Category Archives: News
No skivvies, no service
From the flaky folks who banned the Happy Meal – a new piece of legislation that makes so much sense it’s ridiculous. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will consider legislation requiring naked people to place something under their bottoms … Continue reading
Panic attack
Mark Twain was known to have said, “Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.” As Hurricane Irene barrels toward the United States, the weather is all anyone is talking about. Someone, do something. Usually, The … Continue reading
Filed under All Things Wordish, News, Technology and Social Media
A sign from above
I received an e-mail reminder last week of the coming of National Punctuation Day. As soon as there’s a nip in the air, I start planning a celebration and contemplating the meaning of these literary symbols in our lives. Of … Continue reading
Filed under All Things Wordish, News
Friend of the trendless
Do you know what’s trending? The word trend as a verb, for one. Trend as a verb has been around a long time, but its use was always narrow. Data points trend upward, for example. As best I’ve observed, the verb … Continue reading
Super coincidence
Darn you, Stephen Colbert. On Tuesday I had jotted a blog idea on the back of an envelope and had only to fill it out. This, you recall, was the day the nation’s policymakers approved the creation of a Super … Continue reading
A hiatus from Hades
Have the searing heat and the national debt debate got you down? A scan of newspapers, Internet and television news and Facebook posts, not to mention those oft-forgotten personal conversations, shows a pretty grumpy America. We’re hot and we’re mad … Continue reading
El plato ostentoso
I gather the Spanish gastronomic community is deeply mourning the closing of El Bulli restaurant. For 50 years in Catalonia, El Bulli created culinary inventions that inspired chefs worldwide. If you like food or if you like Spain, read The New York Times … Continue reading
Filed under All Things Wordish, Food, News, Travel
Rigged
It’s humbling for a self-professed word nymph to discover a flaw in her understanding of a word (though I deliberately chose “nymph” as a symbol of a work in progress). Once and again, we all say or spell a word we think is correct … Continue reading
Filed under All Things Wordish, Beauty and Fashion, News
Big dream
I read somewhere—I think it was in a newspaper commentary a year or so ago—that dreams are interesting only to those who have them. For this reason, the commentator argued, we needn’t tell others about our dreams because they’ll only … Continue reading
Filed under In Memoriam, Music, News
Y’all come
We all form impressions of the places we visit, based on how we’re treated by the locals. There are many stereotypes: New Yorkers are impatient and rude. Parisians are snooty. Washingtonians are self-important blow-hards. Based on my experience, with only the … Continue reading
