E-mail from the Blue

Nearby History Writer Friends,

I had an interesting e-mail in my inbox today. It was a very nice inquiry from a Seattle Central Community College student asking if she could help me with a history project. My first thought was: Huh?

I responded and asked how she came about my contact information, and mentioned that I was not currently organizing any project, so I was a little puzzled.

Well, it turns out that she saw the project descriptions for 2007 Nearby History online. Have you seen the lovely page that MOHAI has put up?

Nearby Historians: Projects by individuals from the Nearby History Program.

Now that our projects are out there for the world to see, it is extra motivation to get the job done. Write, fellow writers, write! I thought I would mention this e-mail in case anyone else has the pleasure of inquiries from others out in the big wide world who are hungering to get more involved in history research and writing.

After explaining, I thanked the student for her interest and encouraged her to look into the Nearby History Program. How lucky we all are to have come across Lorraine McConaghy and Nearby History!

- Chery

March Forth!

Today Is The First National Grammar Day

If you don't have a good handle on basic grammar, you can't always say what you mean. People might be able to guess your meaning, but not every time.

Martha Brockenbrough

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and National Grammar Day are the brainchild of Seattleite Martha Brockenbrough. Brockenbrough is a columnist with Microsoft's Encarta and authors the very useful and entertaining SPOGG blog. (Read her National Grammar Day column in Encarta and find out which celebrity has the worst grammar. We in Seattle know her well.)

Seattleites are very serious about grammar. The good, the bad, and the ugly can all be found displayed at the SPOGG Blog. I am one of the 6,000 members of the Society, even though you'd never know it from the grammar usage in my blog posts -- I am not worthy. We in Seattle are so serious about our grammar we even correct our graffiti and have our own cocktail, the Grammartini.

One of my favorite sections of the SPOGG Blog is the Blogs We Love list. The best of the best Grammar and Language Blogs can be found in this extensive list. Grammar Girl, you've got to love her, has created a special grammar-related top 10 show to celebrate National Grammar Day. Number 8 makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up:

8. Irregardless is not a word. Wrong! Irregardless is a word in the same way ain't is a word. They're informal. They're nonstandard. You shouldn't use them if you want to be taken seriously, but they have gained wide enough use to qualify as words.

Thou shalt not say "irregardless" if you mean "regardless" or "irrespective."
For those of you who remember "Schoolhouse Rock," take a look at Punctuation Rap by Ms. Lindsay Rivas of the University Charter School in Modesto, California. She wrote this for her kindergarteners. How I wish we had more teachers like Ms. Rivas, who is featured on the SPOGG Blog.

When it comes to grammar, perhaps we in Seattle are wound just a little too tightly, or perhaps it's the frequent trips to Starbucks. To illustrate my point, the Sunday Seattle Times features a Rand & Rave column; this past Sunday it let out one large grammar rant that I will share with you today, National Grammar Day:

To the person who crossed out the word "can" every time it appeared in the King County Library book I'm reading and wrote in the word "may." In pen yet! It's dialogue; that's how people talk sometimes, you grammar Nazi! Not to mention you've defaced public property. By the way, I am a librarian.

National Grammar Day In The News -- our own King 5 News has done an article, "Me and Him Are Gonna Party on National Grammar Day."

Brockenbrough says she doesn't go around correcting everyone she comes in contact with. But, she says, when someone is making an error that could be embarrassing, on a resume or on a public sign, for example, it's only right to gently alert the person to the error.

"It's sort of like having your zipper down," she says. "Would you rather someone took you aside and said, 'Hey, the barn door is open,' or would you rather get home after a long day and discover the sad state of your fly?"

The SPOGG Web site features all things grammar, from grammar tips and a quiz, to "Grumpy Martha's Guide to Grammar and Usage."

There's also a place for grammarians to send in photos of "apostrophe catastrophes" and other language missteps.

"Sometimes when people screw up it's really stinking funny," said Brockenbrough.

Read The Rest Of The Article ">> Note: The King 5 site may require free registration.

So, let's party like we know where to place that comma,
colon, semicolon or apostrophe.
Celebrate National Grammar Day -- Break Out Those Red Pens!
Oh, and a Grammartini!

