Wordorigins.org

For many years now, people have been bemoaning the loss of the local, independent bookseller. A few decades back it was big chains like Border’s and Barnes and Noble threatening the independent bookstore. Now it’s internet retailers like Amazon that are the big threat, and which are also threatening the chains. Here in Berkeley, we recently lost two great bookstores, Cody’s and Black Oak Books. (Although Cody’s demise was as much due to unwise and ludicrously optimistic expansion as it was to competition, and Black Oak still lives on without their flagship storefront.)

I’ve never understood why this is a bad thing. To be sure, many small, independent bookstores have their charms and are pleasant places to visit and browse for books and their staff generally is more knowledgeable than that of big chains, but by their nature they have limited inventory. The competition that is killing them has far superior selection and makes available a much wider range of books at lower prices. The independent bookstore is more attractive as an ineffable ideal than as a cold, commercial reality. The reality is that more and better books are available to more people at lower prices than ever in history. You no longer have to live in Manhattan or San Francisco to find great books. The guy in the cabin with a DSL line in Elkbutt, Montana has as much access to books as the Fifth Avenue socialite.

Then the inimitable Clay Shirky comes along and summarizes the situation and puts forward a potential solution, a vision of what the independent bookstore could become. It is well worth a read.

The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected their word of the year for 2009, and that word is unfriend. The runners up are here. (It’s a bit early to be selecting words. After all we’ve still got more than a month to go. But I guess like hanging Christmas decorations, this stuff gets earlier each year. And it isn’t very catchy to say, “Word of 15 November 2008 through 16 November 2009.)

Of course, we do a words of the year thing here too, but it’s a bit less formal. I don’t select a single word, but rather use the opportunity to learn about and generate discussion on new words and phrases that are out there. So post your suggestions here.

The American Dialect Society is collecting suggestions for their selection of word of the year and word of the decade. (The selection will be in early January, as it should be.) You can send them directly to woty AT americandialect.org. I’ll also be sending the best ones posted here to Grant Barrett and the nominating committee. 

I seem to be on a Supreme Court kick this week. This time it’s Justice Antonin Scalia attempting to school a lawyer on proper usage during oral arguments for Hemi Group v. City of New York held this past Tuesday:

I love South Park. Not only is it funny, iconoclastic, and an equal-opportunity offender, but they very often express a core truth that blasts away society’s preconceptions and prejudices. In this clip they take on the subject of definitions of offensive words, in particular the growing use of fag and gay as general terms of contempt that have little or nothing to do with homosexuality.

The full episode can be seen here. (Warning: the full episode is NSFW)

We’re all familiar with the image of the crotchety grammarian, going off on some pet peeve or perceived a"abuse" of the language. Most of the time, these people can be either ignored, or, if they’re in a position of authority like a teacher or boss, temporarily accommodated. But occasionally, someone’s misinterpretation of grammatical principles can have real consequences. And when that misinterpretation is done by a US Supreme Court justice, the situation can be downright scary.