September 6, 2025
Capturing the Spoken word: A virtual oral history workshop
Metatheory of Change Thinking and Accompanying Change Differently
As part of his Metatheory of Change, Dr. Stern talks about self-interruption. It’s very difficult to find information about self-interruption, but in transcribing speech, it’s something we encounter every day. In research interviews, in oral histories, in patient narratives.
When a parent is asked about receiving the initial diagnosis of their child’s cancer, they stutter and stumble, no matter how long they’ve been dealing with the news. Those stutters and stumbles speak volumes.
Here’s what he has to say:
When people interrupt their inner processes (self-interruption), a motive is required for this.
Why does someone push back their tears? Why does someone hide a tenderly emerging insecurity? Why does someone pretend they are not angry?
These are everyday situations which we are used to. Because of the interruption, the experience remains more diffuse, and the inner process terminates more quickly. Why do people use such self-interruptions?
When internal reasons are at play, then, as a rule, it is the expectation that the consequences of the interruptions will be less grave than the consequences of permitting them. Thus, fears are involved which often play in the background and are not questioned. The simple question “Why do you not allow yourself to cry?” will often cause a degree of alienation. However, if something new is really supposed to happen, then it needs an interruption of the self-interruption of the self-perception. From a metatheory viewpoint this is a core function of counselling. Only then can either the need, and the associated fear, become concise, or the ways and means by which the client works himself up into an unfruitful inner dialogue.
One of the most favoured ways in which people interrupt their self-perception is through speaking. However, when speaking serves to reduce experiencing (‘talking something away’), then it is important that the counsellor prevents the speaking. Otherwise highly fruitful chances in the present moment are lost and the possible intensity in the counselling sequence is destroyed (<a href=”https://metatheorie-der-veraenderung.info/wpmtags/daniel-stern/”>Daniel Stern</a>).
I’m going to continue to explore self-interruption because I think it is a critical part of self-expression.
Ask Mister Language Person
You’ll be sorry. Dave Barry Aug 15, 2025
Today, we are pleased to announce the return of Mister Language Person, the only leading grammar authority to have been recognized by both Walmart and the American Society of English Teachers on Drugs.
We’re bringing Mister Language Person out of retirement because this nation is in the midst of a serious literacy crisis. How serious is it? Consider this alarming statistic: When 5,000 U.S. high-school students recently took a standardized test measuring their knowledge of basic English grammar, nobody could figure out how to score it, because we also have a math crisis. But it was probably pretty bad.
We say this because every day we see signs of the steep decline in our national language skills: Terrible grammar, run-on sentences, misspellings, insanely random capitalization… and that’s just from the president! Click listen now for sound effect.
But seriously, it’s bad. Which is why we, as a nation, are fortunate to have an authority as authoritative as Mister Language Person on hand to enlighten us by answering the following common grammar and usage questions, all of which were submitted by actual Substack readers just like you except that they are imaginary.
Our first common question is one that we get literally a billion times a day:
Q. What does “literally” mean?
A. In grammatical terms, “literally” is an interjunctive superlatory, and as such it is used to denote that something literal has transpired, as in this example:
Doreen was literally decimated when Roger broke wind during their vows.
Q. In the song “Mister Bojangles” by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker, the lyrics to verse four state, quote: “The dog up and died.” Does that mean the dog did two separate things? That is, did the dog up, and then die? In which case shouldn’t it be “The dog upped and died?”
A. We checked via a spiritual medium with Mr. Walker, who informs us that what he actually meant to write was “The dog threw up and died.”
Q. I am a western cowpoke, and I would like to know which of the following wordings is correct:
Me and Hank is fixin’ to skedaddle.
Or:
Hank and me is fixin’ to skedaddle.
A. Are you and Hank consenting adults?
Q. You are darned tooting.
A. Then it is none of Mister Language Person’s business.
Q. As an employee of a large company or organization who is required to attend many meetings, I want to know the correct corporate way to tell people to for God’s sake just shut up about something.
A. The correct corporate wording is “Let’s circle back on that.”
Q. What if they actually try to circle back on it?
A. Then you say “Let’s put a pin in that and touch base later.”
Q. What does that even mean?
A. Nobody knows.
Q. But then what if they actually want to “touch base” later?
A. You may have to tase them.
Q. I am confused about when to use “your” and when to use “you’re.”
A. That’s because your an idiot.
Q. I’m an air traffic controller, and I need to know which is correct: “Whoopsy-daisy” or “Whoops-a-daisy.” Please answer as soon as possible.
A. The correct…
Q. Too late.
A. Oopsie daisy.
Q. Do I need to refrigerate ketchup and mustard?
A. No.
Q. I’m a college student, and for a class I’m taking I need to turn in a 1,000-word paper on a book. My question is, do I need to tell Chat GPT the actual name of the book? If so, how do I find out what it is?
