Terribly sorry for my monomania, but these things stick in my head. This time, I’m not telling you what I know, really. I’m admitting to a problem. I don’t know how to show possession in certain circumstances. But first, let’s talk about the word “who.” Come on, you know you want to. “Who” implies a […]
The Six Stages of Word Grief
I’ve posted before about the stages that a word goes through on the road from being considered incorrect to being considered above reproach. You know, at first it’s totally wrong, then time goes by, etc. etc., and you really should read the other post. Words like transpire (now meaning “happen,” if you’re trying to look smart); oxymoron (now meaning “contradiction […]
Hearing and Old People. Like me.
I was at my Dad’s house the other day. We walked into his bedroom to get something, and a loud, high-pitched noise hit my ears. When I asked Dad about it, he had no idea what I was talking about. My siblings could hear it from the hallway, but my dad and step-mom were oblivious. […]
Contractions Are Your Friend
I have a running battle with people who ask me to write something for them, then ask that I take out all the contractions. For some reason, a lot of people think that formal language is smart language. So they eliminate contractions, or choose big, impersonal words (like “utilize”) instead of little friendly words (like […]
Erin KcKean
I just listened to a talk by her, and then happened to run into her afterwards. The talk was great, and funny.
Oil
I’ll never forget the pictures of animals and land dying and being covered with oil. Soon we’ll see it all over again.
Spaced Repetition
Ok, so I happen to know the location of every non-island country in the world. I’m not great on the island nations, but I get 100% every time on quizzes like this one. The interesting thing here (or, the thing that I’m writing about today, regardless of whether it’s interesting) is that a few weeks […]
Yes, More about Ants! And BURIED ALIVE!
God knows I talk about ants a lot. (Here, here, here) Listening to the often excellent Radiolab podcast, I recently heard an interview with E.O. Wilson, the legendary entomologist. He talked about how ants communicate mainly through pheromones and other scents, rather than sight, sound, and touch. An example is when an ant dies. There’s […]
Government Moving in Any Way is Good
When George Bush the Younger was first elected, and the republicans controlled congress, here’s what I thought: —- I’m happy that all the government is on the same page. Now they can actually accomplish something, even if it’s not something that I want. At least they can do something. If it makes the country better, […]
The Other
This may not be earth-shattering news, but I’ve been noticing something that a lot of people seem to do. You bump into someone at work and get to talking about X. You’re surprised, because this guy does Xa, whereas you’ve always done Xb. So you say, “huh, I always did it Xb.” Really! Crazy! I […]