On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Monday, September 17, 2012

A PSA for marathon training season



Chaffing: present participle of "chaff," meaning to tease (more commonly, chaff is used as a noun to describe "the husks of corn or other seed separated by winnowing or threshing.")

Chafing: present participle of "chafe," meaning either to "make (a part of the body) sore by rubbing against it," or to "be or become sore as a result of such rubbing."

Ahem. Let this never be your issue.
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7 comments:

  1. UnknownMon Sep 17, 10:08:00 AM EDT

    So I assume it's called a chaffing dish, not a chafing dish?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TMon Sep 17, 10:19:00 AM EDT

      Whoa. I've never even heard of these things:
      http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3737281

      Delete
  2. UnknownMon Sep 17, 11:41:00 AM EDT

    LOVE. The distinction. Not the chafeing, I mean chaffing, I mean *chafing*.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousTue Sep 18, 04:33:00 PM EDT

    God bless you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HannahThu Sep 20, 04:35:00 PM EDT

    Thank you. Serious spelling pet peeve.

    ReplyDelete
  5. HannahThu Sep 20, 04:35:00 PM EDT

    Oh, I also detest the phrase "have ran." It's "have run."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TThu Sep 20, 07:08:00 PM EDT

      Sing it, sister.
      I know know know know that bloggers aren't professional writers, and something about glass houses and grammatical stones blah blah blah but SERIOUSLY take a second to proof read UGH.

      Delete

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