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Recent catchwords: read-alike, violin hickey, throw a Porsche at someone, Q-tip cruise, 1-800 car
Sorry the updates have been so intermittent. I’ll try to get back on track. Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary: read-alike n. a (fiction) book whose contents are similar to another book’s. violin hickey n. a mark left on the neck from playing the violin. throw a Porsche at someone v. phr. in the…
Eleven months and snow
The boy spent some time in his first snow today. Not that compelling, really. Here are some photos of the last few weeks, through his eleven-month-birthday.
The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang
My latest column in the Malaysia Star. … In Howard Marks’ rollicking memoir of a life of crime, Mr Nice, he describes living as a fugitive from justice: “I was fully aware that any one of them could turn me in to the authorities at any time. I just big-headedly assumed that anyone who knew…
Fog line, instant ancestor, trashout
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary: fog line the bright lines painted near a road’s edge to guide drivers. instant ancestor n. an old photograph of strangers used as decoration. trashout when a tenant is forced out of a house due to foreclosure or eviction and leaves it in a squalid state.
He walks!
The boy is offiicially a walker. We decided a few weeks ago that “walking” is being able to launch yourself where you want to go rather than mama and papa putting you up on your feet to walk back and forth between them. By that definition, Guthrie is a walker. Wobbly, true, but he can…
See, ya kid: saying goodbye in slang
My latest column from the Malaysia Star. Slang is the language of young people. It is a fast-moving river and although its bends and flows seem the same, they are, they must be, composed of different cascades and crests. We learn the slang of our generation and it is always the slang we know best,…
Interview with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green
Somehow, I missed this bit with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green last year. There’s a short text summary and a 57-minute audio interview in MP3 format. Thanks to “Barrington A” on the Slang mailing list for bringing it to my attention. Note that at about four minutes in Jonathon (whom I know professionally and communicate…
New Scientist: “Word nerds capture fleeting online English”
A fairly ordinary article in New Scientist about online dictionaries and word-hunting has been published. Ben Zimmer has some critical comments about the article. It’s the usual stuff: it has a gee-whiz tone, it has wacky words littered throughout, it barely scratches the surface, and it makes light of “geeks” and “nerds.” The last two…
The blueprints of a Craigslist apartment scam
Sorry, this one isn’t about language. But it is about knowing how to do research to prove people right and wrong, which is how I spend a lot of my time in working with language. So what is this? This is what a Craiglist apartment scam looks like. The Craiglist abuse department took down the…
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
Big news! My radio partner Martha Barnette and I will be participating in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament February 29-March 2. New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor and NPR puzzlemaster Will Shortz has asked Martha and me to present prizes at the awards banquet. He also invited me to jointly give the championship play-by-play with…