Christina’s World

I’ve been reading about a painting called Christina’s World. The woman featured in the painting is Anna Christina Olsen who was the subject of several paintings by Andrew Wyeth.

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Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth

Christina suffered from a neurological disorder that crippled her from the waist down. Wyeth painted this picture as he watched her making her way across a field to a nearby house.

To be honest, I’m not really into art. I can go to a gallery, stand in front of any picture and not feel a thing aside from a mild cheesecake craving.

This picture is different. It’s not just the beauty and detail of the landscape; it’s her. I look at this picture and I wonder how far she’s travelled. Does she do this journey every day? How long does it take? I look at this picture and it makes me think about about the kind of hardships that people suffer every day without so much as a sigh or a word of complaint.

And so this picture makes me feel profoundly grateful.

About that ‘dog in the bin’ thing…

Okay, do you remember that Guardian article I was waving about a few days ago?

The Guardian: ten everyday grammar mistakes

Yeah, that one. Well, along with the article there was a picture…

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Yup, that’s the one.

I’ve written the piece, patted myself on the back, gone out, got drunk, come back, gone to sleep… then woke up in the middle of the night screaming, “Christ on a bike! It’s right!”

I’d remembered one of those frayed and faded grammar rules that I picked up in university, but never found a reference to say whether it was real or not. Y’see I think that poster is correct.

As far as I remember the rule goes something like this: the pronoun (in this case ‘it’) refers to the nearest noun (in this case… ‘poo’) which is the  antecedant of the pronoun. (Don’t take my word for it. Check with Grammar Girl.)

But before sticking slavishly to the rules, remember that your writing has two aims:

  1. clarity
  2. not to get laughed at for the wrong reasons.