THE (MIS?)RULE OF THUMB
I RECENTLY posted a Facebook comment mentioning “rule of thumb” as contrasted with more scientific methods of measurement. Think crowd size, for instance. Before doing so, I felt compelled to … Continue reading
I’M JUST A GHEE WITH THE LINGO
WIFE DOTTIE believes I am overdoing the old-time radio bit. Be that as it may, for her sake alone it is appropriate that I consult a period document, my Dictionary … Continue reading
BEATRICE D’ESSLING WAS A REAL CRACK
ONCE AGAIN, I SEEM to feed myself (and you) lines that call for more research. A couple days ago, I cited The San Francisco Call newspaper describing actress Beatrice d’Essling … Continue reading
CELEBRATING WWW: WRETCHED WRITERS WELCOME
VICTORIAN AUTHOR Edward Bulwer-Lytton couldn’t have sensed his place in literary history when he began his 1830 novel Paul Clifford with these immortal words: “It was a dark and stormy … Continue reading
MORE THAN ONE TURKEY
HAVE YOU EVER wondered why the U.S. traditional Thanksgiving bird shares its name with a Eurasian country on the shores of the Bosphorus? Me too. This calls for some timely … Continue reading
PLAYING A JAPANESE DICTIONARY GAME
A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE, it’s said, can be a dangerous thing. My knowledge of the Japanese language certainly qualifies as meager, though the game I’ve been playing isn’t dangerous at all. … Continue reading
OED’S OUTRAGEOUS MOOBS
THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, the OED, is an authority of English language usage and its history. From time to time, it reflects the expansion of the language, as described in … Continue reading
ENGLISH, EH?
LIBBY NELSON’S “25 Maps That Explain the English Language” at vox.com is an exemplary concise history of the English language. Nelson has collected wonderful maps on everything from the Old … Continue reading
DOEST THOU KNOW?
ENGLISH HAS CARELESSLY mislaid its intimate second person. The French language still maintains tutoyer, its intimate tu versus vous. German still differentiates among du, ihr and Sie. Yiddish carries these … Continue reading
WELL, Y’KNOW…
A FAVORITE CARTOON IS “The Emergence of Language.” And I’m fairly confident that, following “urg,” “ug” and “uh-oh,” among mankind’s first words were “well” and “y’know.” Or so it seems … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 