Monday, July 6, 2009

Medicate me, please.

The other day I was sitting at my computer editing when I posed the question aloud, "Beside or besides?" I had to look them both up to be sure, but as I suspected, beside means next to or alongside of, and besides means in addition to.

The tall one was sitting at the other computer listening to my running commentary and started singing this hymn:

All the way my Saviour leads me
What have I to ask beside . . .

Oops.

Ole Fanny Crosby goofed. But then besides would have to rhyme with guide, which would then need to be changed to guides, which just doesn't make sense, and now we've opened a can of worms.

Dang. I'll never be able to sing that song right again. It reminds me of the other grammatically incorrect hymn that is like nails on a chalkboard:

If that isn't love
The ocean is dry
There's no stars in the sky . . .

Aaagggghhhhhh.

Ben says I'm afflicted with grammatical correctness and I think he's right. It's like a sickness you can't control. Imagine a person with two personalities having an internal conversation:

What?! That's not right!

Oh, stop it. Just sing the hymn.

But "there is no stars??" C'mon, isn't there a better way to say that?

*eyes rolling*

At least I get paid for it.

Be thankful ~

Karen

1 comment:

Brother Ben said...

Precious,
I can help. Fanny Crosby was never wrong in a hymn. Change your paradigm. When it's Fanny in a hymn versus English, well she just gets to redefine English. I'm sure the Father and William F. Buckley agree. LU!