Category: Uncategorized
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…
Pervasive WiFi
This is a list of all the Wifi signals iStumbler on my MacBook picked up at the Brasil Coffee Shop at the corner of 30th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan at 7:15 p.m. Friday, June 9, 2006. There are 53. (Click for a readable image.) This suggests a number of ideas: Wireless devices are…
Long tail again
This article from the New York Times about Netflix seems like an obvious ripoff of the famous Chris Anderson “Long Tail” article in Wired from October 2004. How could David Leonhardt write an article like that and not mention the concept of “long tail” at all?
WOR 710 AM
Today the web site got a mention on the WOR Morning Show, hosted by Ed Walsh and Donna Hanover.