Category Archives: Language

Diatribes on matters related to language practice.

Pronoun Perplexity

It’s necessary for authors to be careful and explicit regarding the use of pronouns when more than one person is present in the context of a discussion. The antecedents of pronouns may be perfectly clear in the writer’s mind, but … Continue reading

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Nosing Around

This article is from the series Meditations from the Track Changes Column In the course of copyediting, I often find it useful to nose around in (aka research) what great authors of the past did. The sorts of points I seek … Continue reading

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Meditations from the Track Changes Column

In the course of editing the writing of clients, I encounter much in the way of ticks and bad habits, not to mention sheer ignorance, particularly in the writing of beginners and illiterati — of which I edit more than I’d … Continue reading

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Above and Below

Don’t you hate it when you see above and below used as nouns? This lumpy construction usually occurs when the author wants to refer to material within text in a position relative to where the monstrosity occurs. (More precisely before … Continue reading

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Footnotes Versus Endnotes

My favorite magazine, The Watchtower, has a series of study articles in the July issue that uses endnotes rather than the footnotes it has used almost if not entirely exclusively in my forty-three years of reading the journal. A friend, … Continue reading

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There Are Not All Types of People

“There are all types of people in the world.” So claims an author I’ve been editing. Sounds like a truism, right? No there’s not. To say there is sounds as though there’s some master catalog of types, and that someone … Continue reading

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A Letter to One’s Copyeditor

Dear Ed Itor. Please to find in file word proces is many words of Story, Is very very funny hilarious freinds say (ha ha!) Please to choose salubrious and make nice sentinces with sound is Good English. If maybe some … Continue reading

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Uncircling, Unfriending, and Unfollowing

Though I don’t maintain an ironclad bullet list of rules about who I follow in my social networks, certain annoyances move me to uncircle, unfriend, or unfollow persons posthaste. (All three italicized words are social networking neologisms.) Give me full … Continue reading

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Chronicles: Volume 1 — Bob Dylan

Contrary to implications from the title, and also to the customary method of presenting biography, Bob Dylan’s book Chronicles: Volume 1 is not a traditional “Born on a mountaintop in …” chronologically-told tale. We learn bits of the back story … Continue reading

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Ulysses by James Joyce — a Reaction

To quote a famous old Alka-Seltzer commercial, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” That was a long song. If you are searching for an intelligent review of the James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, look elsewhere. The book has been … Continue reading

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About Legacy Posts

As of July 25, 2011, I have migrated over 130 articles from my Neologistics blog, where since August 2005 I have posted many unsorted articles, including items unrelated to editing, writing, or literature. The articles copied from the old site … Continue reading

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A Former al-Qaeda Leader?

Recently, I read a news story that referred to Osama Bin Laden as the “former leader of al-Qaeda.” Former? Ha! Perhaps so in the same way that Hitler is a former Nazi, or Ted Bundy a former serial murderer, if we … Continue reading

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Simple Signage

In the venerable British tradition of estate naming, we call our house Haddon Hall. We named it that because we live on Haddon Road in Columbus, Ohio, also in tribute to a beautiful English medieval castle by that name. We … Continue reading

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Looking It Over

While I was an engineer at Motorola, I began editing the written work of others on a regular basis, and in doing so, discovered my ability to tear into someone else’s writing and make it better without making the author … Continue reading

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Soft Pedal vs. Soft Peddle

Once I used the phrase soft pedal in e-mail to an erudite friend, in a form like this: “I intend to soft pedal my idea so as not to stir up controversy and resistance.” The friend corrected me, claiming that … Continue reading

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Right Ho, Jeeves!

Among P.G. Wodehouse’s most popular novels is the 1934 work Right Ho, Jeeves!, featuring recurring luminaries, the young English gentleman Bertie Wooster and his ingenious and far-cleverer-than-his-boss valet Reginald Jeeves (whose first name is not given in this novel). One measure … Continue reading

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Taking a Drink

When we speak of taking some substance, in the sense of ingesting it, the verb take carries connotations of need, of measured and countable doses designed to satisfy a perceived deficiency. Most people would not think of taking medicine unless … Continue reading

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Taking Remedial English

Note: This post is a duplicate of the article by the same title on my Neologistics Blog, but here is where I originally intended to put it. I decided that rather than moving it, I would just allow the duplication … Continue reading

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Giving Away My Roots

When I lived outside the tiny coastal town of Searsport, Maine, I had a nasty tooth problem and had to hightail it to a dentist. I knew of one in Belfast named — I’m not making this up — Dr. … Continue reading

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Running Only Four or Five Hours

Long ago I considered running the Mickelson Trail Marathon. It sounded like a good race to me, and besides, I hadn’t run a regular marathon in years; but running it would have required me to travel from Arizona to South … Continue reading

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Stephen King and David Foster Wallace Compared

What do authors Stephen King and David Foster Wallace have in common? As authors, other than having been successful — very little. Their work emanates from about as far from opposite sides of the universe as can be.

Their commonality from the perspective of this neologistician is that they are two writers about whom I know far more personally than I do of their written works. Continue reading

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Reading in Installments

At any given time I have between one and seven books in my Recent Reading stack marked as current. These are books that I really am reading at present. At this writing there are six on the stack: Washington: A … Continue reading

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Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition

Placeholder for a review soon to come.

