The house is once again free of guests, and I'm reveling in the free use of the computer once more. You can't just plop down to check email and read blogs when there are guests about, especially when said guest is already at the computer checking his/her email.
Much has been happening around here, which thought I'll put on hold until I have finished pondering the construct of that sentence and why it is that I always fall back on the 'much' approach rather than the 'lots [of]' approach. 'Lots has been happening' or 'lots has happened' works, but only on the presumption that you were going to fill in an indeterminate amount, the implied 'lots of stuff has been happening.' And 'stuff,' especially 'lots' of it, just sounds clunky and uninformed. Or you could pretend that you were going to say 'lots of things have been happening' (ooh! That's helpful and specific!), and then you feel silly for going to all that trouble to spell out the phrase, proving that it works grammatically, and still end up with a vague platitude that needs to be expounded upon.
I have therefore concluded that 'much' just about always sounds more elegant and polished than 'lots,' despite their being pretty well synonymous (unlike 'I' and 'me,' which people insist on believing to be interchangeable, with the vague impression that 'I' has the slight grammatical edge, leading them to use it whenever in doubt of the two). For proof positive of this newfound theory, let's just experiment with a few literary examples:
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'What do you want with me, Spirit?' asked Scrooge.
'Lots.' It was Marley's voice.
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For unto whomsoever lots is given, of him shall be lots required: and to whom men have committed lots, of him they will ask the more.
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The sun is up; why aren't you?
The Jaize A'Castles have lots to do!
****
Yes, quite; just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? And that concludes my grammar check. Back to the stuff and things.
So between houseguests last week, and Thanksgiving next week, and babysitting this week, and church and choir practise and play group and trying madly to spend up all the money in our FSA before the end of the year (does ANYone else out there need another free blood glucose monitor? Specifically someone in VA, whom I can send it to by courier next week?), we've been keeping pretty busy. That's all for now. Off to eat more free ice cream and hazelnut chocolates.
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2 comments:
Rose, that's awesome you go to the MSM site too. VERY interesting to me, I've been checking it out every few days. Did you do that spa deal w/ Walgreens? Anyway, I'm glad to know that friends around the country know about these deals too. :)
Sounds like your weekend getaway was nice. That's great your mom could get some grandma time w/ the girls, too!
I missed it last month because I'd already sent in my rebate form for October, but now I see that they're running it again this month. We'll see how it turns out!
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