I’ve got various kinds of spam blockers on this blog. They don’t work perfectly. but if they didn’t work at all, I’d have hundreds of spam comments here a day. As it is, there are probably fifteen or so, which … Continue reading →
They say things like this: I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted… A general rule of thumb is that narcissists talk a lot about themselves; “I” this and “I” that–but rarely as the subject of the action verb in … Continue reading →
Commenter Tatterdemalian calls my attention to this AP news item. Take a look. Take a good look. It’s a well-known fact that many newspaper readers only peruse the headlines, and this one–“Rockets hit Lebanon despite cease fire”–would lead one to … Continue reading →
Now that Reutergate has caught our attention, it’s informative to look at certain other questionable aspects of Reuters policy. For example, Reuters is famous for refusing to use the word “terrorist” in its copy or headlines. Two years ago, Reuters … Continue reading →
Here’s a beautiful piece by the Anchoress, an honest and complex tribute to the mother who gave her her love of words. It would be interesting to uncover the heredity/genetics of what makes up a writer and reader. And by … Continue reading →
Right from the start–its very title–this NY Times article is a good example of what’s wrong with the paper. Are there any incorrect facts in the piece? I doubt it. My guess is that, strictly speaking, it contains not a … Continue reading →
I sometimes think that whoever writes spam has a flair for the poetic. Consider the following, which I received today: Miss Happiness Umukoro Abidjan-Cote D’Ivoire Dear love, CONFIDENTIAL. I am Miss Happiness Umukoro. the only Daughter of Late Former Director … Continue reading →
As a follow-up to my nu-ku-lar post, see this from Dean Esmay, on mispronouncing words as a sign of intelligence. Dean is speaking especially of words a person has only read rather than heard–certainly not the case for Bush and … Continue reading →
At his ever-interesting blog Done With Mirrors, Callimachus offers the definitive explanation of why George W. Bush says “nukular” for “nuclear,” (as opposed to GW’s own father, who pronounces the word conventionally). Apparently, GW is just following precedent for many … Continue reading →
It’s said all the time on the left, and even by many liberals: Bush lied. Bush lied through his teeth, especially about WMDs in Saddam’s Iraq. I don’t even have to provide the links; we all know what a recurrent … Continue reading →
Vermont English teacher Bret Chenkin has a way with words. This Boston Globe article, headlined “Teacher under investigation for alleged liberalism,” brought back unhappy memories of spending stessed-out high school days preparing for the SAT tests. But they also made … Continue reading →
I try my best to pay attention to grammar and spelling, helped out by the always-handy Spellcheck (shh–don’t tell anyone, but I’m not the world’s best speller, unaided). But as Harriet Miers before me discovered, no doubt to her chagrin, … Continue reading →