You and i hate mosquitoes; Tim hates back-formations from Greek words.

To Tim, saying a man deserves “a kudo” for something is exactly like saying he deserves “a pray,” on the grounds that “praise” is more than one “pray.”

We’ve all said,  ”Kudos to you!” to someone who done good, meaning “Congratulations!” and so, whenever we’ve been forced to think about it (which is, mercifully, quite rarely), we figure one instance of them there kudos is a kudo.  So, like, if you win a martial-arts match, that would be a judo kudo. (Sorry.)

Actually, as Tim has been all too happy to remind me over and over and over and over and over again, “kudos” is a singular Greek noun meaning  ”honor,” “glory,” or “acclaim” — recognition for something positive.  But that “s” sound at the end (Tim insists it should be pronounced like the “s” in “son,” by the way, not like the “s” in “nose”) throws everybody off. We assume it’s a plural, and that there must be a “kudo” around here somewhere. My Webster’s College Dictionary lists “kudo” as a synonym for “compliment,” adding: “Back-formation from kudos.” But as Tim would say: That doesn’t make it right.

Copying the short link below will take you to today’s NY Times story about how the Methodists are about to prosecute a pastor for officiating at his son’s wedding to a man … which, thank G-d, is legal in New York, where the ceremony was performed. The problem is, the denomination has a rule that forbids its pastors from performing same-sex weddings. Copying the longer link takes you to the response from a some devout Methodists who are trying to fix that rule.

I’m with them.

Doesn’t Galatians say there is neither “Greek nor Jew,” and neither “male nor female,” but that all are one in the eyes of Jesus? Isn’t the Methodist slogan “Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors”? Didn’t G-d say “It is not good for man to be alone”? Why, then, prosecute a pastor for joining his own son in holy matrimony to a man who sweetly swore to support him in sickness and health ’til death parts them?

In this case, human ethics and understanding have evolved faster than the Methodist Book of Discipline. It’s a civil-rights case, yes, but more importantly, it’s about love.

Come on, Methodists: This is a good time to remember who you are, and who G-d wants you to be. Drop the charges against Tom Ogletree.

http://ow.ly/kKxDJ

http://www.mindny.org/mind-initiatives/umc-on-trial/

Chicago wizened up, buckled down and sent the Nets a stern message in a 90-82 win.

The copy desk accelerated the wizening of its readers by letting the error go, and the paper’s web staffers apparently liked the phrase so well that they contributed a large tease in the online version, just under the headline:

“… the Chicago Bulls wizened up, buckled down and handed the Nets a stern wake-up call.”

Schonbrun’s style is to write with the ear of a poet, resulting in nice rhythms. At the end of the story, for example, he writes:

That is the nature of Game 2. And now the series is back to Square 1.

i only wish a copy editor has wised up while reading that story, and that the Times’ web staff hadn’t missed the rebound.

Margaret Thatcher: Best known for: making millions of people miserable. 2 greatest achievements: Being Great Britain’s first female prime minister and abolishing the nation’s free-milk-in-schools program. Best friend: US President Ronald Reagan, promulgator of the failed “trickle-down” theory of economics. Friendship began in 1981, when he was 70 and she, 66. Quote: “I stand before you … the Iron Lady of the Western World.”

Annette Funicello: Best known for: making millions of people happy. 2 greatest achievements: Being a Mouseketeer in the first year of the “Mickey Mouse Club” and starring in the carefree “Beach Blanket” movies with Frankie Avalon. Best friend: Shelley Fabares, singer of “Johnny Angel.” Friendship began in 1955 in catechism class, when they were both 13. Quote: “Beauty is as beauty does; that’s what wise men say.”

A lot of ink was spilled praising Margaret Thatcher this week, to which I say: Rest in peace, Annette.

“Don’t mourn; organize.”

– Joe Hill

Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Olivia Engel and Josephine Gay –

Names that beat like raindrops on the city cold and gray –

Ana Marquez-Greene in pigtails, Dylan Hockley, Madeleine Hsu:

The bitter day you died, I promised: I am now your mother, too.

Catherine Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, this I know:

Season after season says it. In the melting of the snow,

In the turning leaves of autumn, in the burning grains of sand,

In each morning shaft of sunlight – James Mattioli, take my hand –

I am with you, Grace McDonnell; Noah Pozner, here am I;

Jessica Rekos and Avielle Richman, cowgirls riding to the sky;

Emilie Parker and oh, Jack Pinto, at last we hear the morning bell

And we must turn our tears to action; there are many truths to tell.

Caroline Previdi, six years old:  By your sacred name I swear

Not to quit the job we face – a broken country to repair.

Benjamin Wheeler, Allison Wyatt, now the task in earnest starts:

May God guide us as we work to fix our nation, mend our hearts.

© Genie Abrams, 2013

Early this month, as a public service, i called the Collector’s Office before 4 p.m. and suggested as politely as i could to the woman who answered that, since that greeting is three and a half months out of date, they might want to change it. The woman i spoke to said she’d tell her supervisor about it. When a week went by with no change, i called the mayor, too.

Shortly after that, i misplaced the bill in question. At 12:30 a.m. today (that is to say, just a few minutes ago, in the middle of the night) i went to the city’s website. There, in the listing for the Tax Collector’s Office, it gives the number as 569-7330. When you call that number, you get a message that is less embarrassing than the other one, but also erroneous: “You have reached the Collector’s Office. Our normal hours are 8:30 to 4.  We are sorry we can’t take your call; we are taking care of other customers.” Then: Click.

My suggestions, which would be totally free to implement and would take about one minute to effect:

1. For the 569-7339 answering machine, change the message to indicate that it is no longer Monday, Oct. 29.

2. Change the “away message” for the 569-7330 number to say, “You’ve reached us after hours; our hours are _____ to ____; please leave a message and we’ll get back to you.” And don’t say you’re “taking care of other customers” if it’s after hours. That’s what you say if you’re asking someone to hold. If it’s midnight, you’re not “taking care of other customers”; you’re off duty. By the way: We’re not your ”customers”; we’re residents, we’re taxpayers, and we’re your bosses.

3. And then, as the icing on the cake, go ahead and listen to the messages each morning, and actually return the calls. i dare to hope that within my lifetime, city residents will have the chance to leave a message if, like fools, they call the Collector’s Office at 4:01 p.m.

I love the way his little tail constantly bobs, as if he’s writing something with a quill pen.

I shall now try to append a photo of your typical winter wren, filched from the Cornell site, to this blog. Wish me luck! And if that doesn’t work, you can just go to the Lab’s winter-wren page: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Winter_Wren/id

– Barack Obama, 2/12/13

That should be written on all of our mirrors and walls.