Word to the Wise: Copacetic

Something that's "copacetic" (koh-puh-SET-ik) is fine, very satisfactory. The origin of the word is unknown.

Example (as used by Heidi Benson in the San Francisco Chronicle): "Everything seemed copacetic until a favorite store - the anchor of the street - closed suddenly."

Firm Up Your Butt Without Hurting Your Knees

By Craig Ballantyne

I get a lot of e-mails from readers who have sore knees, but still want to work their butts into shape. Here's an exercise that will firm up your butt without giving your knees a pounding:

The One-Leg Lying Hip Extension

• Start by lying on your back with your knees bent. Keep your feet flat on the floor. Brace your abs (by contracting them as if someone were going to punch you in the stomach).

• Contract your right glute (butt muscle) while you lift your left leg off the floor and hold it straight up in the air.

• Using the right glute, bridge your hips up off the ground. Keep your abs braced. (Do not use your lower back to do this exercise.)

• Slowly lower your hips until they are an inch above the ground, and then repeat the exercise.

• Switch sides and do the same thing using your left glute and your right leg.

The Language Perfectionist: Gender Generics

By Don Hauptman

Once upon a time, it was understood that the pronouns he and his could be used to refer to both sexes. Today, however, you can't get away with that. To avoid accusations of sexism, it's become common for writers and speakers to employ the generic plural pronoun, as in these examples:

• When you're looking out for the person you love, you don't want them to make a mistake.

• If you give someone a camera-phone, it's an inviolable rule of nature that they will take a picture with it.

• My policy was to never make a counteroffer once the employee had accepted a new position. If they came back, I knew I really did not want them working for me.

This approach, however well intentioned, always strikes me as clunky, grating, and illiterate. I wouldn't be surprised to read: "If someone has difficulty getting pregnant, they should..."

But fear not. You have alternatives. A sentence can almost always be recast so it is both grammatical and inoffensive. Among the options:

• The most obvious solution, if it doesn't sound cumbersome or repetitious, is to include both sexes. The first example above would then read:"... it's an inviolable rule of nature that he or she will take a picture with it."

• Reframe the sentence in the plural. The third example above would then read: "My policy was to never make a counteroffer once employees had accepted new positions. If they came back, I knew I really did not want them working for me."

• The pronoun can often be changed to we, you, or one.

• Sometimes a pronoun isn't even necessary. Take this sentence: "If a user is browsing for hybrid cars in Yahoo Autos and has selected San Francisco as their default location..." In this example, the word their can simply be changed to the.

As with just about every error that achieves widespread use, this one has its passionate defenders. But I agree with grammar guru Patricia T. O'Conner: "I can't believe the singular 'they' will become accepted in educated writing in our lifetime."

[Ed Note: Don Hauptman was a direct-response copywriter for more than 30 years. For his direct-mail subscription packages, he won The Newsletter on Newsletters promotion award for 10 years. He also writes about the English language and is now working on a humorous new book in that genre.]

It's Fun to Know: Glow-in-the-Dark Scorpions

To find scorpions at night, scientists use ultraviolet light, also known as black light. Scorpion exoskeletons have a thin layer of film that glows when exposed to this kind of light. Ancient scorpion fossils still glow.

(Source: That's a Fact, Jack!)

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2292, 03-01-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.