Fong's Fountain Fuck
I'd like to start out by saying that Fong's Villa in Tecumseh, Ontario is a pleasant place to eat. The food is good, the servers are attentive, and the owner, while a bit opinionated, is quite a nice person.
Fong's is a restaurant, not a bar (although it does have a bar area where drinks are prepared for service to the table area).
Soft drinks at Fong's come from a fountain. They charge two rates (for small or large glasses). I estimate that, after accounting for ice in the glass, the large glass probably holds between 5 and 6 oz. of beverage. They charge $2.00 for this glass.
Most (but unfortunately, not all) restaurants which serve fountain drinks provide free refills. Not Fong's. Consuming four glasses of pop (the equivalent of one "medium" cup at a fast food restaurant) cost me $8.00. Putting that into perspective, my main entree only cost $9.50.
I don't eat at Fong's very often, and I always wonder why. And every time I finish a meal and get the bill, I remember the answer.
Fong's runs a gold mine, but I get the shaft.
I'm not an exciting person, but anything that crosses my mind that I care to share with the rest of the world will appear here.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Saturday, November 09, 2013
What's happening to English?
What's happening to English?
I'm not well-read, so there are words I come across occasionally that have me stumped. I simply look them up and learn something new.
But, there are other times when I encounter words that are clearly not proper English, yet appear to be in common use.
The one I hear most often is conversate, used as a verb when someone has a conversation with another. Unless it's been recently added to the English language, it is not a proper word.
Today, I came across another "invented" word: authentification.
Try googling that word, and see just how often it comes up. It appears to be the mongrel spawn of "authenticate" and "verification". Yet, according to every dictionary I accessed (and of course, my common sense), it is nowhere to be found.
It's bad enough that the current generation is being short-changed when it comes to learning cursive writing. Soon, no-one will be able to sign their own name, let alone create a document long-hand. And don't even get me started on spelling. The introduction of texting has completely destroyed any possibility that future generations will know how to spell any word having more than one or two syllables.
I only hope that someone in the education system realizes what is happening before it is too late to stop the decay of the beautiful English language.
I'm not well-read, so there are words I come across occasionally that have me stumped. I simply look them up and learn something new.
But, there are other times when I encounter words that are clearly not proper English, yet appear to be in common use.
The one I hear most often is conversate, used as a verb when someone has a conversation with another. Unless it's been recently added to the English language, it is not a proper word.
Today, I came across another "invented" word: authentification.
Try googling that word, and see just how often it comes up. It appears to be the mongrel spawn of "authenticate" and "verification". Yet, according to every dictionary I accessed (and of course, my common sense), it is nowhere to be found.
It's bad enough that the current generation is being short-changed when it comes to learning cursive writing. Soon, no-one will be able to sign their own name, let alone create a document long-hand. And don't even get me started on spelling. The introduction of texting has completely destroyed any possibility that future generations will know how to spell any word having more than one or two syllables.
I only hope that someone in the education system realizes what is happening before it is too late to stop the decay of the beautiful English language.