Tag Archives: language

Stinky Smelly Words

Posted on February 7, 2019 by JMN

I recently posted a quotation from a profile of a grammar and style guru who was unable even to pronounce aloud the words “stinky” and “smelly” for the interviewer. He found them that repellant. A fellow blogger contributed “feet” as … Continue reading →

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“A Squeamish and Skittering Ride”

Posted on February 5, 2019 by JMN

I’ve toiled in this business for nearly 20 years, and even in the best of times it has been a squeamish and skittering ride, the sort of career you’d counsel your kids to avoid in favor of something less volatile … Continue reading →

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A Quaint Plaint Spoken to the Wind

Posted on February 5, 2019 by JMN

Sombrerismo is a spurious derivative coinage hatched by a cheeky blogger from the Spanish word for “hat” (sombrero). This etiquette-challenged perversion may be a sub-attribute of machismo, a term more familiar to the anglophone community. A man commits sombrerismo when … Continue reading →

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A Copy Editor’s Quibbles

Posted on February 4, 2019 by JMN

nyti.ms/2DOiA9C And there are the words Dreyer currently dislikes most, even more than he dislikes “munch” and “nosh” and other distasteful eating-adjacent terms. Sitting recently in his book-crammed office at Penguin Random House, where he is vice president, executive managing … Continue reading →

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I Can Just Hear Those Hands

Posted on February 2, 2019 by JMN

“[***’s] just out making noise, ringing his hands and pouting in a corner,” Aguilar said Friday. (Sarah Ferris, Heather Caygle, “Congress tunes out ***’s border wall threats,” Politico, 2-1-19) (c) 2019 JMN.

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Remarkable Insights from Working with Translators

Posted on February 1, 2019 by JMN

nyti.ms/2UzwdPr A connection between languages On this day in 1786, a Briton living in India delivered a discourse on a little-known proposition: that Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Greek and other languages might have a common source. The commentary set off the … Continue reading →

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What’s Done

Posted on January 30, 2019 by JMN

What’s done is dung and cannot be undung. (Karl Ove Knausgaard. Quoted by Dwight Garner in his review of Chris Christie’s “Let Me Finish,” NYTimes, 1-28-19) (c) 2019 JMN.

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Opinion | Warning! Everything Is Going Deep: ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ – The New York Times

Posted on January 30, 2019 by JMN

Deep learning, deep insights, deep artificial minds — the list goes on and on. But with unprecedented promise comes some unprecedented peril. — Read on http://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/opinion/artificial-intelligence-surveillance.html … Deep trust and deep loyalty cannot be forged overnight. They take time. That’s … Continue reading →

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Fixing To

Posted on January 30, 2019 by JMN

[Drawing by Tom Jones] I’m fixing to get back into the swing of things blogwise. Since November I’ve been immersed in a Mediterranean voyage of discovery and recovery in the family nature of things. “Fixing to” (the “g” is silent) … Continue reading →

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Looking Through Viral Writing

Posted on January 24, 2019 by JMN

The lesson here is really to question, what is the genuine source of this content and how is it being frames [sic]. And then, how is that framing elevated by the the news media that you’re looking through?” said Louis … Continue reading →

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