KNOW, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars—Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Grammarian, thin-haired, squinty- eyed, red pencil in hand, a teacher, a corrector, a pest, with a gigantic vocabulary and gigantic persistence, to tread dangling participles and run on paragraphs under his oxford shod feet.”—The Nemedian Chronicles
Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Having taught all boys for the overwhelming majority of my adult life, my go to response to “can I go to the bathroom?” is not the above, but rather “I hope so, because if you can’t, you probably ought to see a doctor about that.”
I have a weakness for correcting (in my head, usually) incorrect grammar and usage. However, I have heard some common “mistakes” even in old, pre-1950 movies, for instance, the ol’ “between you and I” and the like. In real life, accordingly, I almost always let common mistakes like that slide. It just seems to make for better relations.
Mrs Bagg, my 4th grade teacher,. Every year on the first day of class a student had not gotten the word.
“Teacher, can I go to the washroom”?”
“You can, but may not.”
I apologize for being a source of mortification for anyone who reads my posts.
😕