A. We submitted your question to Chat GPT, which replied that it does in fact need the book title, and listed five ways to find out what it is, including (really) “Ask your professor or classmates.”
Q. That seems like a lot of work.
A. We know, right? Maybe just get a doctor’s note.
Q. Why do we say “pitted olives” when we mean olives without pits, but when we say “glazed doughnuts,” we mean doughnuts with glaze, and when we say “iced coffee,” we mean coffee with ice, and when we say “salted peanuts,” we…
A. Let’s circle back on that.
Q. What is the correct usage of the expression “lone behold?”
A. It is correctly used as follows: “Todd lifted up his shirt, and lone behold he had a semi-detached nipple.”
This concludes today’s rendition of Ask Mister Language Person. If you have a question about grammar or word usage, please write it down and store it in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Also if you’re a paying subscriber, you can participate in the scientific poll, as well as express your views in the comments. We ask only that you not split your — or anybody else’s — infinitives.
SUBSCRIBER-ONLY POLLWhat common word misuse do you find most irritating?
When’s the last time you did something…daring?
The Moth Mainstage season is now on sale—and this time, we’re doing something different. Each and every show, from New York to Nairobi, will be united by a singular theme: DARING. But the stories and
What makes someone leap without looking? What drives a person to risk everything? This season, we’re diving deep into the moments that define us—the split-second decisions, the life-changing gambles, the quiet acts of rebellion that reshape everything.
Every Mainstage will feature five unique voices sharing true stories of bold risks, brave confessions, and moments that required everything they had. Stories that will make you laugh, cry, gasp, and maybe cover your eyes. Bold choices. Audacious proclamations. Courageous humility.
Join us as five storytellers take the stage and challenge what it means to be DARING.
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More from Chicago Manual of Style’s July Q&A
Q. “. . . go to high school in Washington[, D.C.].” Is the final period necessary? Delete it? (Yes, it’s the last of a longer quotation.)
A. In your version, where you’re using brackets to supply not just the abbreviation but the comma that would normally go with it, you don’t need that final period; we can assume that your bracketed interpolation includes all sentence punctuation, including any final period. And that’s what we might expect if you were supplying the end of a sentence that’s missing or illegible in the source. In other words, your brackets restore the end of a sentence that would normally be punctuated like this:
“. . . go to high school in Washington, D.C.”
But if you’re simply clarifying for readers that the text is referring to the district rather than the state, don’t add that comma. Instead, put “D.C.” in brackets and add the sentence-ending period:
“. . . go to high school in Washington [D.C.].”
That extra period is needed for the same reason you’d add a period to the end of a sentence like this one (from CMOS 6.13):
His chilly demeanor gave him an affinity for the noble gases (helium, neon, etc.).
But there would be no periods in an initialism like DC in current Chicago style, so you’d normally write this:
“. . . go to high school in Washington [DC].”
See also CMOS 6.110 (which has a similar set of examples but without periods) and 12.70–74 (on editorial interpolations and clarifications).
This one has been driving me crazy!
Abbreviations
Q. Is there any chance that “am” and “pm” will become acceptable as correct forms of “a.m.” and “p.m.”?
A. There are six ways to write the abbreviations for ante meridiem (before noon) and post meridiem (after noon):
All caps with periods: 10 A.M., 10 P.M.
All caps without periods: 10 AM, 10 PM
Small caps with periods: 10 A.M., 10 P.M.
Small caps without periods: 10 AM, 10 PM
Lowercase with periods: 10 a.m., 10 p.m.
Lowercase without periods: 10 am, 10 pm
Each of these—including “am” and “pm”—is a legitimate choice. For nearly a century, Chicago’s preferred form was the third: small capital letters with periods. This preference, however, applied only to published documents (among other factors, small capitals weren’t an option on typewriters).
When we changed our preference to “a.m.” and “p.m.” (in 2003, with the publication of CMOS 15), the growth of computers in writing and publishing played a role: small caps require extra steps to apply, and they don’t always translate well across applications (when they’re even available). We could have flipped a coin and settled on all-caps “AM” and “PM” (but not “A.M.” and “P.M.”; Chicago style now omits periods in abbreviations that include two or more capital letters). When we instead chose lowercase “a.m.” and “p.m.,” we liked the fact that they’re unambiguous (“AM” and “PM” both have a number of other meanings), and we hoped the periods would help readers recognize in any context that these are abbreviations, not words.
But if you don’t like the periods, don’t fret: Merriam-Webster labels “am” and “pm” as British variants, so you’re hardly alone in your preference. If you’re being published, however, be prepared to defer to your publisher’s house style, whatever that may be.