Author Archive
-
Language Corner
Firing Blanks
March 31, 2009 03:54 PMThe day Brenda Starr has been dreading has arrived. Her new boss, Mr. Bottomline, says she has become too expensive. “You ... you .. you’re firing me?” she says incredulously. “I’d never do that, Starr,” the cigar-chomping boss replies.... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Stop, Fief!
March 24, 2009 01:25 PMLet us travel back to those thrilling days of feudalism, when lords were lords and everyone else paid high taxes to the lords. (OK, maybe not so long ago.) Back then, land was owned only by the very high up... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Waif Goodbye
March 17, 2009 03:07 PMLet’s say you find a “waif” on the street and take it home. Should you call an orphanage, an animal shelter, an eating disorder specialist, or the local lost and found? The correct answer might surprise you. Webster’s New World... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Wait Lifted
March 11, 2009 01:44 PMFor hundreds of years, linguists, grammarians, and others have argued over what word should follow “wait,” as in “I am going to wait for you,” or “wait on you,” or perhaps “wait upon you.” Some made the distinction that... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Persuasive Convincing
March 2, 2009 03:42 PMBack when English grammar was rigorously taught in schools, certain rules were hammered into students’ heads: Never split an infinitive; never end a sentence with a preposition; never use “convince” with an infinitive. Those teachers may also have sought to... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
A Noisome Joy
February 23, 2009 01:16 PMThink of all the words that don’t mean what their spellings seem to indicate they mean—among the ones already discussed here are “enormity,” which , in proper usage, doesn’t refer to something merely large, but to something large... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Presidents Setting
February 16, 2009 04:39 PMWe used to have two holidays in February: Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday. Now, we have three, though most of us usually get only one of them off: Lincoln’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday and “Presidents Day.” Er, “President’s Day.” Um, “Presidents’... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Cultured Plurals
February 9, 2009 03:20 PMWhen baseball season starts in just a few short weeks, the New York Yankees will have a new “stadium.” The New York Mets will have one, too. That’s two new “stadia” for the city. Is that the sound of... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
A Frayed Knot of Words
February 2, 2009 01:18 PMLast week’s posting discussed sound-alike words that are often mistaken for one another, despite their different meanings. That brought a comment from heisenberg76: It is ironic that the author of this ‘Language Corner’ column does not know the... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Pedal Pushers
January 26, 2009 12:03 PMNow that Barack Obama is president, one columnist wanted to know, weren’t the late-night comedians, who had taken so many potshots at George Bush, “now soft-peddling ridicule of their golden boy?” That’s a hard sell, because the correct phrase is... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Able Action
January 19, 2009 05:00 PMEnglish has no grammar police to prevent someone from taking a word and putting it to work with another meaning, though teachers armed with rulers often act as auxiliary police officers. As a result, secondary meanings often creep into the... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Not So Impeachy
January 13, 2009 10:59 AMWhen the Illinois House of Representatives voted to “impeach” Governor Rod Blagojevich, a number of blogs carried public comments like “thank heavens he’s gone!” Of course, he’s not gone, at least not unless he’s convicted by the Illinois Senate... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Our Tense Past
January 5, 2009 05:15 PMWhen you tell your friends that you took a swim yesterday, did you say you “swam” yesterday or that you “swum” yesterday? Oh, come on. Everyone knows that the past tense of “swim” is “swam.” You’d use “swum” only as... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Kicking the Can
December 22, 2008 03:53 PMIn late November, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Big Three automakers that they needed to devise a better financial aid plan than the one they had presented to Congress, saying that any decision was going to be postponed until... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Missed Step
December 15, 2008 04:51 PMEveryone has language pet peeves: those little things people say that aren’t quite right, and that we can’t help but correct. For reader Mark Freeman, it’s the phrase “step foot in,” as in “I wouldn’t step foot in (or into)... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
The Britishisms Are Coming!
December 8, 2008 04:35 PM“I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could easily have come from a President McCain,” Max Boot, a journalist who served as a foreign policy adviser to John McCain, said recently of Barack Obama’s cabinet choices. Someone else,... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Healthy Usage
December 1, 2008 01:48 PMHere’s hoping everyone ate only “healthy” foods at Thanksgiving. Many people, including those watching calories or wanting to be “healthy,” probably ate only “healthful” foods. Anyone who did not eat “healthy” foods probably spent the next day or so feeling... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Poisonous Coinage
November 24, 2008 04:36 PMAs the country tries to escape its economic doldrums, there’s been a lot of talk about how banks made “toxic loans” that exposed them and others to huge losses. It’s a very descriptive phrase that allows the biologic and economic... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
When Opposites Detract
November 17, 2008 01:38 PMA country ignores the wishes of the United Nations and continues its human rights abuses. Its behavior is “sanctioned.” Meanwhile, a league bowler rolls a 300, but there’s some question as to whether the game is “sanctioned.” Ah, the wonders... Continue reading
-
Language Corner
Our Historical Past
November 11, 2008 02:03 PMLast week’s election was “historical.” It was also “historic.” As my predecessor Evan Jenkins explained here in 2004, “By hoary consensus, ‘historic’ has been reserved for events of great moment, like the Battle of Yorktown or the... Continue reading
—advertisement—
Desks
The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
- Hot air Rises Above on CNBC An anchor pins a minor dip in stocks on the TV appearance of a minor politician
The Observatory Science
- Dull news from Doha UN climate summit a ho-hum affair for the press
- Highway to the danger zone Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
- In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
Behind the News The Media
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Fri 3:00 PM
- Must-reads of the week
- The media news cycle is bananas
- Pass the #popcorn
- Must-reads of the week
- Tom Rosenstiel leaving Pew
The Future of Media
News Startups Guide last updated: Thu 10:24 AM
- TRVL A free iPad travel magazine
- TheDigitel A small chain of local news sites/ aggregators in South Carolina