ON ONE’S SAVOIR FAIRE, CHUTZPAH, AND BRAVADO
I’VE LIFTED TODAY’S TITLE from Peter and Linda Archer’s assemblage of 500 words and phrases that have found their way into English. Dr. Linda Archer is a Professor of English … Continue reading
ON SPEAKING M.L.E.
REBECCA MEAD WRITES “Schoolchildren in the British capital have developed a dialect, Multicultural London English—and my American-born son is learning it.” This, from The New Yorker, February 6, 2022. It’s … Continue reading
ART—SELF-TAUGHT, SORTA
MY DRAWINGS OF PEOPLE lean toward stick figures; my attempts at perspective tend to be purely orthogonal. However, I have profited from lessons, formal and otherwise, in art appreciation. Here … Continue reading
PRACTICING ONE’S FRENCH PRONUNCIATION
“SUFFICE IT TO SAY these curious verses were part of the meagre collections of one François Charles Fernand d’Artin, retired school teacher…” So begins the Foreward of the charming French … Continue reading
THE BEST OF…
GEE, THIS BOOK SORTING in the garage is fun. I pulled out The BEST of Everything, 1980, to see how hopelessly outdated its choices were. However, I was now missing … Continue reading
WHY EVER DID I SAVE THIS?
I HAVE BEGUN DECLUTTERING the garage. No mean feat, this, what with 33+ years of R&T memorabilia and even more years of other stuff, plus 150 boxes of books accumulated … Continue reading
FLAUBERT FLÂNEURING WITH BARNES
A FLÂNEUR, THE FRENCH describe, is a stroller, an idler, an observer of life. Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist, for whom we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. … Continue reading
EDITOR, LETTERS TO THE
THIS ALL STARTED with the London Review of Books, September 23, 2021. It contained Anthony Grafton’s “Fake It Till You Make It,” a review of Dennis Duncan’s aptly named Index, … Continue reading
BARNSTORMING—THOUGH NOT IN THE AIR
BARNSTORMING MAY EVOKE images of wing-walking and other aerial hijinks. Actually, though, I learned that the term “barnstorming” predates the aeroplane by decades. Here are tidbits of barnstorming, summer stock, … Continue reading
AUDITORY FAUX PAS
THE INTERESTINGFACTS.COM, December 6, 2021, describes a linguistic term new to me: “A mondegreen,” says the website, “occurs when there’s a communication hiccup between the syllables you hear and the … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 