Surging to War, Reporters Embedded
The Bush administration’s marketing department has been particulary weak at warspeak. It first came up with the term embed to express the military’s new control over the press (the first victim of war...
View ArticleWords as Things
I have a paper that I have read at several semi-professional venues called, “But There are no Such Things as Words”. It argues that words are intangible parts of a system that come and go, are created...
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Happy Punctuation Day!
I am back from my foray into France, the land where everyone loves pain and a drink of water makes you say, “Oh!” It is a land where champs are flat and ordinary though everyone’s beau is good-looking....
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Flipping out over ‘Flip-Flop’
We heard a lot about flip-flopping during the last presidential campaign. I had hoped it had run its course but I’ve heard it a few times recently in the current pre-pre-preliminary campaign for the...
View ArticleIdioms and Slang
We seldom utter a sentence that does not contain an idiom, yet much less than they deserve is written about them. I was reminded by a recent article in the Lewiston, Maine Sun-Journal, “Idioms add...
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More Shenanigans over Henanigans
Lenn Zonder sent such profound comments on my recent treatment of the Good Word shenanigans that I just have to share them with everyone. Here is his response: “I was so glad to read your definition of...
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From Dime Stores to Dollar Stores
Lon Jones just reminded us of one more Southernism not included in our Glossary of Quaint Southernisms: tin sin stow, i.e. a ten-cents store, also called five-and-dimes in their day. In my town of...
View ArticleA fête worse than death
In response to my treatment of fête recently, George Kovac commented: “Hmmm. With all the tedious, obligatory holiday parties this time of year (departmental, church group, school group, office,...
View ArticleDon’t Miss the Giant Egress
Did you hear about the zoo manager who had trouble getting visitors to leave at closing time. Just before closing, he would put up a large a sign saying “This way to the giant egress.” Curious hordes...
View ArticleOxymorons are not Antonyms
Stuart Gordon recently wrote: “I dont think all your examples are oxymorons: Still moving is not. “Still” has two meanings but its meaning in this example is not “to be not moving”. Like wise hot...
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