English —
I’ve been having a bit of an argument with a Bitch about the correct use of the word “patriarchy”. She’s been very interested in arguing that patriarchy is worthless as an idea, and to present those arguments she uses “patriarchy” in the sense that radical feminists have used it, as well as people like Heidi […]
Once upon a time, a bunch of what must have been innocent tildes (~) were mechanically replaced by the phrase “similar to”, which is not entirely how the ~ was used in the nerdy parlance of the time. So it resulted in some absurd constructions, like:
[A] period of rapid uplift along the Sierran crest of […]
My mandolin calluses are still iffy, but I think I’ve officially moved from Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to Boil Them Cabbage Down. Which means I need a reliable source for the shittiest drum loops EVAR, preferably in a format that can be directly imported into GarageBand. Because what does the world need, if not abominably […]
To fully understand ____ is to fully understand the unblinking eye of madness.
Sekuhara hahaha!
There’s a syntactical quirk I’ve been noticing lately, particularly in journals like Geophysical Research Letters where the length limit can produce some rather strained syntax, but in other places too:
Whereas Fact A, Vaguely Contrasting Statement B.
Whereas the crust does this thing, the lithospheric mantle does something else.
Whereas the well-functioning executive encourages the best in brains […]
Old Vocabulary: Conglomerate The refugees are conglomerating on the buses
In geology, a conglomerate is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of largeish, rounded to sub-rounded chunks, cemented together in a matrix of smaller grains. I’m sure the metaphor is apt, and people are indeed being packed on buses to the point of cementation. But more specific […]
Someone (okay, okay, it was Bill Poser) let stodgy prescriptivism out into Language Log:
Capitalization is part of the social convention for writing English. Like the alphabet, it isn’t something that the writing system makes available for manipulation by individual users.
Ah, uh, er? I manipulate standard capitalization ALL THE TIME. Alphåbets, too, but that’s only to […]
The Whisper of Elitist Whorfianism Is an Awful Sound, particularly when the “original” meaning you defend is incorrect; particularly particularly when the incorrect meaning you’re defending as the Last Noble Carrier of Such Meaning in Human Thought is already covered by another, equally apt phrase; particularly particularly particularly when your Chicken Little language schtick has […]
Also, the first person to develop a convincing folk etymology that relates bunyips
to Paul Bunyan wins a prize!
—–
Here’s something I wish my boss would read. Our corporate house style is incredibly un-stylish.
Sometimes I rebel by putting internal documents in Helvetica instead of Arial.
[thanks to G for the link]