28 September 2009
The Boston Globe ran this piece on the psychology of metaphors. It’s not the greatest of articles--I would have liked to have seen some links to real research, but the general topic is interesting.
Churchillian Drift and Quote Magnets
27 September 2009
Mark Peters over at Good talks to Fred Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, about false quotations, how quotes from less well-known individuals get ascribed to more famous people ("Churchillian drift"), and how Mark Twain is a “quote magnet.”
Arr, mateys!
19 September 2009
Avast there! It’s September 19th and time again for International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Ahoy me hearties, and check out this keyboard. All a pirate needs for his bloggin’. Aye.
OED Update, September 2009
16 September 2009
It’s September and time for the quarterly update of the Oxford English Dictionary.
This quarter, the big dictionary has focused on ten key words and the various words and phrases that are built upon them:
clone
drug
face
global
image
Indian
skin
think
thought
wire
So words and phrases like clonable, Indian summer, and wireless have been updated.
The dictionary has also revised the words from red–refulgent.
New CMOS Q&As
2 September 2009
The latest questions and answers from the Chicago Manual of Style are online.
