of those ou's makes a different sound...

Stream: Loofah

Abacquer — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:03:00 -0500

SLAM
CARLY	[sprawling on couch half dozing] Hmm? Wha? Terence is that you?
TERENCE	[enters looking somewhat perturbed] Yeah it's me. [to Chad who is at the counter doing a crossword puzzle] Hey Cube, 'sup.

As always there is...

Stream: Plex

Abacquer — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:47:00 -0500

CARLY:	[to customer] I'm sorry, but there's not much I can do about that sir. [customer leaves in a huff] Thanks, come again!
TERENCE:	[walks up with a handful of CD's and a price ticker] What's his bitch?
CARLY:	He's miffed about the stickers.

Indeed there is...

Stream: Analemma

Abacquer — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 06:44:00 -0500

CARLY:	[walks in with tray of drinks] What was all that about anyway?
TERENCE:	Yawn Sorry, I was dreaming of a lemna.
CARLY:	[sets down tray on endtable next to sofa] A lemna?

Yes, there is ...