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Exploring the roads less traveled

Location: Blogs Sly Comments
Posted by: Emory Schley	10/7/2006 8:43 AM
This is a place where your tall tales, your jokes, your light-hearted moments are welcomed. Sometimes we are forced by circumstances to take life much too seriously, but here, we can just let our hair down, so to speak, take a deep breath, relax, and exercise our collective sense of humor. I received a letter not long ago from a reader about proper pronunciations. Mary Betty Herrera wrote, "Reading your column on October 3, ( a section of the newspaper I never miss), I found a problem of pronunciation that I may be able to help with. Let me explain. The reference under the segment entitled "The Long and Short of It," was to the pronunciation of the compound adjective "short-lived," an adjective frequently mispronounced. The reason for the mispronunication (pronouncing the "i" in 'lived' as a short vowel) is the mistaken notion that the word is the past tense of the verb 'live.' However, the meaning of the adjective is 'with a short life,' and it is the word 'life,' a noun, which is the word changed to an adjective by adding a 'd.' In making the change, the 'f' is changed to a 'v,' and instead of saying 'short-lifed,' we say 'short-lived.' The adjective is pronounced with the long 'i,' as your correspondent wrote it 'short-lyved.' I hope my explanation is clear. I know it is lenghty, but blame that on my being a teacher of English and French for 30 long years. Please keep on including these language problems in your columns. I love them. Sincerely, Mary Betty Herrera --------------------------------------------

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Comments (14) Add Comment

HAVE YA' EVER WONDERED...?	By Emory on 10/4/2006 7:23 PM
HAVE YA' EVER WONDERED why birds never seem to get lost up there in the air, but human pilots, with all their fancy instruments -- compass, GPS and so forth -- still manage to get lost at times? Have ya' ever wondered water expands when it's COLD, but contracts with HEAT? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Who can we complain to about this anomaly?

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By Alice Miller on 10/8/2006 10:25 AM
Thanks for the reminder, I've not been there for a while. Checking out the 'online newspaper' & blogs. Coming from mostly the old school journalism, it will be an education. Blogs sound somewhat dangerous in this day & age? @

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By A Thankful Heart on 10/10/2006 3:48 PM
Everything God creates has order... and purpose... but as for understanding the details of why and how…I have not a clue... I recommend Thanking Him and counting our blessings and trusting his ways to be above ours. :)

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By Lorena Frazier on 10/10/2006 3:33 PM
I've been in Ocala since 1975 and never attended the McIntosh festival, sorry to say. There's a big craft show on the 14th at OTOW with seven communities taking part. Will you and Dearly Beloved honor us with your presence?Hope to see there.

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By Lorena Frazier on 10/10/2006 3:39 PM
I've been in Ocala since 1975 and never attended the McIntosh festival, sorry to say. There's a big craft show on the 14th at OTOW with seven communities taking part. Will you and Dearly Beloved honor us with your presence?Hope to see there.

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By Emory on 10/10/2006 4:07 PM
Lorena; Oct. 14 is the day of the Nine-Mile Pond Festival in Belleview. Dearly Beloved and I have already decided to go to that one, but I'll ask her about going to OTOW instead.

Re:Your column	By Marie Barreis on 10/10/2006 4:31 PM
Hello Sly Guy: Just want you to know that more often than not, I find your column is the most interesting news in the Star Banner.

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival	By Emory on 10/11/2006 8:39 AM
Gee, Marie-- That's very kind of you. I'm afraid you're making me blush!

If you could change one thing about Marion County	By Margarethe Smith, Dunnellon on 10/20/2006 1:25 PM
1.) put more emphasis on saving the natural Habitats. 2.) send all drivers at an 5 year turnus true driver training. Love your column, keep up the good work.

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival

By Emory on 10/24/2006 2:32 PM

Dearly Beloved and I attended the McIntosh 1890s Festival over the weekend, as we had planned, and then topped that event off by going to the Marion County Rose Society show at the Ag Center. They were some magnificent (to me) specimens on display. I say "to me" because I really don't know much about roses, other than they are flowers, some are red, and they smell sort of halfway pleasant. They sure are pretty to look at though.
I took my "new" stereo digital camera with me and snapped off about 50 or so shots both at the Festival and the Rose Show. Got some pretty good shots, too. Gotta get out the stereoscope and polish it up, now, I guess!
This Saturday, a memorial service is planned for Frances DeVore, and Dearly Beloved and I may attend, if we feel up to it.

Re: McIntosh 1890s Festival

By Emory on 10/26/2006 9:24 AM

I received a note from Lora Ide this morning about a little "adventure" she experienced recently. Rather than spoil the story, I'll let her tell it to you:

Hi, Emory,

The following is a little adventure that we had at our house yesterday after I left the newspaper... I wrote it up for a friend this morning, and I have no idea if you want to read it or can use it for a brief in your column, maybe? If the "beast" turns up at our house again, I am going to be looking for a way to track down the owner... Lora Ide

Oct. 25, 2006
Hi, Tony,

I had to attend a photo class down at the Ocala Star-Banner yesterday, and I learned a thing or two, or so I thought.

When we got home (it was Bruce's day off) we had to cook these 2 huge packages of spare ribs I'd bought the day before, so I boiled them in two huge pots inside for half an hour, and Bruce started the charcoal grill.

It was just before sunset, a pretty time. We were tired, having run all day. Then, Bruce heard the "Balloon Man" taking off from up at Gloria's ranch (I am informed by my new editor that he is a "para glider") and what I sort of would like to do is, if given the chance, race after him as he takes off, get his name and photo and do a story about him.

