Archive for January, 2007
I have to admit I didn’t read or pay much attention to Art Buchwald when he was alive and writing his humor column, primarily because I don’t find politics to be a humorous proposition. Politicians need poking at, yes, but politics has deadly consequences.
That being said, Mr. Buchwald did manage to go out with class, dignity–and humor. Refusing dialysis, he faced certain death but hung in there for almost a year until his kidneys failed him at 81.Â
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I decided to jettison my nearly decade-old design for Grammar Sucks in favor of a more functional, modern design. This wasn’t done as much as a design makeover as a practical necessity. As I tested out my old site on Macintosh computers and other browsers, I noticed weird bugs. Thus, this new look. Please let me know what you think.
Just by writing about American Idol yesterday, my visitors jumped several fold, so I figured the name must have some magic. Therefore, over at my food blog I decided it was time to introduce the American Idol Burger.
I came up with the following taglines or unique selling points (USP):
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Ever since developing my concept of Notwords (see earlier post), I’ve been working on this theory that American English is susceptible to corruption by song lyrics and artists who abuse both song lyrics and the English language. Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with anything comprehensive in terms of research so far.
However, “American Idol” contestant Trista Giese last night (Jan. 16) took Notsinging to new heights as she incorporated a lion’s growl into her singing a tune from “Wizard of Oz.” Watch, listen and groan here. (I actually watched this on TV, the first time ever that I’ve viewed “American Idol.” The last time?)
If you want to set up your own blog, I certainly recommend using WordPress as the content management system on your own hosted domain. However, there is a glitch in WordPress that I’m hoping I’ve detected the source of (never end a sentence with a preposition, right?). To wit, because of something in PHP (the sourcing code) called Magic Quotes, apostrophes appear with slashes after them, such as “Dave\\\\\\\\s,” or something like that, so this post is purely a test to see if turning off Magic Quotes cures this problem. (Believe me, I spent a couple of hours doing Web searches trying to figure this out, so I’m praying for results here.)
Let’s try: Dave’s, Judy’s, Mack’s. How about single quotes: “He said he was ‘completely unprepared’.”
We’ll all know in a minute, or maybe not because it may just be certain browsers where this occurs, in which case I’ll have to wait to hear from my reader in Taipei.
I didn’t see the original article, only the retraction and correction that appeared later, but a Jan. 7 story in the Orange County Register evidently said that 18th Century British politician William Wilberforce, a staunch opponent of slave trade, helped usher in a period of prurience. Oops, what they really meant was “prudishness,” as the retraction noted.
Whatever happened to copy editors, city editors and proofreaders? Probably most of them got their jobs eliminated. Back in the days when I toiled for a daily newspaper, at least two and often four people checked your story before it went to press. They were fairly prudish too. Prurience reigned over at Playboy and Hustler magazines. Now why didn’t I work for them?
Just when I thought I might run out of Notword examples, in stepped Dictionary.com with its list of Words for 2006.
With entries such as “grinchitude,” “in-getter,” “factinista” and “truthiness,” I no longer have to seek far for Notwords. Check it out above.
…on this video and concept.
I’ve long believed that we’re not far removed from the animal kingdom except that we can create alphabets and words and use our digits to shoot weapons of various destruction.
However, this is pretty graphic proof that animals, in this case a lion, can show genuine emotion and appreciation. The woman who saved the lion in the video from a cruel fate gets hugs and appreciation for her efforts. Watch It Now.
Doesn’t this say something that transcends language?
So rode and spoke Paul Revere.Â
Now every media outlet in the U.S. is blaring a new refrain of this as David Beckham, British soccer phenom, and wife Posh Spice, British rock phenom, are relocating to the states so Beckham can play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Soon the definitive British accent of the two will hit the airwaves to promote soccer, shoes, clothes, Pepsi, Coke, you name it, but the prospect is so huge that no newspaper, radio, or TV outlet in the land did anything but trumpet it as the biggest news of the day, next to the “surge” of troops in Iraq.
I’m not sure what will come of this American English-wise, but it will be fun to find out.
Let’s just hope the guy can still play soccer so this phenomenon-in-the-making doesn’t appear stillborn.
Suddenly, it turns out that the liberals are complaining that using the word “surge” to describe the increase in troop levels in Iraq is a Rovian deceit, or trap, to imply a temporary increase and thus fend off war critics.
What’s going on?Â
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