I love Babelfish, the translation service that allows you to email in foreign languages. I had to use Google language detector to figure out that this was Dutch (I thought it might be German), but after that it was easy peasy Dutchy. Check out this exchange (in both languages, for your convenience): Original inquiry Beste [...]
Tagged babel fish, languages, spam, translationI was explaining to a friend the acronym “FTW” (for the win) and realized that it isn’t properly an acronym because it isn’t a word, like FUBAR or SCUBA (“self-contained underwater breathing apparatus” — thank you Family Ties). So I called it a netonym. And I thought I had just coined a neologism. I googled [...]
Tagged acronym, ftw, neologism, netonymReading Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates, in which she details how the Puritan vision of a “city on a hill” has been co-opted and misshapen by politicians and the American public, I can’t help but reflect on oft-used phrases that are so ubiquitous that people who know them are often not familiar with their provenance. [...]
The Zero Effect. An excellent detective film starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller. A man hires a famous detective to find his missing keys. The Doppler effect. The pileup of sound waves that makes a fast moving object’s sound change in pitch when it zooms by. To whit, race cars don’t go Neeeeeeeee when they [...]
Tagged butterfly effect, cupertino effect, effect, trigger effect, zero effectThat Simon and Garfunkel say …I wish I was Homeward bound. instead of …I wish I were Homeward bound. I know was has a better sound in the phrase, but it bugs me.
Avery says “my” instead of “I” or “I’m.” This puzzling linguistic development became clear once I figured out its boundaries. Here’s how I figure it emerged: 1) We would say something about a posessive: “Have you found your shoes?” 2) She would say “Avery found your shoes.” 3) We would correct her, “You mean to [...]
Tagged avery, Finn, kids, language, parentingFor every good experience on Google Image Labeler, there are at least two bad ones. Here’s my most recent: I got an image that showed three principle members of the Start Trek crew. Here are the labels I typed in the 40 seconds before my teammate passed, then the five more I obstinantly typed to [...]
Tagged image labelerI often play a couple rounds of Image Labeler before bed. Today, I got paired up with a couple real crackerjacks who think the way I do and type quickly. Check out this score:
Tagged fun, image labelerSee if you can pick it out. Context: P.Z. Myers grouses about some claims made in an article profiling “Intelligent” Design. The boldfaced sentence is the claim being made by the article. IDists are correct to say love is not an illusion. Scientists say this. Frankly, this is the most dumb-ass argument in a whole [...]
Tagged evolution, funny, intelligent design, sentences, WordsIt occurred to me that my experience with Bruce Springsteen is a ubiquitous one. Not for the Boss, per se, but as a way of ingesting popular culture. A couple more examples: A student wearing a “COLLEGE” shirt admitted to me that he bought it because he thought it was cool, only later learning about [...]
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson I seem to be on a Bryson binge lately, somehow finding myself reading two of his books at the same time. We have three more on the shelf downstairs, but it will be a while before I read another. This book was [...]
Tagged anagram, language, palindromeIt occurred to me today that favorite has no antonym.
for Deb and Travis The joy of marriage stems from love requited. Popular wisdom about love focuses on Eros—lonely love, the pursuit of love: love unrequited. Aristotle posits love as a search for the other half of our soul, our soul mate. Medieval poets imagine love as a kind of pain, a longing we feel [...]
In September, when my good friend Deb called and asked if I’d like to be a reader in her wedding, I was very excited. Then she asked if, what with my creativity and being a writing teacher and all, I’d like to write my reading. Oh, the hubris involved in responding, “Absolutely I would.” Problem [...]
Jenny stumbled across this delightful documentary about crossword creators and the puzzlers who love them. Features interviews with many notable crossword enthusiasts, including Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, some baseball player, the Indigo girls, and many others. A couple quick thoughts: Will Shortz seems like a fun guy to know, though he’d probably make jokes I [...]
The Last Log of the Titanic
2666
The Ig Nobel Prizes 2: An All-New Collection of the World’s Unlikeliest Research
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
