Month: June 2006
Radio Tour
Tomorrow morning I’m doing three radio interviews. If you’re in those markets, have a listen. Update: Rescheduling of radio interviews is very common. The WYYY interview will now happen Thursday July 6. The interview on The Bear 97.9 will air tomorrow morning. The interview with Johnny Manson went off without a hitch. Rick Gary and…
Today on Talk of the Nation
Today around 3 p.m. I’m scheduled to be on the radio show Talk of the Nation, broadcast on public radio affiliates around the country. The web site says the topic will “examine how the Web has changed the way people research words,” but I imagine the discussion will stray and extend. Update: The show went…
Minnesota loves me, too
I did a nice radio interview with Bob Hughes at WJON AM 1240 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, this morning. It was a good chat. He seemed genuinely interested in language and dictionaries and we had a real conversation instead of him throwing cookie-cutter questions at me and me throwing boilerplate answers back.
Canada loves me
Misty Harris wrote a tight article about my book for the Canadian newswire CanWest. Ten Canadian newspapers picked it up—five put it on their front pages. That’s more a testament to Misty’s writing than anything else. The Edmonton Journal has the story. You can also see a PDF of the front page and the jump.
Slang dictionary challenged as inappropriate for children
Wake County school officials revised their book-use policy Tuesday which could lead to some popular and classic books being banned from their public schools.…Called2Action, a local Christian activist group, and some parents…[complained[ that the books contain “vulgar and sexually explicit language.”…School officials said five books were formally challenged this school year, including…”Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang”…
Instant Love
A long-time acquaintance, Jami Attenberg, has published her first book, Instant Love. I know her to be a contemplative and funny person, and just the right kind of odd, so I have no doubt that this is a fine work. Confirming that, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave it a very pleasing capsule review. She’s now on…
Language Evolution in the Digital Age
James Callan has called me out not once but twice on his way to suggesting a topic for the Christopher Lydon radio show “Open Source.” The Open Source topic is very broad, but its general premise seems to be this: What about “The Dictionary?” What about paper dictionaries? What about digital dictionaries? Read the show’s…
Empowering imbeciles
Here are two examples of how idiots feel empowered when national leaders use subtle and not-so-subtle demagoguery in the discussions of immigration and language. Some jackass doesn’t like it that there is a Spanish-language interface on self-serve registers at Home Depot. He feels comfortable enough in his imbecility to broadcast it on the radio. I…
Lucky Wreck
I know Ada Limón through Williamsburg bar league softball, though neither she nor I play. Yesterday she mentioned she’s just finished her second book of poetry, This Big Fake World. Her first was Lucky Wreck. She also has a blog.
Guardian political slang review
The Guardian did a review of my Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang that has just been released in the U.K. It’s generally a great review—Simon Hoggart calls it a “great read”—but I agree with what Ben Zimmer had to say: Who told Hoggart that “clean one’s clock” and “it ain’t over till the fat…