Mazzou's Melliflous Memories: A Young VF Girl's Blog

[nelliebelle1197]

Marjo at mazzoumemories.blogspot.com/ has a whole bunch of new posts up. Marjo is a young homeschooled girl whose parents are (or were) definitely Vision Forum fundies. Poor Marjo thinks she is British and living in a Jane Austen novel. I hesitate to pick on her because she is a just a teen, but her blog provides an interesting glimpse into this world. Old fashioned dancing, modest swimsuits, awkward sentence structure, costumed reinactments, Thomases (but no Jordan or Beautiful Meliss), homeschool graduations and over the top birthday parties abound. Oh, yeah, and now with BOOK REVIEWS!

I have posted her link before but she doesn't post much, then in a flurry throws up an entire season. No word about Douggie, but Marjo may be too young.

[Chasingthedog]

drives me absolutely nuts when Americans start spelling things in the English way, such as Labour and favourite. NO. NO NO NO. It doesn't make you more english or cooler, or whatever, just makes you seem loony.

[nelliebelle1197]

drives me absolutely nuts when Americans start spelling things in the English way, such as Labour and favourite. NO. NO NO NO. It doesn't make you more english or cooler, or whatever, just makes you seem loony.

You mean you do not celebrate Labour Day with your Mum?

[GeoBQn]

I use "theatre" because that was the preferred spelling among drama majors at my university.

[flojo]

You mean you do not celebrate Labour Day with your Mum?

My kids will be! (The one sticking point I have with spelling as a Kiwi in the US. I will be Mum, not Mom!)

[Loveday]

drives me absolutely nuts when Americans start spelling things in the English way, such as Labour and favourite. NO. NO NO NO. It doesn't make you more english or cooler, or whatever, just makes you seem loony.

I'm American, but I've been spelling many words the English way for over 40 years, thanks to early and much exposure to British literature. I don't do it to be cool, or 'more English,' I do it because it's natural to me; I can't type 'neighbour' without the u unless I stop and think about it for a minute, which slows me down too much. If that makes me seem loony to you, I can easily live with that. ;)

[dairyfreelife]

drives me absolutely nuts when Americans start spelling things in the English way, such as Labour and favourite. NO. NO NO NO. It doesn't make you more english or cooler, or whatever, just makes you seem loony.

Funny story. Once I was trying to write something, can't recall what now, but it kept telling me that words like labor or favorite and such were misspelled and I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on. It kept telling me it was things like labour, favourite, sceptical instead of skeptical, that sort of thing. I was wondering why on earth it was telling me the English spelling was correct instead of the American as I always used American before. Finally, I discovered the problem...I had apparently, unintentionally, changed my language setting at the bottom of Word to English (British version). I didn't even know they made two different versions until then and thought either version would pick up as correct. I was wrong. Learn something new everyday.

[Rachel333]

It tends to strike me as really pretentious when Americans adopt British spelling. I did that as a young teen myself, but now I think if you're in the US you need to use the American spelling, and if you're in, okay, most of the rest of the English-speaking world, use the British spelling.

I did have to use British spellings last year while studying abroad, and it surprised me how many differences there are. I know about neighbor/neighbour, realize/realise, jail/gaol and the like, but there were a lot more I never thought of and probably wouldn't have caught without changing my spell-check language, like mollusk/mollusc or sulfur/sulphur.

[mockingbird]

It tends to strike me as really pretentious when Americans adopt British spelling. I did that as a young teen myself, but now I think if you're in the US you need to use the American spelling, and if you're in, okay, most of the rest of the English-speaking world, use the British spelling.

I did have to use British spellings last year while studying abroad, and it surprised me how many differences there are. I know about neighbor/neighbour, realize/realise, jail/gaol and the like, but there were a lot more I never thought of and probably wouldn't have caught without changing my spell-check language, like mollusk/mollusc or sulfur/sulphur.

I did that when I studied abroad too and I was also surprised. It was kind-of fun to learn all the new spellings though :D

It has been a few years back in the US for me but sometimes the British spellings still come out, mainly when I am writing really fast and not thinking, like taking notes in class. Luckily spellcheck keeps it consistent for me on the computer so I don't sound pretentious and/or crazy, haha (because there've been a few times I've caught myself using one spelling and then the other in the same sentence - fail). The one word that bothers me is anaesthesia/anesthesia. I don't think I knew how to properly spell it until the year I studied abroad, and it doesn't look right to me without the extra a.

[terranova]

Is she the sister of the girl who wrote those ghastly Civil War "fanfics"? I can't remember her name but her blog was just hideous.

ETA: savoriesoflife.blogspot.com found it!

[Trynn]

When I was in 2nd grade, I didn't know there was a difference. I'd dread British books, and then take spelling tests and get words wrong. Teachers for some reason never caught on to the fact that I was using British spelling. Youd think they'd have noticed and said something.

[LucySnowe]

I got dinged on a spelling test for using a British spelling rather than the American one. I mean, it wasn't a big deal, and IIRC my teacher *did* notice it was the British spelling, but I didn't spell the word correctly so got the point taken off. But then, one of my best friends was British and I was reading a lot of her books, so it was probably bound to happen at some point.

[Avalondaughter]

When I was in 2nd grade, I didn't know there was a difference. I'd dread British books, and then take spelling tests and get words wrong. Teachers for some reason never caught on to the fact that I was using British spelling. Youd think they'd have noticed and said something.