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Having a Thing

People will say “Such-and-such is not my thing.” People with “a thing” have too few things.

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Acquiring Wealth As a Writer

If I had a nickel for every time I said, “Schmork flump verwissenschatz und geheimlichen zonderfloozles,” I’d have one nickel.

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Living in a Caboose

Image via Wikipedia When I learned that a high school classmate moved to Israel to live in a caboose after we graduated, I thought that was a pretty weird choice. It was not until years later that I learned it … Continue reading

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Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself

Image via Wikipedia I’ve just finished reading a new book (2010) by David Lipsky, the title of this post. It’s about a five-day road trip author David Foster Wallace took in 1995 at the behest of Wallace’s publisher Little, Brown … Continue reading

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Moby Dick

Never read it. Continue reading

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Jefferson the Neologist

Image via Wikipedia In answer to some people who stodgily protested certain Americanisms that had crept into the writing of Jefferson’s founding requirements regarding the University of Virginia, he defended himself by asserting that as new discoveries are made, new … Continue reading

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Take the Money and Run

Image via Wikipedia Wise and experienced persons ones solemnly proclaim, fingers a-wagging, that money and material prosperity do not bring happiness. Duhh! Everyone knows that, but some who preach this less than profound truth seem to opine from the point … Continue reading

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Pale Fire — Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov‘s 1963 novel Pale Fire appears on a number of lists purporting to identify the greatest novels of the twentieth century. I wouldn’t dare to attempt a literary analysis of Pale Fire. It’s been a staple of literature classes … Continue reading

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Ultrarunning Hyperbole

Certain tainted words occur repeatedly in journalism about ultrarunning, all of which cause noisy alarms to go off in my head whenever I see them. The four most frequent culprits are: crazy grueling test[ing] limits extreme Rarely have I ever … Continue reading

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Bone — Jeff Smith

Cover of Crown of Horns (Bone, Vol. 9) Exactly one year ago today Suzy and I attended the world premiere of a documentary about comic book artist Jeff Smith, who is from Columbus area, and a graduate of The Ohio … Continue reading

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Self Improvement

One day in 1972, while browsing in a book store in Manhattan, I stumbled across a 246-page, cartoon-filled, self-help pocket book with the eyebrow-raising title How to Develop Your Thinking Ability—A Guide to Sound Decisions by Kenneth S. Keyes, Jr., … Continue reading

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Drivel

Here are some thoughts I’ve wanted to express for a long time. Yesterday I thought of a great mnemonic device, but I forgot what it was. I’m fully aware of the irony of this situation. Or maybe I was just … Continue reading

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The Consummate Word

P.G. Wodehouse. What he said. How he said it. Awesome!

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A Thought on Literary Precision

Compare the consequences of a lack of a single punctuation mark in English and in software. Imagine what would happen if high school students were not permitted to graduate for failing to insert a quotation mark in an essay. I’ve … Continue reading

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Chips Off the Workbench

Welcome to my verbal webcam. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, as I’ve been busy with work and the upcoming race Across the Years. Meanwhile, here are a few thoughts that pass through my eccentric mind. When people … Continue reading

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The Most Secure Place in the World

Many adventure and sci-fi movies show scenes of top secret highly secure fortresses surrounded by armed guards and protected by more hi-tech gear than the Pentagon can afford. Each of these movies leaves you convinced that there couldn’t possibly be … Continue reading

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Fantastic Writing

At this moment my wife is sitting in the living room watching Lord of the Rings. I tried watching it when it first came out, but fell asleep, and have had no further interest in watching the others. I also … Continue reading

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Icy Warts

… or maybe the title should be Eye Sea Wards. When I hear or speak words, I see them spelled out in my head. Similarly, when I read I tend to see the letters in individual words, so that when … Continue reading

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Why Do I Write?

Recently I posted a comment to an excellent article written by a friend on Ergo Sum. What I wrote works well as a standalone thought, so I decided to post it here as well. Why do I write? One reason … Continue reading

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Exhalations

I’m pathologically incapable of reading a sentence under the control of an editor and not editing it. In fact, I’m doing it right now! I’m having one of those experiences where an action produces a repeatable but seemingly unrelated reaction, … Continue reading

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Rant on Writing

This diatribe was originally foisted upon a class of unmotivated and nearly illiterate university students. It was my job to attempt to teach them something about Unix and Linux, while also demanding, as a matter of school policy, that they … Continue reading

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Micro-Thoughts Redux

Don’t you hate it when people keep using words like redux? Before my life changed I was a composer. People sometimes ask me: “What kind of music did you write?” I wrote UN-popular music. Some titles: Neglected Concerto Unknown Symphony … Continue reading

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Life Is Dangerous

Life is getting to be too dangerous. My bathroom scale has a warning on it not to use if I’ve got a pacemaker. (I don’t.) My toothbrush and razor came with instructions on how to avoid electrocution while using them. … Continue reading

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English As a Second Language for Native-Borns

There was a high school physics teacher who subscribed to a mail list I once belonged to. Everyone disliked him because he was an idiot and most of what he said was both ignorant and offensive. He was nearly illiterate … Continue reading

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Micro-Thoughts

Some people have things to say and some people have to say things. There are c. 6.5 billion people in the world. If the average person lives 76 years, 27740 days, It means that throughout the world an average of … Continue reading

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