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Language

Best Old Lady Story Ever

Run, do not walk, to Chewing the Fat to read A New Meaning for OT. Please. Thank God there are still people out there with some respect for accuracy in speech.

The Good Old Days

In choir, we are rehearsing The Night Before Christmas: He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle… After practicing the above, the guy next to me turned to the guy next to him and said, “Those were…
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Exercising the franchise

Just a couple of random items from my voting experience: Paper or plastic? I have been paying very little attention to the controversy over electronic voting. In Virginia, you went into a curtained booth and toggled little switches on a…
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Alas, poor English

English is going to hell in a handbasket, hastened to its destination by military and quasi-military law enforcement-speak. An actual quote from FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon, courtesy of today’s news (I am not making this up): They were…
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The writing badness that is Dan Brown

My children gave me Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons for Mother’s Day, by way of a gag gift. They also gave me a red pen to mark it up with. I couldn’t possibly do any better than Language Log, though:…
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Like a Mouse on Fire

At work, we have a new metaphor for that behaviour that is between getting revenge and going down in flames: Mouse burns down house in revenge A mouse wreaked revenge on a pensioner who tried to kill it by tossing…
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