10-1-04 Concrete/Cement

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="042d05a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Big Ring Media Team, Inc.</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Ring Media Team, Inc."><B>home</B></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="043d2123.jpg"> <div> Click on this link to return to <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Date">Word Watch by Date</A>.</div> <div> Click on this link to go to <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Word Watch by Subject">Word Watch by Subject</A>.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>10-1-04 Concrete/Cement</I></div> <div> “Thelma brought eggs to Joe's birthday party.”</div> <div> “I thought she brought the cake.”</div> <div> “She did. The eggs were baked in it.”</div> <div> So it is with cement and concrete. Cement is a constituent of concrete, as are aggregate (gravel) and other things, just as eggs are a constituent of a cake. Many writers don't realize this, so they write of a car striking a cement bridge abutment, or of someone falling on an icy cement sidewalk, or of the cement walls being poured for the new Acme Museum of Mediocre Art. (Were it a museum of fine art, the walls would be made of a less pedestrian material.) Wrong, wrong, and wrong. In each case, the correct term is “concrete” - abutment, sidewalk, or wall.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>