But I did have to add an update to Monday's post, "Isolated Transient Alexia — a migrainous accompaniment — ever had it?":
The various doctors would not simply accept my opinion that this was an isolated transient alexia — a migrainous accompaniment. They had to see it as a possible TIA. Not only were various tests ordered up, but even the best results don't eliminate the possibility that it was a TIA and so the cautious approach is to assume that it was.
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Back when I was working (16 years ago) "tests" would have meant an angiogram of some flavor.
14 years ago. I suppose failure at simple arithmetic calls for a test.
“No, I didn't have another incident, though I did run into another sentence that powerfully resisted reading. From Reddit:”
That’s another good example of what’s called a “garden path” sentence, as I mentioned in the previous post. I love those! Not a sign of dementia (I hope). But if there’s any doubt, it makes sense to be cautious.
I think that's just a fucked up sentence.
My mother the diabetic had some of those but usually they caused some stroke-like physical symptoms also.
Or maybe the doctors just threw some jargon at it.
It was hurting my brain trying to read that damn thing.
From the comments...
I can't believe I actually understood that title.
Edit for clarity: Dog found photo in basement. Subject of photo is the GF of someone who formerly lived in OP's house.
ah!
Moriarty, you magnificent bastard.
so, the DOG has (had?) a girlfriend?
Isolated transient Alexia sounds like your Google assistant wandering off by herself.
“Edit for clarity: Dog found photo in basement. Subject of photo is the GF of someone who formerly lived in OP's house.”
Boooring.
“ so, the DOG has (had?) a girlfriend?”
The house had a girlfriend.
"gilbar said...
so, the DOG has (had?) a girlfriend?"
Nope. House had a girlfriend. Guy lived in houses's(large)girlfriend, dog found photo of (trans) guy
What's the German for "the guy who used to live in my house"?
“The house had a girlfriend.”
And the guy who used to live in her got too big and had to move out.
no, the guy(who used to live in my house)’s girlfriend
I think that mistakes are being made in sentence structure more frequently than before. I blame AI. AI is not rational, ever. It is statistical. It predicts. And it doesn't notice contradictions inside metaphors. And we are becoming accustomed to a kind of AI "feel" to essays and opinions which are done by AI but not acknowledged as by AI. They feel unpredictable to our reason because they aren't working from principles but they feel predictable to our memory, our sense of cliches in current use. And when we read, we work out the meaning of a sentence by assigning a connected meaning to all the words. Yet we can't know what meaning to assign to the words until we have read them while all knowing what they mean. That's why people can miss sarcasm, not understand jokes, So when we are reading now we are trying to work out whether this is a person reasoning or an AI predicting. At least, that is how I reach an understanding of current writing. It's a relief to get into an old-time book.
But maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing and you were just tired in a way that older people get tired. Or maybe you were reacting to physical pressure of some kind the way older people react.
that should read: 'my dog found a photo in my basement of the guy who used to live in my girlfriend's house'.
My general approach to hiring medical consultants is to ask around for THE OLDEST APPROPRIATE SPECIALIST in your vacinity who still is highly regarded by his or her patients. {Can you figure out how to speak with the most elderly neurology unit nursing supervisor -- who maybe retired last year?}
You probably already have seen a younger medical specialist. Fine. Now consider balancing that evaluation with one done by a doc who has worked with MANY THOUSANDS of patients. If their reasoned comments conflict, then consider speaking with an additional elderly specialist. Experience counts.
I like it the way it is. And it’s perfectly correct grammatically and semantically. It’s a bit challenging to understand, but most worthwhile things are. You guys want to take all the fun out of everything.
I’m praying for you, Professor,, for your health, peace, and strength. Take care.
>Ann Althouse said...
The house had a girlfriend.<
Yeah, and there's a photo of a guy who used to live and he's in her!
“The various doctors would not simply accept my opinion that this was a isolated transient alexia — a migrainous accompaniment. They had to see it as a possible TIA.”
That’s reassuring. Humans are very good at finding the least frightening possibility.
Do you have plans if you do have a stroke?
Could meade care for you at home if you lose the ability to walk... plan ahead now. You'll be glad you got a warning if you do. Listen to your body daily, not trying to keep up with his...
It's OK to end the early morning up and out into the elements daily thing... its2 become a rut, no?. Try something new YOU enjoy, with or without him? Break the routine as variety keeps you (semi) active not just rising and doing the routine that got you nere... cut n the red meat for canned beans if you can...
Get your rest, pursue YOUR interests which naturally were more sedentary than his. Don't letcha boi put you in an early grave... not worth it for companionship,...
Dawn knows. Stay down there for m the war's aftermath, she says... do your time before you check,out on us here. You sure own this age, lady...
Dont let meade hang a vacancy sign on his girlfriend!
You'll never get over the third showing even if he never moves in... it's ok to be single too.
ITA or TIA or AIT or IAT or ATI or TAI
That will be All
"My dog found a photo *of* the guy who used to live in my house's girlfriend in my basement."
Weirdly enough, I got it at first glance, due in no small part to my proclivity to straggling phrases. 'Of' made the phrase less comprehensible and could have been a little better by substituting 'belonging to,' but still, a straggling phrase.
"The various doctors would not simply accept my opinion that this was a isolated transient alexia — a migrainous accompaniment. They had to see it as a possible TIA. Not only were various tests ordered up, but even the best results don't eliminate the possibility that it was a TIA and so the cautious approach is to assume that it was."
