Early yesterday morning I was sitting in the living room when a pinkish light began to permeate the space. The living room faces west, so I couldn't see the rising sun, but I knew we must be having a nice sunrise. So grabbed my phone and ran to the front window in the dining room, which faces east, and this is what I saw.
Thanks for your comments on my Ikea post yesterday. Incidentally, I instinctively wrote it "Ikea," but I note that many people online (and many commenters) wrote IKEA. I wondered which was correct. IKEA, it turns out, is an acronym -- it stands for founder Ingvar Kamprad, who lived on a farm named Elmtaryd, near the Swedish town of Agunnaryd. Hence, IKEA. Who knew?
However, the Associated Press's style rules, which dominate the news industry, say that an acronym should be capitalized only when the letters are pronounced individually, as in IBM, CIA or FBI. When they function as a word, as in Ikea, only the first letter is capitalized. Which I guess is why I instinctively wrote it that way.
It's interesting how AP style has continued to influence my writing life, even though I've been out of professional journalism for 13 years now. (And I never saw myself as a consistent style maven!) I still have a tendency to capitalize Internet, for example, because that was the rule under AP style -- until it changed in 2016, after I left the news business.
Yesterday morning I walked Olga around the neighborhood. We found some new graffiti at the basketball courts -- remember this artist from the graffiti I found recently in South Kilburn? She gets around! (I'm assuming that's a self-portrait.)
When I got back home, I cleared some stuff in the garden. We've made the sad decision to remove one of our buddleia bushes near the back door. Its roots are prying apart the mortar in the rock wall surrounding the flower bed, and it's gotten so big it's hard to walk past it. So I cut the whole thing down to the ground, as far as I could, which will make Mrs. Kravitz happy -- it's the one she complained about. I also pruned another buddleia nearby. It seems very spacious out there now.
Then I took Olga to the cemetery, where this primrose is already blooming in the grass. It seems early -- they normally appear en masse about a month from now. Maybe this one's just an outlier.
Finally, remember the documentary I mentioned called "Victim/Suspect," that examined cases in which women reported sexual abuse only to be turned into suspects themselves? Well, last night we watched a somewhat similar Netflix documentary called "American Nightmare," which recounted the story of a woman who was kidnapped from her home in California in 2015. At first the police didn't believe her story, which was eventually revealed to be true. It was such a riveting (and infuriating) account that we binge-watched all three episodes!
Buddleias do get huge! I love the deep purple flowered ones. The sunrise is spectacular.
ReplyDeleteBuddleias are tough..and will grow back from a hard pruning. So if it needs to be gone, roots need to come out.
ReplyDeletePrimroses are supposed to come in Spring... however our climate and weather patterns are screwed up.....
I agree with AP about Ikea. I expect the BBC has similar rules in a style guide.
ReplyDeleteI saw Victim/Suspect mentioned elsewhere yesterday. I vaguely remember reading about it at the time.
Every winter I say, 'This is blooming/flowering early. Nothing to do with climate change'. But truly I don't know. I also tell myself to make a note of when things flower and leaf up, but I forget to do it.
IKEA themselves always write the name/acronym in block capital letters. That must man something.
ReplyDeleteI remember that kidnapping story in the news. Interesting info about acronyms. I never knew that. My work involved both AP and Chicago style at the same time (for different publications) with Chicago being the dominant use. I’m surprised they haven’t become muddled in my brain over the years, but I’m inconsistent in their use now. I tend to make my own rules.
ReplyDeleteNews flash, "Misogyny is Alive and Well". Makes me sickto my stomach and angry as hell.
ReplyDeleteJust caught up with yesterday’s post
ReplyDeleteTeary eyed
It was just like watching fucking LASSIE COME HOME
XX
I think I saw "American Nightmare." Those stories anger me because it makes the police question every victim's story. I believe in some of those cases police departments have sued to faux victim to pay for their expenses incurred in searching for them.
ReplyDeleteI always write IKEA in all caps because that's how IKEA writes it.
Arcus clouds are semi rare. Lucky you noticed, pink alerting you! Gorgeous sky!Does it really matter that Ikea is IKEA, and internet is Internet? No, it does not. That is one reason I dropped out of journalism at university. Too many rules for solid accuracy and structure. I switched to creative writing. Now I have abandoned even basic grammar in my "Does it matter" mode.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to have a stocky little buddleia where you hard pruned. It will be another issue for the neighbors to complain about. They're relentless, b and n!
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote IKEA my predictive text put it in all caps anyway, so I didn't argue. See, it's done it again.
I forgot to thank you for the primrose, my favorite of all flowers.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful sunrise! Nice way to start your day, Steve.
ReplyDeleteWow! That graffiti artist has sure been busy. I wonder how long it takes her to complete a large wall like that!
Did you watch the Netflix series "Unbelievable" with Toni Collette and Merritt Weaver? Based on a true story. Same sort of situation. A young woman is raped and men detectives essentially force her to admit she made up the whole situation. And then other women start reporting the same sort of crime against them. It is a terrific series with excellent acting and writing.
ReplyDeleteThat first photo is amazing, Steve. What a sunrise!
