Saturday, February 6, 2010

comptroller



\kun-TROH-ler\

noun

1 : a royal-household official who examines and supervises expenditures
2 : a public official who audits government accounts and sometimes supervises expenditures
3 : the chief accounting officer of a business enterprise or an institution (as a college)

it's 6:00 a.m. i'm working the early shift. and mirriam-webster gives me this.

so...if it's pronounced like the word "controller" then why not just...use...controller...
apparently grammarian Henry Watson Fowler thought the same when he said this word is "not merely archaic, but erroneous." well said, Fowler.

this is besides THE POINT. the point(lessness) here is the erroneous nature of certain traditions. three traditions i do not understand:

1) brides' parents paying for weddings (ha!),
2) having to dress up "nice" for (albeit, usually other people's) family gatherings, and
3) using certain forks to eat certain things—salad? dinner?

the third one on here really makes me cringe. i never went out to dinner with my family. so, when i got invited with other people's families i was totally clueless. i never put the napkin on my lap. i always ate with the wrong fork. i reached over someone to grab the basket of bread. elbows on table. talking with mouth full. curse words. i was really a gem.

the point here is IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT FORK YOU EAT WITH. it's a fork. and there's no point in calling someone a COMPTROLLER when it just sounds like "controller" and that's essentially what they're doing anyway. but the thing with traditions is that people get used to having them around, and their lives don't feel the same in their absence. i like setting the table a certain way. that's the way my grandmother did it. fine. good. i get it. it's about history, depth, character. just don't look at me funny if i use the shorter fork for my spaghetti because it's all going to the same place.


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