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| James “Kimo” Rosen is a retired professional photographer living in Kapa'a with his best friend Obama Da Dog, Rosen also blogs as a hobby... This blog appeared as my column "Kimo's world" in the 01-13-14 edition of the Kaua'i garden island news; http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/guest/channeling-andy-rooney/article_7e47aabc-7c12-11e3-a686-0019bb2963f4.html |
Channeling Andy Rooney
Andy Rooney the former 60 minutes commentator who always had the last word on the show is my hero and mentor. He was my favorite writer, columnist and satirist of all time. I used to watch the CBS show, "60 minutes" religiously only for the last 3 minutes with Andy Rooney. He was off the wall, always had a point, and always made me laugh. I miss Andy Rooney.
If I could have spoken with him, I might had started my conversation with his famous refrain,"Did you ever wonder." Did you ever wonder why you are actually talking to me?
Andy Rooney was the reason I watched "60 minutes." Most of the shows anchor's are well advanced senior citizens and without Rooney the show has pretty much sealed it's fate.
Rooney was blogging before blogging was even a word, or people knew what blogging was. I call Rooney the original blogger, the guy who blogged before it became a word. Mr. Rooney had the best job in the world.
If Mr. Rooney could write an essay from beyond it might begin;"Did you ever wonder why they say people "pass away?" What have they passed, footballs, baseballs or maybe just a little gas?
I am currently reading a book of essays I purchased at the Kapa'a library's annual book sale by Andy Rooney. The book is titled,"Uncommon Sense" and only cost me fifty cents. I am hoping to channel Andy Rooney with my own thoughts and words on the usage of the word zero. Here goes;
"Did you ever wonder why" sports commentators always announce the score as 14-Oh, instead of 14-zero?. I was always taught as a child that 'Oh' is a letter not a number. When talking numbers one should use zero, not Oh.
I had a hard time explaining this to my students in Japan when I was teaching English as a second language back in the day. The students always wanted to say Oh, in lieu of zero? They watch American movies, sports and TV and often hear Oh used to represent zero.
It's never the other way around, nobody ever says, zero boy, or Zero man, it's always Oh boy, or Oh man.
Oh is oh, and zero is zero. With that said, others insist on saying the score is 35-zip. Zip seems better than Oh, just because Zip begins with a Z, just like zero.
Many will call the score 35- nothing. I still like nothing better than Oh, but not as much as zip when representing zero.
Zero is one of the few words in the English language that begin with Z. The only letter with less words are words beginning with X. My pocket dictionary show only six pages for the heading" XYZ." Why are there so few words beginning with X,Y, and Z?
Whether it's nothing, zip, or oh, zero is what I was taught to use in elementary school. The teachers drilled me that Oh was not a number and when I would accidentally say Oh instead of zero I was made to stand in the corner.
Thinking back on that teacher she was a big zero , a big zip, a big nothing, or should I say in spite of it all a big Oh?
Did you ever wonder why they say rest in peace? We miss you Andy, RIP.
James “Kimo” Rosen is a retired professional photographer living in Kapa'a with his best friend Obama Da Dog, Rosen also blogs as a hobby; http://www.dakinetalk.blogspot.com/
http://thegardenisland.com/news/opinion/guest/channeling-andy-rooney/article_7e47aabc-7c12-11e3-a686-0019bb2963f4.html
P.S.
How you can open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. This is worth the 50 seconds to watch!
http://www.mirabeauwine.com/how-to-open-a-bottle-of-wine-without-a-corkscrew/
Hana Hou, (Encore) Shared from Facebook...
