H.L. MENCKEN REVISITED PART 2
LET’S CONTINUE ENJOYING the acerbic wit of H.L. Mencken. One excellent source of this is his Chrestomathy, (from the Greek adjective chrēstos, “useful,” and the verb manthanein, “to learn), now in its second edition. … Continue reading
H.L. MENCKEN REVISITED PART 1
I’VE ALREADY SHARED MY FAVORITE H.L. MENCKEN line: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Another equally … Continue reading
THE EMPEROR’S NEW CASH
WITH RESPECTFUL APPRECIATION OF Keiserens Nye Klæder by Hans Christian Andersen. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best … Continue reading
THINKING ABOUT CHANGE
THE INSPIRING QUOTES WEBSITE often lives up to its name. Indeed, its February 14, 2025, posting caught my eye: “Reframing the Way You Look at Change.” I’d have to think … Continue reading
SHAKESPEARE’S BEHIND
NOW THAT I’VE GOT YOUR ATTENTION, there’s nothing scatological here. Rather, it’s a timely update of “Do Our Languages Shape Us? Or Do We Shape Our Languages?” Background. There we … Continue reading
NOTES ON HARD TIMES
GEE, WHY EVER SHOULD this title about George Orwell catch my eyes these days? Now you tell one. Remarkable Diaries: The World’s Greatest Diaries, Journals, Notebooks, and Letters, foreward by … Continue reading
90S SLANG STILL ALIVE AND WELL
NEAR THE END OF THE 1990S I WAS—wisely, it turns out—debunking the Y2K Dread that gizmos were incapable of counting 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001…. I was driving a Morgan at … Continue reading
“GHOST WORDS” IN DICTIONARIES
THERE’S NOTHING SCARY ABOUT DICTIONARY “GHOST WORDS.” They’re the result of misreading, mistranscribing, and plain old editorial goofing. Here’s a selection gleaned from several Internet sources. Dord. Wikipedia recounts, “The … Continue reading
DO OUR LANGUAGES SHAPE US? OR DO WE SHAPE OUR LANGUAGES? PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE LEARNED OF A LANGUAGE that logically places the past in front of us (where it’s readily perceived) and the future behind us (because it cannot be seen). Today … Continue reading
DO OUR LANGUAGES SHAPE US? OR DO WE SHAPE OUR LANGUAGES? PART 1
ANSWER: BOTH, AS MANVIR SINGH DESCRIBES in “How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?,” The New Yorker, December 23, 2024. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 