Comfortability? Supposably...

Well, I’m not sure I’ve sufficiently recovered from this comfortability nonsense, but I shall attempt to move on with my life… so who watched Lost last night? I was glad to see another episode focusing on the “original” island… there’ve been way too many episodes on the Other island lately. There were two times last night that I found myself thinking, “wow, they haven’t mentioned THAT in a while…” The first was when Kate said something about Michael and Walt leaving on the boat – I was like, “Michael and Walt! I forgot all about those two!” (Are we ever going to see them again? Have they managed to make any progress, or are they just going around in circles?) And the second time was at the very end, when Crazy French Lady emerged from the forest. I was wondering if we’d see her again any time soon – especially after we found out that Ben is Alex’s father. (Ben and Crazy French Lady?? What’s up with THAT??? Or maybe Ben isn’t really her father – that’s just what the Others told her? And why has Alex apparently been immune to the brainwashing power of the Others?) I really liked last night’s episode, because it was a bit more lighthearted than the super-serious last few episodes. Although I can’t believe they were actually able to get that van running again… and I can’t believe Sawyer drank all that old, warm beer…

So I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, because I just read that the back story will focus on Sayid, who we’ve barely seen since last year. He’s been popping into scenes for about two seconds at a time, and then running back to his hut on the beach, I guess. And that annoys me… because he is not only the best-looking guy on this bizarre, apparently not-so-deserted island, but he’s also one of the most interesting characters and it’s about time we learned more about his “before island” existence. And it wouldn’t hurt if he’d take his shirt off now and then… (just kidding… no, actually, I mean it – shirt needs to come off…)

But back to the comfortability thing, since Rick added a comment about “supposably.” Supposably actually IS a word, it’s just not a very common word. And it’s really a rather confusing word, when you actually make the effort to understand its meaning. It’s not the word you would use to mean “allegedly,” which is usually what is meant when “supposedly” is used. As it says on the Washington State University “Common Errors in English” web site: “‘Supposedly’ is the standard form. ‘Supposably’ can be used only when the meaning is ‘capable of being supposed,’ and then only in the U.S.” What a bunch of crazy Americans we are. And like I said, I’m not even sure I really understand that definition. Capable of being supposed? Uh, okay, whatever. I’ll just stick with supposedly. The bottom line is that 99.99 percent of the time, “supposedly” is the correct word to use. Yes, “supposably” is a word. No, you don’t ever have to actually USE it. Just like I will never willingly use “comfortability,” unless I’m trying to be funny… (laugh! Laugh now!!)

If you think I’M nitpicky about this stuff, you should read this list that I found. Some of these things really ARE genuinely annoying, but a lot of them are just regional dialects and accents. There are ALWAYS going to be different pronunciations of words, depending on where the speaker grew up. I’m not sure it’s possible to have a language that is completely homogeneous in its pronunciations. I mean, does anyone really care if someone says “comfterble” instead of “com-for-ta-ble”? Or (Eric’s favorite) “man-aise” instead of “may-onn-aise”? Who cares? It’s just diction. It’s different everywhere. As long as you’re not actually SPELLING these words as “comfterble” and “manaise”… that would just be sad…

In fact, we were just having a discussion about this the other day when my mom pronounced “Colorado” as “colo-RAD-o” – Rick apparently thought that was weird, because he pronounces it “colo-RAHD-o.” But a quick dictionary look-up revealed that either pronunciation is acceptable. I’d say it depends on where you’re from, except I tend to pronounce it as “colo-RAHD-o,” too. Maybe I’ve just been hanging around Rick too much... although I’ve never picked up the Texas colloquial “y’all” he uses all the time. I have, however, been saying “you guys” since I was about three years old. Even when I’m referring to a group of girls. That’s just what people say in the north. (Thank goodness I didn’t pick up “youz guys”… that one really grates on my nerves. :))

So, just to recap – supposably is a word, but please don’t ever use it. And Naveen Andrews needs to take his shirt off. Yeah, I think that’s about it…