Linguist, lexicographer, writer, editor, broadcaster

Category: Uncategorized


  • Reuters!

    Oh, and we got a mention, along with Paul McFedries’ Word Spy, on the Reuters newswire today. How to Write Worse and Improve Your Spinnish.

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  • Open Source Radio

    Last night I was a guest on the Open Source public radio show with Erin McKean, Geoff Nunberg, and Jim Fitzmorris.

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  • Words of the Year

    On Sunday, my third annual words-of-the-year list will run in the “Year in Review” section of the New York Times. It’s hard making these lists: there are always great expressions that aren’t particularly new that I want to include, I always have too many in my first draft—which the Times editors are efficient at whittling…

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  • On the radio!

    It’s not fambly news, but I thought you might all be interested: I’m going to cohost a language-related radio show.

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  • New gig: cohost of KPBS Radio’s “A Way With Words”

    I’ve been bursting to tell this news for weeks, and now the word is out. Starting in January, I’ll be sitting with Martha Barnette as cohost of the long-running KPBS radio show A Way With Words. By the time our new shows air in January, we will have been working hard for months to bring…

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  • Married Today

    I got married today. There is some language-related content to this post: she’s a linguist. And she makes me wax poetic. : )

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  • Married!

    We got married this morning. : ) The judge was a middle-aged black woman who pronounced every word in a clear but stilted recital, drilling us in the faces with her eyes. My friend Johnny North served as a witness, and Sarah’s friend Anne Kosseff brought flowers, a homemade cake, and apple cider (in lieu…

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  • Crossed Arms

    People don’t cross their arms for photographs on their own. It’s the photographers who ask them to do it, resulting in a pose that is supposed to show that the person is tough and uncompromising. It’s a lazy photographer that does it, though. A posed shot like that is easy but unnatural. Here are two…

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  • We’re getting married

    Sarah and I are getting married next week at the courthouse in Brooklyn. Nothing fancy is going to happen, so if you didn’t get an invite, relax, because nobody did or will. Neither one of us are the type for a sugar-and-chiffon fancy-assed affair. I think we both are, above all, practical, although that does…

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  • Our apartment

    These are some exterior shots from our new street. This is our front stoop. The next two are photos of our street from the perspective of our stoop.

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