Today I discovered that I suffer from a condition I didn’t even know existed: crossword clue envy. Would I like to see my name on the NY Times bestseller list? Sure. Would I be happy if Netflix knocked on my door? Of course. But when I came to 50 Down... read more
Ever a lover of new words, I came across one yesterday: anthropause. I learned it from an article in the New York Times about sea birds known as murres. The article was about the Swedish island of Stora Karlso where the murres are favorites of bird-watchers. The new word first... read more
“Indian giver!” The last time I heard this phrase I must have been a kid. The tone of childish outrage still echoes. Maybe I even hurled the insult myself. In all the years since, I never thought to rethink it. Until yesterday. Environmental Biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer showed me the... read more
Beliefs have consequences. Actions have consequences. Like beliefs and actions, words have consequences. Words do things. What things? J.L. Austen maps them out in How To Do Things with Words (1962). Austen was an ordinary language philosopher who taught at Oxford. He was one of several language philosophers and linguists... read more
I’m taking my own advice for writers: Read. Read. Read. I recently got on a Polish writer kick. And began with Olga Tokarczuk. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018. So a good place to start. Title Image: Olga Tokarczuk by Adrianna Bochenek/Agencja Gazeta/Reuters. No copyright infringement intended.... read more
To continue ringing in the New Year my theme today is alcohol. Particularly, in the context of watching various foreign language movies and series over the past 10 months. How strange it was for me to be watching a Norwegian series last week and to learn the name of my... read more
Title image: my physical notion of Covid comfort, namely a daily zoom yoga class. In an earlier blog, I made the point about how whatever we were doing before the pandemic, we’re doing the opposite now. Most all of my pre-pandemic routines have changed. My eating habits have certainly changed.... read more
Doctors come in many varieties. On Saturday the issue of who gets to call herself Doctor arose when the Wall Street Journal ran a pretty darned stupid opinion piece. As you have no doubt heard by now, the writer of the op-ed chastised Dr. Jill Biden for insisting people refer... read more
Title Image Creator: Evan Vucci / Credit: AP / copyright: AP2006 Today I’m reposting a blog from September 13, 2017. The original inspiration for it came from watching coverage of Hurricane Irma. The American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter at the news conference, below, received a lot of attention. My current... read more
Most of my adventures these days happen in my arm chair. Watching foreign-language dramas on various streaming services. I’ve watched enough now to have noticed a curious phenomenon. Of course, I’ve long been aware that English is currently the world’s donor language. However, I’ve now become aware that one word... read more
