An anonymous artist has been leaving book-based sculptures around Edinburgh.
Oct 262011
I don’t collect coins. I’ve never been interested in the topic other than that I think numismatics is a cool word (though not as cool as numismatism, which sadly isn’t a “real” word, or numismatology, which is).* I’ve never bought anything from the United States Mint or had any other dealings with them. If I’ve ever received mail from them before I’ve forgotten it. But I did recently spend a lot of time doing Web searches that involved the word coin for my post on “to coin a phrase.” I even stopped by the US Mint Web site when I was looking for pictures to illustrate the post. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that I opened my mailbox the other day and found this:
Inside was the 2011 Fall Catalog of collectible coins. I do a few Web searches and all of a sudden the United States government thinks I might want to buy some coins? Creepy.
Oct 212011
A look at the information Facebook is collecting about you and at an Austrian law student who’s fighting back. Of course, a) Facebook isn’t the only company quietly accumulating piles of information about you and b) at least with Facebook there’s an easy answer: if you don’t like the consequences, don’t use the service.
According to nutjob Harold Camping, I should be dead now. Or soon, anyway. Sometime today. I’ve completely lost interest in this whole stupid Rapture thing but felt compelled to make mention of it here anyway, since you expect it of me. Actually I had completely forgotten about it, despite the fact that it’s on my calendar, until an alert reader sent me this commentary by a Jesuit with a sense of humor, which you can go read in lieu of anything witty from me: It’s October 21: What I’ll miss when the world ends.
You can find my previous coverage here.
Oct 192011
Last year I coined the phrase “raining monkeys and banjos,” and I coined it correctly: I invented a phrase that didn’t exist before. Lately “to coin a phrase” has been jumping out at me when I hear it, because it seems like most people are using it incorrectly–they say “to coin a phrase” when really they’re quoting someone else’s phrase, at best. I had a specific example of incorrect usage (spouted recently by some politician or other) which was what got me thinking about it enough to write this post, but I’ve forgotten what it was. So here’s an example from The Daily Telegraph:
Given London’s importance as an global financial centre, this Commission and its aftermath could also influence the shape of the world economy. British banking reform, to coin a phrase, isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s far more important than that.
Who knows which phrase they even think they’re coining here, given the way those sentences are structured, but they certainly haven’t created anything new.
I set out to write a quick piece about rampant misuse of the phrase, but things got more complicated, as they’re wont to do.
Recent Lexington column in The Economist on the problem of getting from “protest” to “movement,” and why the current protests are not likely to succeed at that. Lexington notes that “to bring about real change in a real democracy you also have to do real politics. It just takes work—and enough people who think like you.” Also at The Economist, The Democracy in America blog makes some similar points and includes this:
It is likely that few of the protesters have actually taken part in the more mundane aspects of the system they’d like to take down—for example, only 24% of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the 2010 mid-term elections.
Oct 132011
Dictionary Day is this Sunday, October 16. Why? Because it’s Noah Webster’s birthday. The folks at Wordnik are having a Dictionary Day photo contest: “now that you’re using Wordnik as your go-to word source, show us how you’re putting your print dictionary to use.” “Perhaps you’re using it as a door stop,” they suggest. Now Wordnik is nice and all, but I still read my print dictionaries. I love browsing through them and stumbling upon new things. I guess I need to go take a picture of myself furiously reading the dictionary. Here it is:
That dictionary I’m reading is a facsimile of Samuel Johnson’s groundbreaking 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, though I suppose I should have grabbed a copy of Webster’s in keeping with the celebration of his birthday. I don’t know who published this facsimile or when, since it contains only the exact facsimile, and I’ve lost whatever other information came with it, if any.
I still remember going to the book store to buy the Shorter OED (my first “grownup” dictionary) many years ago. My friend Jim was along, and he was astounded and amused. “You’re spending $100 for a dictionary? A dictionary? What are you going to do–sit home and read your big dictionary?” Yep.
Erin McKean (among other things, founder of Wordnik) wrote in a column about Dictionary Day two years ago that,
Language is power – we understand that words can move us to tears or laughter, inspire us to great deeds or urge us to mob action. Dictionaries are the democratization of that power, and the more words they contain, the more democratic they are. The dictionary is a gigantic armory and toolbox combined, accessible to all. It reflects our preoccupations, collects our cultural knowledge, and gives us adorable pictures of aardvarks, to boot. And it does all this one word at a time.
So there, Jim.
* * *
Here’s a sign I saw the other day, created by someone who didn’t spend enough time reading real dictionaries before trying write a dictionary entry of their own. It’s at an apartment complex, explaining the renovation work they’re doing:
The sign reads:
RENOVATE: [REN-UH-VEYT]
–VERB (USED WITH OBJECT)1. NEW SIDING.
2. NEW ROOF.
3. NEW LOOK.
Let’s skip over the fake pronunciation (and the fact that the whole thing is in ALL CAPS; why do people do that?). They’ve identified renovate as a verb. Good start. And they note that it’s “used with object.” Also good, though in a real dictionary you’d probably say it’s “transitive.” On to the definition. Hmm. Now I’m confused. Are they saying that I can “new roof” my house? Or maybe renovate isn’t actually a verb and “a renovate” is “new siding”?
Tip for aspiring dictionary entry writers: when you’re defining a verb, your definitions should describe actions. Here’s Johnson’s definition from 1755: “To renew; to restore to the first state.” No siding involved.
I know: it’s not supposed to be a useful dictionary entry, and most people who see the thing won’t be terribly familiar with dictionaries or parts of speech, either. But still. Perhaps (inspired by the suggested activities for National Grammar Day and National Punctuation Day) I should get some spray paint and go out Sunday morning to “renovate” the sign in the name of Noah Webster.*
Notes
*
This is a joke. I do not suggest, endorse, or condone such vandalism. ↵
Oct 132011
I’ve been meaning to write about scofflaw myself ever since I overheard the story of its origin on an episode of Ken Burns’s Prohibition that I wasn’t actually watching, but now I don’t have to, because Nancy Friedman beat me to it. In case you didn’t see/hear the same show, the word was invented for a contest to create a new word to shame drinkers during Prohibition.
Oct 122011
The Washington Post recently published the winners of their annual travel photography contest. My favorite was the second-place photo by Katya Gelfand:
Katya Gelfand
Click through for a bigger version of the picture and take a look. It’s a good illustration of Cartier-Bresson’s idea of the decisive moment: the girl looking through the gate is what makes the picture work, and the photographer caught her just in time. As the Washington Post article describes it,
Standing on a busy corner in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, surrounded by curious children begging her to take their picture, our second-place winner noticed one little girl standing apart from the group. She was peering through an iron fence’s gate into the local schoolyard, where some boys were playing soccer. The scene of the game — which echoes a painting on the fence — “was as interesting to her as the Mzungo (Swahili for a white person),” said Gelfand, a 32-year-old customer service rep, who took the shot in the instant just before the child turned — and joined the rest of the kids clamoring for a photo.
Gelfand has also entered the photo in the 2011 National Geographic photo contest.
Music Review: The Turpentine Ray; Book Review: Prague
My new favorite Christmas song
Update on Bill’s Wrist
A cheaper alternative to spending $4.3 million for a dull photograph
This was going to be an awesome post but then I broke my wrist