"No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought – George Orwell
Watching the Oscars the other night, I started wondering why we still differentiate between actors and actresses. To be sure, the industry needs to spread those awards around, and it would seem odd if male and female actors were lumped together and only one of them, a man or a woman, got Best Actor … […]
I wrote about eggcorns a few days ago, and in one of those coincidences that make you think “huh?”, spotted one in the wild this morning. From a customer review of a true crime movie on Amazon: “If you think the film is gut retching, I dare you to actually review the case.” Gut retching! […]
Recently posted to a Hash House Harrier board: Do to popular request, this Fridays hashy hour will be at the Old Chicago Unremarkable, save for the fact that the guy who wrote this earned post-graduate degrees in marine biology and optical engineering. I judge people by the way they speak and write. C’mon, you do […]
Driving home today I fell in behind a pickup truck with an odd homemade bumper sticker. Composed of individual stick-on letters, it read: drafting is not an act its an art winston salem cars are not apart Was he trying to say something about tailgating? Probably, but what? Never mind the missing apostrophe, the words didn’t […]
Two or three years ago, someone called into a National Public Radio talk show and first uttered the phrase “I’ll take my answer off the air,” meaning that he or she would hang up and listen to the answer on the radio. Which, of course, is taking one’s answer on the air. But the phrase sounded […]
You know, if someone ever sends me a literate chain letter, I’ll probably fall for it. Friends, Could you go out and buy a postcard and sendit to my grand nephew. His 6th grade classes is mapping out the postcards they receive as part of a geography class. His address is: Seamus Fields C/O […]
This morning I added several new reference links to my browser’s favorites list. When I’m writing (yes, even writing for friends via this humble blog), I look things up, including things I’m pretty sure I know. Like the title to this entry. Is “on” supposed to be capitalized? No. I thought not; now I’m sure. I drew the […]
. . . but here’s what bothers me when Rush & GWB use phrases like “the Democrat Party” or “the Democrat candidate.” My friend Sue, an intelligent, cultured, well-traveled woman, doesn’t like the word “Jew.” She knows the word in and of itself is benign and neutral, like “Jewish” or “Christian,” but she doesn’t like […]