Month: April 2007
Dictionaries will cease to exist when the sun goes supernova
Scotland’s Sunday Herald writes, In the past four years, sales of English-language usage guides and dictionaries have plummeted by 40%, while other reference books, including maps, atlases and encyclopedias, have also shown a significant decline, according to research by Book Marketing Limited. Some publishers have even predicted that dictionary sales could cease completely. I doubt…
Quoted in Details, talking about “douchebag”
Simone Dumenico has written a musing on the term “douchebag” in which he quotes me, and, I’m pretty sure, calls me a douchebag, too: I feel his pain, but then I’m also part of his pain. Because he and I are both part of the same continuum of strivers, of consumers desiring comfort and convenience.…
The dead rise up in opposition!
I swear I misunderstood this headline on first read. I thought, “Holy crap! These people will stop at nothing! They’re recruiting the dead in their fight over global warming!”
A doctor carrying a burrito and dressed as a comic book hero
Quoted here simply because I like the first line. So-Called Captain America Faces Drug, Battery Charges. “A doctor carrying a burrito and dressed as the comic book hero was arrested after allegedly grabbing a woman inappropriately at a bar and fighting with her boyfriend.…He later tried to flush marijuana he had likely hidden in his…
Cognitive Daily wants to know your attitude towards curse words
#@¢$ing A! Now’s your chance to take the curse word study! “What words really get you *&#$ing angry? Now we’ll finally be able to find out. I’ve picked out 11 of the foulest, most shocking words I can imagine, and I’m going to ask you to rate them along 5 different dimensions.”
LOL-kitteh: the new bastard language-child of l33t, Cute Overload, and texting
One day, this will be Standard English. OMG wau!! Dat beesings a kiti vary ful ov tewtul kutenis!! Bees wif da lukingz!! Omg him gotz da bowwagez on himz hed lyk WTF?!? OMG I tewtul wuntz to grabz dat kiti and fuzziez himz awl ovar…him sooooooo mooshy an fullz ov win!! Don werry lil kiti,…
What do you call your long-term romantic partner when you’re not married?
Going through messages we’ve received from listeners at the radio show over the past six months, I find that one of the questions that comes up often—and which we addressed in a recent show—is what to call a life partner if you’re not married to them. Boyfriend/girlfriend sounds immature, lover sounds illicit, partner could be…
Slang chat came off well
You can read the transcript of last night’s slang chat hosted by Anu Garg’s A Word A Day.
A Few Notes About the Radio Show “A Way with Words”
Over the last six months it’s been my pleasure to be a new part of the long-running radio show A Way with Words, broadcast by KPBS out of San Diego. Martha Barnette and I have great fun doing it (God forbid anyone should ever get ahold of the blooper and blue reels!) and it’s been…
One Month Today
The boy is one month old today! He now weighs 11 pounds, 10 ounces—up from a low of 7 pounds, 9 ounces three days after birth. So that’s a gain of a pound a week! He’s an appetite wrapped in skin. Look at this fat little belly! These two are from Granma McDonald’s visit a…