So I ran inside to get the camera and put on a LONG lens and went outside. I felt quite the professional photographer, camera in hand, great lens etc. Our ribs smelled great. Our neighbors had just gotten home from an overnight trip to Orlando. I couldn't hear the Balloon Man, but I meant to be ready, nonetheless. I walked around the corner of our house on the way to the front yard when what should I see, at the bottom of our yard across from our mailbox, but the BIGGEST PIG in the history of pigs.

I panicked. It looked like a wild boar to me, and it was the size of a small bear. At first I thought it was a bear. But no. It was a pig.

I thought it would get my husband, my cat, our ribs or me, so I ran back around back, shouting for Bruce, who didn't believe me and had to check for himself.

"Get the gun!" he shouted as he ran back around to the back of the house.

"AND the bullets," I screamed, dashing into the house and racing for the telephone, where I called Betty and said there was this giant pig, and could Richard come with his gun?

"YES," she said, hanging up, and the long and the short of it was we all met at the edge of the road between their house and ours, armed to the teeth, while this huge, docile, beautiful AND sweet pig ambled around, going doo-doo on our yard at one point and completely minding its own business.

Bruce had the rifle. Richard had a handgun. Betty had a baseball bat. And I? Not even a camera, for Pete's sake.

I called 911 in the middle of all that, and they said call animal control. Animal control didn't answer. If I see the pig today, I will put some water out for it and call animal control. Also, I just did a story on a church with a punkin patch. When they are done selling the punkins, they call a pig farmer to remove the leftover punkins. In a pinch, if this pig lingers around here and animal control doesn't come, I shall call the church for the name of the pig farmer.

We all stood around the pig last night for about 10 minutes, and I finally asked Richard, "Well. What do we do with this pig?"

"Lora, I have no idea," he said. "I have no way to secure a pig. So, I'm going home."

"But, Richard!"

"No. I'm going home. It's time to eat dinner."

The pig, I noticed a half hour later, was rooting around in Betty and Richard's yard. And then, it disappeared and hasn't been seen since. And that, you have to admit, is news. Just be very careful where you step in our yard, for a few weeks...

Re: Exploring the roads less traveled

By Emory on 11/1/2006 4:08 PM

Those who know me are aware that I've always been fascinated by stereo photos and 3D movies. I got hooked on them when I was about 12 years old or so, and it's turned into a lifetime passion.
I have two stereo cameras, currently, a small underwater model and a more versatile upscale model. The thing about stereographers is that they do everything in two's. Two cameras, two rolls of film, twice the processing and at least double the aggravation of planar (flat) photography.
But the two camera units I have now are ALL digital and that takes a lot of pain and expense out of the equation. The cameras are all made by Sony, and the memory sticks that record the photos are made by various other manufacturers.
What makes digital stereo photography practical – and practically effortless – compared to the film variety, is the use of computers to manipulate the images, correcting flaws and small rotational errors and whatever other gremlins happen to botch up the process.
Masuji Suto is the fellow who came up with "Stereo Photo Maker," a free Windows program that allows you to manipulate images, correct common errors, and dozens of other "magical" processes to make your photos "sparkle" and "zing." And he constantly refines the program, making each successive version better than the last. It's easily as good as any commercial program on the market and quite a bit better than most of them. And he does it all for the sheer love of stereo photography. He offers his hard work and innovation in SPM to the world – for FREE!
He certainly gets my vote for Humanitarian of the Year! (Incidentally, if 3D movies are your "thing," he offers a reduced feature set of SPM as "Stereo Movie Maker," which does pretty much the same stuff, only with 3D movies. The price? It's free, too!)
If you'd like to try your hand at taking stereo photos (you can use a regular camera, and "cha-cha" between the two exposures, then check out Masuji's website and download his program at: http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/
Have fun!

Re: Down the road a bit further

By Emory on 11/3/2006 4:12 PM

Someone asked me the other day about synchronizing two cameras to take stereo photos. There are several ways to go about this. You can open up your precious cameras and wire the circuitry together -- specifically, the off/on switch, focus, and auto exposure -- so that when you turn on one switch, both cameras come to life. With any luck their video timing cycles will be pretty close to being synchronized. The only problem is that about 15-20 percent of the time, they won't be in sync, but you won't know that until after you take a pic or two and look at them.
That's the cheap way. The more expensive and better solution is to get a pair of cameras that offer LANC control circuitry, then buy a LANC controller (or monitor, if you prefer) which will not only power your two cameras up together, but will measure the synchronization between the two video signals and give you a readout of the pertinent facts.
There are at least three different LANC controllers I know of that are on the market. The one I have is made by Rob Crockett in California. It works exceptionally well and can even provide flash synchronization as well as shutter sync. Another is made by Pokescope. I have no specific information on the third one.
For prices and additional details on the two I did mention, see www.ledametrix.com or www.pokescope.com.
These controllers will only work with certain Sony camera models (for still photos), and with Sony and Canon videocorders. See the websites for details.

Re: Exploring the roads less traveled

By Emory on 12/6/2006 12:42 PM

Dearly Beloved and I recently dared the fates by visiting south Florida. We took the Turnpike down, got off on U.S. 1 and zipped on over to the "Coral Castle," a place of folklore I've long wished to visit. We only stayed there for perhaps two hours, before jumping back into the car and zooming on out of Dade County. No sense pressing our luck, we reasoned.
Coral Castle is a pretty nice place, well-kept and thought-provoking as you wander around and marvel at the work accomplished by only one man, toiling away unassisted by others or by any modern machinery.
Next stop on our itinerary was Cypress Gardens to see how the new owners had changed it. It's still pretty much like the older version, but the "Southern Belles," still said to exist there, were nowhere in sight during our visit. It's still one of the prettiest places around and definitely worth a day of your time.

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