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Image via Wikipedia 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 sentences in some reasonable semblance of English. Persons who write habitually in the abbreviated . . . → Read More: Uncircling, Unfriending, and Unfollowing Cover of Chronicles, Volume 1 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 throughout the book, enough to be satisfied that Dylan, famous for . . . → Read More: Chronicles: Volume 1 — Bob Dylan 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 out for a few years. Plenty of literati of all sorts, including hyper-, semi-, and il-, the . . . → Read More: Ulysses by James Joyce — a Reaction 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 have all been labeled with the category LEGACY. It has been a longstanding shortcoming of Google’s otherwise . . . → Read More: About Legacy Posts  Comments are closed  Arts, Baseball, Editing, Film, Humor, Language, Legacy, Literature, Music, Opinions, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Running, Sports, Squibblings, Stories, Technology, Thoughts, Usage, Writing Image by Getty Images via @daylife 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 may refer to them at all in the present . . . → Read More: A Former al-Qaeda Leader? Image via Wikipedia 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 would love to put up a sign that says that HADDON HALL — . . . → Read More: Simple Signage 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 feel bad. What I did wasn’t a customary or assigned part of my job, so was . . . → Read More: Looking It Over Image via Wikipedia 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 the preferred phrase is soft peddle. A bit of Google research indicates that . . . → Read More: Soft Pedal vs. Soft Peddle Cover of 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 of this book’s popularity may be seen from the page of . . . → Read More: Right Ho, Jeeves! Comments are closed Arts, Language, Literature, Re: Views  Bertie Wooster, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Jeeves, p g wodehouse, Right Ho Jeeves Image via Wikipedia 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 they needed it to combat some physical malady. Each morning, when I make coffee, . . . → Read More: Taking a Drink 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 to exist. Image via WikipediaOne dismal February morning in 1962, near the beginning of the second semester . . . → Read More: Taking Remedial English Image by Getty Images via @daylife 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. Blood, and his assistant was named Savage. . . . → Read More: Giving Away My Roots 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 Dakota. When I proposed the idea to Suzy, her initial reaction was: . . . → Read More: Running Only Four or Five Hours Comments are closed Humor, Language, Legacy, Quotes and Quips, Running, Sports, Squibblings, Stories, Thoughts 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. . . . → Read More: Stephen King and David Foster Wallace Compared Comments are closed Arts, Editing, Language, Literature davidfosterwallace, Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King, Writing 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 Life (Ron Chernow) The Associated Press Stylebook Comments are closed Language, Legacy, Opinions, Re: Views, Thoughts, Writing AP Stylebook, Elements of Typographic Style, John Grisham, Keith Richards, Ken Burns, Robert Bringhurst, Ron Chernow Placeholder for a review soon . . . → Read More: Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition People will say “Such-and-such is not my thing.” People with “a thing” have too . . . → Read More: Having a Thing If I had a nickel for every time I said, “Schmork flump verwissenschatz und geheimlichen zonderfloozles,” I’d have . . . → Read More: Acquiring Wealth As a Writer 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 was not a caboose he moved to, but a kibbutz. It was still a strange choice, . . . → Read More: Living in a Caboose 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 to promote his then new novel Infinite Jest, with Lipsky in tow, on assignment from Rolling Stone . . . → Read More: Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself Comments are closed Arts, Language, Literature, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts David Lipsky, davidfosterwallace, infinitejest, Publishing, Writing Never read it. . . . → Read More: Moby Dick Comments are closed Literature, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts Literature, Moby-Dick 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 words must be invented to name them. Continuing along that line, he said: And give the word neologism . . . → Read More: Jefferson the Neologist Comments are closed Language, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts, Usage Neologism, Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia 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 of view that most people think that if they only had more money and material prosperity they . . . → Read More: Take the Money and Run Cover of Pale Fire 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 for over forty years, and countless reviews and scholarly . . . → Read More: Pale Fire — Vladimir Nabokov Comments are closed Arts, Language, Legacy, Literature, Writing Charles Kinbote, John Shade, Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov Image via Wikipedia 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 Rarely have I ever read an article about ultrarunning by a non-ultrarunner that does not use the word crazy to . . . → Read More: Ultrarunning Hyperbole Comments are closed Language, Legacy, Opinions, Running, Sports, Thoughts, Usage, Writing Badwater Ultramarathon, Ultramarathon Cover of Crown of Horns (Bone, Vol. 9) 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 Statue University. Smith is famous in . . . → Read More: Bone — Jeff Smith Comments are closed Arts, Language, Legacy, Re: Views, Writing Bone, Columbus Metropolitan Library, JeffSmith, Out from Boneville Image via Wikipedia 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., which I purchased on impulse for a whopping $2.45. Given . . . → Read More: Self Improvement 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 looking for a way to use “irony” in a sentence. Comments are closed Arts, Humor, Language, Legacy, Literature, Opinions, Quotes and Quips, Squibblings, Thoughts Humor, p g wodehouse Image via Wikipedia 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 heard the likely apocryphal story of how the lack of . . . → Read More: A Thought on Literary Precision Comments are closed Humor, Language, Legacy, Opinions, Thoughts, Writing Oscar Wilde, Quotation mark 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 ask me why I run so much at my age I tell them I’m hoping to be . . . → Read More: Chips Off the Workbench 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 a more important place in the world. What might be found in the . . . → Read More: The Most Secure Place in the World Image by Getty Images via @daylife 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 fell asleep watching the first Harry Potter movie, . . . → Read More: Fantastic Writing Image via Wikipedia … 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 called upon to read out loud, I rarely mispronounce words, unless . . . → Read More: Icy Warts Image via Wikipedia 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 is to teach myself. Whenever I begin to write something — as I have . . . → Read More: Why Do I Write? 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! 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 upgrade their largely nonexistent writing skills. If you write well, you will be . . . → Read More: Rant on Writing Don’t you hate it when people keep using words like redux? Neglected Concerto People who never read are ignorant, and they show it. It’s easy to tell . . . → Read More: Micro-Thoughts Redux Image by penreyes via Flickr 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. A person could die just getting up and . . . → Read More: Life Is Dangerous Image via Wikipedia 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 — a scary fact given that he was a teacher of . . . → Read More: English As a Second Language for Native-Borns Image via Wikipedia Some people have things to say and some people have to say things. |
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Copyright © 2012 Lynn David Newton - All Rights Reserved |
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