When I did the Sanity Squad podcasts, I couldn’t help noticing how often I said “ummm…” while trying to frame my thoughts and articulate them. Too often for my taste, although some of the feedback I got from listeners was … Continue reading →
There are a few glitches on the blog that I hope will be ironed out in the next few days. You may or may not have noticed them (some are very minor, fortunately). One involves the strange disappearance of that … Continue reading →
Here’s an article at NPR that gives advice on talking to doctors about pain. It questions the usefulness of the old tried-and-true 1-10 pain scale and comes down in favor of more descriptive words. It’s not that I disagree entirely; … Continue reading →
Today President Trump has said he actually meant “wouldn’t” instead of “would” when he uttered this phrase during the Helsinki news conference: I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia]. But I really do … Continue reading →
The other day I was talking to a friend and I mentioned that something was “dropping like flies.” And then I paused to wonder what on earth is the origin of the phrase. After all, it’s not as though we … Continue reading →
And the answer, apparently, is “no, we can’t.” Regular readers know that I’ve been trying to change the URL and format of my blog to this new site, but migration of the content of the old blog to the new … Continue reading →
You may have heard about actor Robert De Niro’s standing O performance at last night’s Tony awards. It was bleeped from the broadcast but is readily available: And so, to the question in the title of this post, you may … Continue reading →
[UPDATE: Scroll down for photo.] I’ve stayed away from the Samantha Bee brouhaha so far because it just plain wearies me. I come from a time when the c-word was simply not acceptable in public life, and that was that. … Continue reading →
Only thing is—they think the Times hasn’t been hard enough on Israel. Actually, the article in question from the Economist is about language, in particular the “weasel voice” of evasion (it’s part of a continuing “Johnson” series about words/grammar in … Continue reading →
On “Spygate,” informants, sources, and scumbags.
Continue reading →I thought this was some sort of joke at first, mainly because I’d never heard the word “beaner” as a slur against Mexicans: Nearly two weeks ahead of their day of nationwide racial bias training, coffee chain Starbucks is facing … Continue reading →
The latest internet craze is to listen to the audio and answer the burning question of whether you hear “Yanny” or “Laurel.” I heard “Yanny”—or rather, just to show you what a weirdo I am, I actually heard “Yammy.” Close … Continue reading →