Reader question:

What does the phase "cleaning up your act" mean?

My comments:

I have been saving questions like this for years. I put on the back burner – that is, keep them unanswered – until I have accumulated a few good examples, real examples, from the media for as I have often said in this column, we learn best from examples. In examples, we see words in action. Once out of school, we have little use for learning new words by rote – that is, trying to memorize its meaning as listed in a dictionary. Instead we come to grips with words much faster if we see them in use and try to use them in the same way. Yes, by mimicking other people, as though we were children picking up a first vocab.

I'm straying. Let's get back to the point. The point is, I'm answering the question on "cleaning up one's act" today because I've come across a good example yesterday, while I was browsing through the knowledge@wharton website. In fact, I came across a story urging China to convert its energy strategy to using alternative, cleaner, environmentally friendly sources, such as hydro, solar and nuclear power.

The story is titled: Cleaning up Its Act: How China Can Convert to More Environmentally Friendly Energy (published May 14, 2008 in Knowledge@Wharton). And frankly speaking as I cast another look out the window to observe another grey morning in Beijing, so grey – which is normal – I can barely distinguish buildings 500 meters away, I think to myself once again, what an apt headline that one is.

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