Vik-Thor's Journal

I really should have something more to say about this topic, since I have been using fountain pens quite a bit recently, doing writing and doodling of various sorts. But crossing all the T's is just something we learned to do back in the day, when we were taught penmanship in school, rather than keyboarding, like those kids today.

Crossing the Ts and Dotting the i's just doesn't mean the same thing nowadays, when the letters you type are always the same. A T is a T is a T, the only difference can be if I try to use various fonts (which LJ doesn't allow. We are all limited to the same plain sans-serif font.) Though I guess we should be happy that Blackletter fonts have died out, as a major font family. Even more happy to not have to WRITE them!

Why is it "Crossing all the T's" rather than the other letter that has a crossbar, F? My guess, inasmuch as this type of thing has any type of logic, is that T is used much more commonly than F, being the most common consonant in the English Language. One wonders if the languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet have a similar saying, regarding the Т. And obviously the non-Latin / Cyrillic languages would have no use at all for the phrase. Google translate keeps the T symbol in other languages, like Chinese, which means they are literally translating it. I would like to know what the other languages use for a similar phrase.
The similar phrase, about Jots and Tittles from Matthew 5:18, let me to the fact that the tittle is actually the word for the dot over i's and j's.

Before I got into the literal meaning of T's i's jots and tittles, I was thinking of trying some type of fiction with rivers named T being on all continents, and it being a catchphrase for being well traveled, to have "Crossed all the T's". Something tells me as rough as this is, my ficlet would have been much worse.

In the garden, the standing stone has returned. The interns are excited. This is NOT groovy. (Reverend Mord)

Some of my earliest memories are of Annie's garden, which was on two sides of our property in Oakwood. The garden was probably at least an acre is size. A specific memory is eating fresh rhubarb stalks, and playing with the leaves, making houses out of them.
¶While Mom did take me to a Christian church (two of them in fact. I remember going to one in Oakwood itself, and a Nazarene church between Oakwood and Danville.) Christianity has never really taken in my psyche.

The next gardens I remember are my Great-Grandma Wisely's in Wayne City, and her daughter's Grandma Rose in McLeansboro. Ma Wisely's was a bit smaller than Annie's, but not by much, in my memory. No rhubarb (or standing stones) that I remember. Grandma Rose's was quite a bit smaller, especially as the years went on. The largest I remember it being was maybe 6'×10'. After Grandpa died, she didn't really do much gardening, but she did continue growing Castor Bean plants.
¶When I would stay with Grandma and Grandpa Rose for a few weeks during the summers while growing up, I would go to church with Grandma. The church where she went is gone now, but she and Grandpa are buried in the cemetery. Maybe I should plant a Castor Bean plant on her grave in memory?

In Cobden, we had a moderately large garden for a few years, I think before Mom and Dad divorced. I remember some type of vining plant, maybe cucumber? I remember homemade pickles fairly commonly. Corn and tomatoes. We had a blackberry patch also. After the divorce, Mom and I just went to a smaller flower garden south of the house, up the hill a bit. We also had forsythia bushes along the street, and a lilac bush in the front yard.
¶I did go to a couple of Christian churches in Cobden, but both were mainly to hang out with friends. My real religious experiences were by myself in the woods and fields north and east of our house. After learning about the Greek gods in English class, I did some self made worship of Athena.

Since graduating high school, I have not lived in one place long enough to make any type of garden. Most of them have been apartments anyway, with no outside ground space, though I have had a few potted plants, outdoor and indoor, both at home and work. Currently, I only have an orchid at work. Though we are now in a townhome, and have access to the ground for some planting. I spent much of today pulling out English Ivy from in front of our place. I'm hoping to get a bit of a flower garden going. With maybe some vegetables or fruit. However, since there are kids in the complex, it would probably not be a good thing to grow rhubarb or castor beans. (Though the local library does have a community garden…)
¶My current religious beliefs are odd and eclectic and changing. Animistic Pan(en)theistic Agnostic Apatheistic NeoPagan Humanist. Shinto. A bit of attraction to Shiva Nataraja, as the Lord of the Dance of Destruction. I do still feel honour for Athena. I also still feel a bit like I am trapped here in The City of Man, seeking a way to get back Inside The World

I would eventually sort of like to buy a house, and plant a garden. Get a colony of bees.
Eventually, I will die, and hopefully be returned to the soil, to nurture plants and animals.