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Big Buts


 

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

Here’s a conjunction for your Sunday morning: 

but.



In this tweet Meade High School ESOL program tells us that an upcoming event is in Howard County, but it will be fun.

But? What could they possibly mean? 

We know what you’ve heard about Howard County, but, really: it’s possible to have fun there.

Why but? It feels like damning with faint praise.

I suppose that it means to convey that the trip is a bit out of the way for Meade High School students but it will be worth it.

I probably wouldn’t have written a blog post about this but…

How the Baltimore region became home to cricket stars and one of the country’s largest training facilities, Anish Vasudevan, Baltimore Banner

By the way, those words “Baltimore region” really mean Columbia/HoCo. Using them makes the piece suitable for the Baltimore Banner, I guess. I clicked on the article because I’ve been following the rise of cricket locally. Howard County has been building a number of cricket pitches (six, to be exact) for community use. Columbia is now home to the Columbia Cricket and Sports Complex.

As it turns out, the article centers around Rajit Passey, the founder and owner of CCSC. Here’s a quote from coach Urday Kaul, who works with young players in Columbia.

“Cricket is developing, but it’s developing in a good way,” Kaul said. “If you spread the word and go to the grassroots level, in the coming future you might have thousands of people playing out here in the facility.”

There it is again:

but.

It’s developing but? Why not it’s developing and? Can we not even use the word “developing” in Howard County without qualifying it or apologizing for it? Once you use the word “but” you suggest that there is some other bad way that cricket could be developing. Should I be concerned about this? Should we be on the lookout for bad cricket development? A cricket pitch on every corner? Dangerous-looking types walking the street with big flat bats?

And it just keeps on coming. Reading ahead: 

Howard County has already constructed multiple spaces for cricket, but the sport is spreading: Baltimore County is supposed to get its first designed and designated cricket ground after lobbying efforts by the Saathi Baltimore Cricket Club last year. Construction of the field at Cloverland Park, near Loch Raven Reservoir, would begin in 2024.

Howard County has already constructed multiple spaces for cricket, but the sport is spreading…

Why, why, why? Why would you use 

but?

Why not and? Or how about ending the sentence instead of linking the two ideas? Why this urge to put in one’s own big but where it doesn’t belong? 

I’m not exactly tearing my hair out over here. On the other hand, these things matter to me. If they are not the sort of things that keep you up at night, at least you have learned that:

1. CA is hosting Noche de Baile Latino at the Lakefront on September 16th, and

2. Howard County has six community cricket pitches and a state of the art cricket training complex.

Have a wonderful Sunday and, for Heaven’s sake, watch your but.





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