My teachers certainly noticed! I was cured of my English spelling habits by the time I finished high school. I accepted I wasn't Charlottle Bronte.

I like American spelling since it seems more phonetic and simpler to me. Words like colour and labour, and favour all look to me like they should rhyme with velour.

[Carla Bruni]

Um, guys? She says she's TWENTY-TWO.

What the everloving fuck.

[Dinorah]

Am I seeing things or is that a wine cellar on the background of her blog? And doesn't "mellifluous" have a negative sense?

Anyway, the impression I gets is that she has more fun than other SAHDs, what with her paddling and swimming trips.

[Soldevi]

I tend to use British spellings because the first few years at school we were taught those instead of, say, American spelling. It was only after a few years when we heard spoken American English and the whole class started to laugh. It just sounded so odd (and later Australian English even more odd...). Mind you, my English classes started back in the eighties when we had only 2-3 TV channels in our television and hearing English was not so common as it is today when one cannot escape English anywhere (not saying that it is a bad thing).

Name Marjo was something I noticed immidiately. It is quite popular name here in Finland but how common it is in the US? Do they have European/Russian background because sibling names are also a bit different than I would expect in American family. Katia, Elodie and Nikola, for example.

[LucySnowe]

The family goes in for the birthday decorations a la the Muncks, but they also do the VF dressing up - including "bombing" the British on Independence Day, though it doesn't prevent her from using British spelling and slang!

[Iokaste]

Wasn't this the family that had the "fun" war-themed birthday, complete with an obstacle course and toy soldiers as table decorations?

Hate her writing style, but hey, at least she's educated enough to emulate a certain style, even if that is something she as a 22-year old really should have outgrown by now.

[nelliebelle1197]

Wasn't this the family that had the "fun" war-themed birthday, complete with an obstacle course and toy soldiers as table decorations?

Hate her writing style, but hey, at least she's educated enough to emulate a certain style, even if that is something she as a 22-year old really should have outgrown by now.

Yes, those are the ones!

[MamaJunebug]

I tend to use British spellings because the first few years at school we were taught those instead of, say, American spelling. It was only after a few years when we heard spoken American English and the whole class started to laugh. It just sounded so odd (and later Australian English even more odd...). Mind you, my English classes started back in the eighties when we had only 2-3 TV channels in our television and hearing English was not so common as it is today when one cannot escape English anywhere (not saying that it is a bad thing).

Name Marjo was something I noticed immidiately. It is quite popular name here in Finland but how common it is in the US? Do they have European/Russian background because sibling names are also a bit different than I would expect in American family. Katia, Elodie and Nikola, for example.

Marjo immediately reminded me of Marjoe Gortner, world's youngest evangelist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoe_Gortner#Legacy

"Mazzou" is what I noticed. In the Midwest, the university of Missouri is known colloquially as Mizzou. One of their cheers is even M-I-Z (from one side of the stadium) Z-O-U (from the opposite). Mizzou = Mazzou? By SOTDRT logic, it works. *rolleyes* Oh, also, there's an endless debate over the pronunciation of "Missouri." Mizzou-ree or Mizzou-rah. Maybe the young lady is showing her affection for the "a" ending. Although putting it in the first syllable is, again, all kinds of SOTDRT fail. Ah, the mind reels.

[nelliebelle1197]

There is a whole movie on Marjoe Gortner. It was a weird life, poor kid.

[Hane]

And doesn't "mellifluous" have a negative sense?

Not that I've ever heard. She's using the word wrong, though: Webster's defines the word as "sweet or musical; pleasant to hear."

[Katydid]

drives me absolutely nuts when Americans start spelling things in the English way, such as Labour and favourite. NO. NO NO NO. It doesn't make you more english or cooler, or whatever, just makes you seem loony.

Stuff like what you said drives me batty. I spell things half British and half American because my Mom is from Scotland and I read a great deal more British lit and visit more British websites than I do American. I'm also a translator & linguist, so I work with a lot of writing that was written with British conventions. I'm not trying to be cute or whatever; it's simply how I spell. If I spell colour with a U, I'm not being pretentious. It's because I've *always* spelt colour with a u. Gah.

Thank God for spellcheck, though. At least that helps me write with American spellings in work & school documents so that I don't look like an idiot.

[artdecades]

oh man, I wish she posted more of that "native american" themed party. Got to love the casual racism of throwing a party themed as an oppressed people's culture. Of course, she seems to think she is English and from a few hundred years ago so maybe its all part of colonializing fun.

[JesusFightClub]

She's not great at big words. "Imaginable" doesn't mean "imaginative".

This is what I mean about SAHDs and VF types inflating their skills. She writes OK - for a thirteen year old who's taken in a lot of Jane Austen. It's all very cute. If she's over 16 (and I'm being kind) it stops being cute and starts sounding delayed. If she's really 22, that is poor writing indeed.

The fundie-girl blogs are all so carefully and badly written. It actually makes me feel a bit sad to read them. It's this pseudo-intellectual "Look at me using big words! Why, writing this blog and reading a few carefully-chosen texts, as well as doing the housework and changing my brother's nappies, is the equivalent of a PhD! It is, honest! HONEST!" desperation which is upsetting. Reading the Communist Manifesto and Googling things for daddy is like being on a Master's degree program. Learning how to cook, bake rolls and clean is as if you were on a postgraduate course. Keep on letting daddy and mummy tell you that, so you never have to expand your horizons in any way.

I feel very sorry for them sometimes.