HUMPTY DUMPTY—LINGUIST EXTRAORDINAIRE
EXPLAINING WORDS LIKE “SLITHY” AND “MIMSY” to Alice, Humpty Dumpty says, “You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.” And, of course, Alice would … Continue reading
A NEW PARLOUR GAME (AT LEAST TO ME)
A FRIEND IN ANACORTES INTRODUCES me to a new parlour game (or for any other locale one has these days): Take a well-known expression in a foreign language, change a … Continue reading
LRB LETTER WRITERS—AN ARTICULATE GROUP
THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS IS EVIDENTLY WELL COMPOSED, and articulate as well are its “Letters” column respondents. To me they serve a double purpose: reminding me of something previously … Continue reading
ALOHA, HOALOHA
HAWAIIAN IS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE of our 50th state; so is English. (The only other U.S. states with multiple official languages are Alaska including 20 Alaska Native tongues and South … Continue reading
WHATS GOIN ON AT ST MARYS WALK? OR WATERSTONES? OR VONS?
JENNY GROSS WRITES IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, May 10, 2024, “An English Town Drops Apostrophes From Street Signs. Some Aren’t Happy.” “Malcolm Wood, an English teacher in North Yorkshire, … Continue reading
DISSIN’ FOR FUN
BACK IN OCTOBER 2022, MY BOOK REVIEW of Colin Jarman’s Barbed Quotes: Mudslinging, Backstabbing, and Celebrity Dishing offered only one quote concerning politicians. I guess I thought Trump would just … Continue reading
FONTS CAN SAVE TREES
“HARPERCOLLINS MADE A TINY TWEAK to its Book Design—and Has Saved Thousands of Trees as a Result,” reports Elizabeth Segran in the Fast Company website, April 2, 2024. What’s more, … Continue reading
DIALECTS THAT I’VE HEARD, LIKE, Y’KNOW
A RECENT WORDS TRIVIA WEBSITE “Top 6 English Dialects That Sound Like Different Languages” got me thinking of dialects I have known. Here are tidbits gleaned from the Words Trivia … Continue reading
LLM HALLUCINATING: AN A.I. PARLOR GAME
ROBERT CRAWFORD’S ARTICLE “After the British Library Cyberattack,” London Review of Books, April 4, 2024, is an excellent—and humorous—imagining of A.I. It follows up on the lamentable October 2023 British … Continue reading
CELEBRATING LATE-19TH-CENTURY LITERARY ART
“THE VOGUE FOR LITERARY POSTERS,” Leah Greenblatt writes in The New York Times, April 5, 2024, “burned briefly, beginning in 1893 and lasting not much more than a decade.” And … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 