Stationary

Are you stationary or mobile? Still or moving?

I'm intrigued by homophones like stationary and stationery.

Stationary is an adjective, meaning immobile, unchanging.

Stationery is a noun.

Stationery is out of style right now. But someone gave me some beautiful notecards the other day. He's a photographer and he took the photos and printed them on card stock himself. I will definitely have to use them! For those of you born before the ubiquity of email and texts, that means that I am going to send a card through Snail Mail. It used to be called just "mail." But now we need to differentiate between the modern and traditional.

I don't want to be left behind, but sometimes the old ways are better. Think about how annoyed you were after the 20th text you got today, and how happy you were the last time you got a card or letter through the mail, in your mailbox! Even if you try to persuade me that texts are better, I will remain stationary on this matter.

Of course, sometimes the new way is better. When I went to college I had a popcorn maker. You can't make anything else in them, just popcorn. And now we can just put a package in the microwave for about 3 minutes and have delicious, hot, flavored popcorn.


Popcorn is not stationary. I wonder how high the people jumped the first time they threw some dried up old corn kernels on the fire and they started jumping and popping...

Take my Advice

I would like to give you some advice about spelling. Some words are easily confused, like advise and advice. Advise is a verb and advice is the noun.

These aren't exactly homophones, they sound different, and the spelling is different. But since C can have the same sound as S, some people get them mixed up.

All I can say is, I advise you to consult a dictionary before sending a message or a letter. I don't think spelling counts in a text. Actually, you lose points for spelling all the words out. . . Do they charge per letter??!!

I wonder if there is a word for words commonly spelled like another word. I bet there is...Are there any other wordsmiths or philologs out there who want to advise me?

Thanks.