__________

Inspiration and material borrowed heavily from Martha Brockenbrough. Nobody does it better!

Photograph Courtesy -- SPOGG

Chery Kinnick's "Snoqualmie Pass" Reviewed

Our own Writer-Friend Chery Kinnick and her recently published book, "Snoqualmie Pass," are the subject of a review by the local Valley View community newspaper. The article can be found here - "'Snoqualmie Pass' Tells it Like it Was", Valley View, February 18, 2008 edition.

‘Snoqualmie Pass’ tells it like it was
by Lisa Allen
Valley View Editor

The book jacket shows a group of Seattle-area women lined up in anticipation of a day’s skiing at Snoqualmie Ski Bowl in 1939.

What better time than this, the winter of the Big Mountain Snow, to curl up with a book on the history of Snoqualmie Pass.

Long-time Alpental residents John and Chery Kinnick, who authored “Snoqualmie Pass” together, have mined the area’s rich and fascinating history, skillfully compiling old photos and text to create a pictorial timeline of this magnificent portion of our state.

“We had thought about doing the (book) project for a while,” said Chery Kinnick, 53, a supervisor for the University of Washington Libraries. “Our real goal was to highlight the winter recreation area and show that it is also a real neighborhood. A lot of people live up here; it’s like a small town, plus we have all the amenities of a larger city.”

But it wasn’t until she participated in a history writing seminar through Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry and met an editor with Arcadia Publishing that the couple were encouraged to move ahead.The Kinnicks began the task of rounding up the photos (there are 200 in the book) and gathering the accompanying information.

Read the entire article >>

Chery says she was rather surprised to get a phone call last week at work from the editor, Lisa Allen, who requested an interview. "Snoqualmie Pass" provides a glimpse of the overall history of the area, something Arcadia's Images of America series does quite well. Chery quotes her editor as saying, "Arcadia is the Starbucks of history publishers": quick, accessible, and tastes good, too!

Well Writer-Friend, we can all say "we knew you when!" Much continued success and another book in the future?

Read more about this article at Chery's blog Nordic Blue.

Submitted by: Linda-Rae Palmer

Billie Barb Featured In Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomer

Our own Nearby History - Writer Friend, Billie Barb, has been featured in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomer newspaper in an article about the amazing research she has done on the Vashon Chautauquas. The article is entitled, " Citizen historian unearths stories about Vashon’s Chautauquas."

It is a well written article with a great quote from Lorraine about the work that Billie has accomplished in the acclaimed Nearby History Program. The Citizen historian article can be read in the online edition of the newspaper.

Congratulations Billie, your Nearby History Writer Friends are so proud of you!

Citizen historian unearths stories about Vashon’s Chautauquas

Jan 30 2008

By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD

For The Beachcomber

Billie Barb has the look of a master gardener: a short, no-nonsense crop of white hair, comfortable clothes, strong hands and gentle blue-green eyes. And since retiring to Whidbey Island in 1999, Barb has, in fact, spent a lot of time in her garden, nurturing plants and pulling weeds.

Lately, however, she’s been doing a different kind of digging. She’s been on a treasure hunt to uncover facts about a fascinating chapter in Vashon Island’s history: the turn-of-the-century settlement of a large summer colony and cultural center, called Chautauqua, situated on the shores of Tramp Harbor.

Continue reading the article >>

Submitted by Linda-Rae Palmer

Thank you, Nearby History

And, thanks to Linda for starting this blog and posting my guinea-pig profile. I might update it a bit, but she did a fine job.

I want to encourage those who are not familiar with blogging to give it a chance. When I first started a year and a half ago, it seemed very strange, indeed. But, it quickly becomes second nature, and yes, even addictive, as many of us have found. It is a quick and easy way to share information, and seek the support and advice from others who are interested in the same pursuits.

A million thanks to Lorraine for helping many of us get off the ground with our writing in the Nearby History seminars, and also in the Genealogy and Family History Program through UW Extension. Her time and effort has been well spent. Now it's up to us to continue that support with one another.

Chery Kinnick