Please help me welcome the very funny author and blogger, Jenny Baranick to my blog today. Jenny regularly blogs at "Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares" and the book of the same name was recently released. Congrats Jenny! Her book is a great way to learn about the do's and don't's of grammar in a no snooze way!
Today Jenny is going to educate us on the correct usage of the word, "lay."
Have at it, Jenny!
Lie Dylan Lie
In Bob Dylan’s autobiography Chronicles, Vol. 1 he wrote, “All I'd ever done was sing songs that
were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities, I had very little in
common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the
voice of."
Basically, Dylan just wanted to sing folk music; he never
wanted to be heralded as the voice of his generation. So, in order to dispel
his reputation as a guru, he confessed to doing things like pouring whiskey on
his head (what a waste of whiskey!) and walking into department stores and acting
drunk.
But I think Dylan went beyond trying to negate his guru
status; I think he did something very subtle to get revenge on the citizens who
made his life a living hell by stalking him in hopes that he’d bestow upon them
the meaning of life. And I think the revenge was grammatical.
You may have heard of the song “Lay Lady Lay.” The first
line says, “Lay Lady Lay. Lay across my big brass bed.”
Thanks to the fact that many considered Dylan the trusted
voice of their generation, they must have trusted he used “lay” correctly in
his song. Well, he didn’t. And I believe he did this on purpose to mislead the
generation. I bet he laughs himself to sleep every night when he thinks about
how he tricked an entire nation into misusing the word “lay.”
In hopes of being the grammatical voice of this generation,
I am here to tell you when to use “lay” and when to use “lie.”
On second thought, buy my newly released grammar guide Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares. You
can find the answer on page 7!
You can purchase Jenny's book HERE!! Thank you for gracing my blog with your grammatically correct presence today, Jenny! You rock!