Doctors have a God complex. Trust, but verify.
While in my basement, my dog found a photo of this girl, who was probably the girlfriend of the previous homeowner.
The writing is quite clear to a dyslexic.
…the cautious approach would be to assume nothing…
I like the sentence. Nested possessives. Big deal. It’s how some people talk. Give me that over one of Ann’s obtuse omissives- claims to ‘write to a level’ but if nobody wants to climb all the way down there to figure it out what good is it?
…’guy who used to live in my house’ is a decent moniker. Descriptive, banal. Could be way worse…
…the best one I can recall is from a video of a day of surfing at Mavericks. Surfers are being towed in to the waves and the chyron is displaying their names. One person was unknown to the video editors and was labeled ‘paddle in guy’. I want to be ‘paddle in guy’…
I am getting off this thread but a big clue is the girl in the photograph is a girl, not a boy.
Come on, Watson, you can do it. You're a doctor!
I saw that reddit post. It made me feel weird that I understood the post title. It was not an ideal sentence, but it was perfectly understandable.
My dog found a photo in the basement of the girlfriend of the guy who used to live in my house. But I'm wondering if we can use parentheses and other signs (as in mathematics) to make better sense of the sentence as written.
She's the boy who drives by here every day at two in a green Cadillac and honks his horn's sister.
The house had a girlfriend...but it's family didn't approve, said she was nothing but an outbuilding and laughed about her remodel. She'd had some work done, it's true, but the house thought she was charming and she had nice gables.
Not a very good girlfriend to the house if she let some rando guy live in her while he strew about the basement photos vulnerable to being dug up by dogs but then you might say hey Meade you’re old fashioned and your opinions don’t matter to dogs and you might be right.
Smilin' Jack is right; in technical terms the English possessive is a post-clitic on the noun phrase, not a suffix on the noun.
Weird it may be, but that is the actual English grammar rule. And I love our resident Klingon's further example at 8:04am.
Seems like we should be able to work in that James Thurber drawing of the woman as a house that is intimidating a little man.
P.S. Bob Boyd, Meade read your comment out loud and I was delighted. Wanted to read more stories based on the prompt "The house had a girlfriend..."
Meade, hilarious and weird. Extra points if you can go interpostal and bring in the dogs that chased the thieves who dropped the portrait of Madame Pichon in the garden.
My dog, Bichon Pichon (who we just call “Madame”), found a photo of the guy who used to live in my house's girlfriend in my basement.
It would make much more sense if you just hyphenated: The-guy-who-used-to-live-in-my-house's ......
Hope it's nothing, but I'd keep a bottle of aspirin handy.
It seems to me that your experiences are not alexia, but something like the cognitive paradoxes that seize you when you contemplate an Escher print. Your mind gets stuck trying to resolve the impossibility of the endless ramps and staircases.
I had what I believe was a true case of migrainous alexia many years ago.
Experiencing the typical visual distortions of a migraine, I discovered that I couldn't read. I saw the letters on the page, but they made no sense. I could not sound out simple words. I thought of it as dyslexia at the time, but it was more than that. I attempted to call 911 and failed--I couldn't do anything except hit random numbers. Other than my panic, my mind was clear, except for reading and language, which were impossible. I walked to a neighbor's house and communicated with gibberish.
Thirty years later, it seems to have ended well. I had a second episode several months later, but no definite diagnosis, other than migraines, which I still have occasionally.
Obviously the guys house had a girlfriend, who was a girl house.
If those walls could talk...
She had large, wide set dormers with window panes that sparkled mischievously whenever they were together, which was often since they were on adjoining lots. The house dreamed of one day re-platting, clearing away the hedge and the two of them becoming a duplex.
But little did he know, the greedy data center tech bros, who had never known love and who would never know love, had other plans...
I wonder if UN translators have this much trouble. The Russian is banging his shoe. “There is a housefly. The roommate’s girlfriend is a capitalist pig. Bad dog! Bad dog!” All the diplomats are confused.
Bob Boyd: house loves dog fan fiction star.
Always have one old doctor.
"Always have one old doctor."
Is that a drink? Sounds like a good name for a cocktail.
Or do you mean as a lover?
Ha, Bob. My best doctors have almost always been older. My very best doctor was actually just an employer, a large animal vet in his 90's who took several other advanced degrees to help his later sadly deceased Type 1 diabetic son. I had two of five immediate family members dying incredibly brutally of the same genetic, not lifestyle, type 2, disease -- things were much different in age expection a few decades ago, but even the treatments were a living death. His personal research on managing the disease anticipated later findings - that now extend to revaluating levels of chemo care.
He was also an amateur ballet dancer. And the clinic at which I worked was mostly his volunteer service to Auburn Avenue old ladies with dogs for protection, open a few days a week. He was a serious Christian. He had a pricey horse practice outside the city. Strongest 90-year-old I ever met, bar one old, female, armed, 95-pounds soaking wet, 4'9" 90ish (not dare to ask) Austrian Malinois police-dog trainer. My incorrigible dogs would whimper and lie in complete submission to her without her even addressing them. Quite a man and woman. If he could have been my real doctor, I would have been thrilled. 65 years of experience matters, if you give a damn and are trying to save your child. He could also beat the crap out of the gangsters and thugs who repeatedly tried to break in to steal Ketamine. A lifetime of wrestling offspring from inside large farm animals kept him ... spry.
I'd take a good elderly large animal vet over a doctor any day.
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