Well, today is one of my least favorite days of the year: time to put the Christmas tree up. I always like the tree once it's up, but there's something about the process of getting the live tree, driving it back to the house, trimming the branches, figuring out how to put it in the tree stand, attempting to evenly distribute lights around the outside, and then getting poked with incessantly while putting up the ornaments. I'm told they make artificial trees that are pre-lit...but I've also been told our house needs a real tree because they look better.
Aside from that though, "trimming the tree" also exposes some of the silliness of the English language. Today I'll be both trimming the tree (aka removing pieces of it) and trimming the tree (adding things to it). Perhaps afterwards I'll dust the banister behind the tree (by removing dust) and then dust the tree with some tinsel (by adding more "tinsel dust" to it). Of course once the season is over, I'll have to raze the tree and throw it out, even though I spent a good part of this afternoon raising this tree today. It's one thing to have words that mean different things...but quite another to have a language filled with words that mean precisely the opposite of each other when used differently.
Aside from that though, "trimming the tree" also exposes some of the silliness of the English language. Today I'll be both trimming the tree (aka removing pieces of it) and trimming the tree (adding things to it). Perhaps afterwards I'll dust the banister behind the tree (by removing dust) and then dust the tree with some tinsel (by adding more "tinsel dust" to it). Of course once the season is over, I'll have to raze the tree and throw it out, even though I spent a good part of this afternoon raising this tree today. It's one thing to have words that mean different things...but quite another to have a language filled with words that mean precisely the opposite of each other when used differently.
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