Don't sweat the small stuff.
Hmm.
Life is full of little do this, don't do this platitudes.
Here's another fun one.
Ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is no excuse.
Hmm.
All of this brain teasy twisty occurred to me as I was reading this post from a Facebook friend today.
At 10:29 a.m. Thursday morning, convicted murderer DENNIS MCGUIRE received an untested combination of two drugs to kill him. For the next 20 minutes, McGuire struggled and gasped loudly for air, "making snorting and choking sounds...with his chest heaving and his fist clenched," The Columbus Dispatch reports. McGuire's attorneys unsuccessfully argued the drugs could cause him to die painfully, which violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. McGuire died from an injection of a sedative and a morphine derivative because Ohio couldn't get phenobarbital thanks to Danish restrictions on its distribution for use in capital punishment.
More details, if you're into the minutiae of grisly news items, are available, of course on pretty much every major news site today.
Here's what caught this eye, though.
In the "comments" that dutifully follow most posts on the ol' social media, one contributor, obviously dismayed by the fate of the injectee, offered this trenchant historically referenced observation.
"Sounds kinda Joseph Mengalish".
Hmm.
Now, any regular reader of my own material, being perhaps in a foretelling frame of mind, is likely thinking that I'm about to bring my scythe of sardonicism slashing down on the commenter's grammatically sloppy mutation of the term "kind of".
Nah.
I kinda do that sorta thing myself from time to time.
Gives the written words a more conversational flavor.
What got my grammar goat was the writer's attempt at throwing a little historical reference out there on the stoop to see who might lick it up.
Well, he shoots, he scores.
He had me at "Mengalish".
I suppose, in the category of close enough is good enough, the gentleman should be given credit due.
He did, after all, offer up a name that is synonymous with cruelty and torture and barbarism.
Almost.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I confess that when I first read his offering, my first, instinctive reaction was a chortle.
Because what first popped into my particularly mischievous medulla was the sound of a jingle, any jingle, hawking a kid's lunchtime treat, any lunchtime treat, and the announcer calling out in that enthusiastic timbre that only announcers calling out enthusiastically can provide.
"hey, kids.........it's mmmmmmengalishous!"
Of course, that's just my twisted sense of humor.
Kinda impish.
Not to mention childish.
Again, though, due respect to the contributor because I did, in fact, understand exactly to whom it was he was referring.
The notorious German war criminal.
Josef Mengele.
And, again, kudos for making the connection, for everyone, between the seemingly inhuman way that convicted killer McGuire died and the notorious Auschwitz doctor, Mengele.
But, here's where that "don't sweat the small stuff / little things mean a lot" business comes into focus.
The man upon whom history has bestowed the sobriquet, "Angel of Death" was Josef Mengele.
Joseph Mengalish?
Never heard of him.
Admittedly, that could be because, in addition to my native language, I speak a teeny bit of Spanish, a modicum of Japanese...
But, I no speaka da Mengalish.
Or, more likely, it could be the more obvious conclusion.
The gentleman proudly contributing a little bit of History Channel chat to a social media site often bereft of any posting that doesn't consist of pictures of kids, pets and/or the latest meal about to be ingested by said photographer, simply didn't know how to correctly spell the name he contributed.
Which now brings us around to the "ignorance is no excuse" portion of our presentation.
I'll grant you that it's, arguably, mean spirited, even a little rude, to pick on a guy who has the well intentioned class to even provide a little quality history that doesn't consist of pictures of kids, pets and/or the latest meal about to be ingested.
But, I refer you back to our opening observation.
Little things mean a lot.
And in a world that continues to advance technologically at an almost immeasurable pace but, still, has vast numbers of residents who can't master the correct usage of to, too and/or two (just two name an example or to), the mangling of Mengele deserves just a little, if only just a little, respectfully distributed derision.
Because one very prominent result of the technological advance is available, twenty four/seven to any and every one who might be, even slightly, unsure of exactly how to correctly offer up what they are moved to offer up.
Provided, of course, they have access to the ol' Interweb.
Which, of course, those who have the facility to post on the ol' Facebook most certainly have.
Google.
Which will lead you, perhaps, to Wikipedia.
Which will bring us back to two, too, to and....
Mengele.
Yes, yes, yes.
It's a little thing.
But (say it with me), little things mean a lot.
And ignorance?
Well, with the advent of Google, (say it with me) ignorance is no excuse.
By the way, chances are the irony of all of this isn't any more lost on you than on me.
To, too, two.
Fore, for, four.
All those, present company certainly included, who gripe and grouse and, as they charmingly say in Tennessee, pick fly shit outta pepper, when it comes to the correct use of grammar in our everyday lives have been given their own zesty, fun filled nickname.
Grammar Nazi.
Which is a real hoot given that all of this picky, picky was inspired by none other than one of the most infamous of Nazis.
Joseph Mengalish.
Not to mention his equalish evilish partner in crime.
Joseph Gerbils.
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