I'm a lazy writer. I will type something, ponder the rules of language or spelling, deleted it and write a more simple less elegant word instead. I need to start looking rules/spelling up and become a better writer.
ReplyDeleteI am not much of a rules person and I admit that I don't know the rules. The rule about Ikea and capital letters makes sense so that we have everybody on the same page.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous sunrise! I have to confess that the title of your post made me expect to see a photo of you in some crazy outfit. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI find, some shrubs are relentless and either grow back or sometimes sprout up someplace nearby. Your morning sky is beautiful. Sadly, blame the victim seems a common strategy. I wonder what the stats are on this?
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful sky. I love that information about acronyms, I learned something new. Acronyms fly around like crazy where I work and I think I drive people nuts because I'm always asking "what does that stand for"?
ReplyDeleteI am just catching up on my blog reading. Kudos to you for returning the Ikea cart. I loved the photo of the cart in the taxi.
ReplyDeleteBoy , All Of The Northern Hemisphere Experienced A Magical Sunrise - Stoked
ReplyDeleteHappy Monday Brother Man ,
Cheers
That sunrise.... what a dazzler! I love that you were getting the glow even though it wasn't visible in the room where you were.
ReplyDeleteI feel you AP Style thoughts. I worked AP style for 32 years and old habits die hard. I confess, I'm glad I'm not dealing with writing like that now. I've been having grammatical issues with pronouns. We were at a play Saturday and in the program they identified programs for the actors (first time I'd seen that) and we were confused by She/They. We finally figured it out (thank you, Google) but later reading a review of the show, they were mixing the pronouns, which mixed up the tense of the article and it was making me frustrated and tense. (I get tense with such things.) And I realized, if I was still working, I'd be dealing with that on a regular basis!
Such an amazing sunrise image! Excellent.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, ikea (I am not even using capitals here because apparently they don't even exist in Swedish, but don't take my word for it) anyway, ikea, together with a big national radio station, ran a sort of fun competition in Germany on what these four letters could also stand for, apart from what you have explained in your post. Regretfully, the one with the most votes was "idioten kaufen einfach alles" which translates to "idiots simply buy anything".
That's a gorgeous sunrise; I love the clouds too! IKEA/Ikea, who knew? I didn't even think about until now. I find myself too often infuriated these days. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my younger daughter was an undergrad and working on two degrees at once, both of which involved a lot of papers. One used APA and the other Chicago Turabian. I never knew how she could keep it all straight!
ReplyDeleteI've always been partial to sunrises. Beautiful photo!
That is a magnificent sunrise!!
ReplyDeleteI miss wild primroses and their delicate scent.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting education on spelling and acronyms.
We are about to watch American Nightmare - I have a feeling I might get a tad angry.
River: I love buddleias and I hated having to cut this one down, but it was a classic case of the right plant in the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteGZ: It's down to the ground. Although I'm not a chemical user generally, I may treat the stump to kill it.
Andrew: I hesitate to conclude that anything is behaving a certain way because of climate change. It's certainly possible, but there are always oddities in nature.
YP: As I said, it is an acronym, so I imagine they're capitalizing it because of that. But the AP doesn't care!
Mitchell: I try to adhere to AP style but I'm sure I screw things up here and there. I was never a strict copy editor.
Pixie: And it ought to! It should make all of us angry.
John: HA! "Ikea Come Home"!
Bob: I can see why police need to be skeptical, within reason. But it seems they are far more likely to disbelieve a woman reporting a sex crime.
Linda Sue: I wish I could write in "does it matter" mode. I am way too detail-fixated for that.
Boud: I know I'll have to stay on top of it to make sure it dies, but I will. I hate to kill anything but this plant just can't continue where it is.
Ellen D: I think graffiti writers (as they are often called) can move pretty quickly -- a skill they learn when writing illegal pieces!
Ms Moon: Yes! That was a great series. To be honest I love pretty much anything with Toni Collette in it.
Ed: Ha! There's nothing wrong with that! In fact it's a standard tool in the writer's toolbox. When in doubt, reword!
Red: And that's the point of style, to keep everyone "on the same page," as you put it.
Bug: Well, yes, that was my clever little lure to get people to read the post. LOL
Susan: Yeah, I wonder. It seems to me that women are more likely to be disbelieved, which is troubling.
Sharon: Ha! I bet sometimes people don't even know what they stand for. We start using the acronym as a word unto itself and forget its source!
Michael: It fit quite easily! I was worried!
Padre: I know! It was so funny that we both blogged a sunrise on the same day!
Jeanie: Yes, modern pronouns can be a nightmare! I have that problem when I'm speaking, and a single person uses "they." It still sounds so incorrect to me. I haven't seen "she/they." Maybe I need to read up more on this?
Sabine: Ha! That's funny! Should we come up with an English equivalent for IKEA?
Margaret: I get frustrated fairly easily too. I think it comes with age, sadly!
Kelly: Oh, that WOULD be a nightmare -- I can't imagine having to write in two styles. At least in my case I only had to learn AP.
Jim: I thought so too! I was glad I caught it!
Caro: You might, but I like shows that stir me up! I found it very effective.