Obfuscation Eschewed Here
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
7:20PM
"Truely atrosious" professor suggests we give up on correct spelling. (No, he's not a professor of any language.)
Warning: article contains painful misspellings.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
10:56AM
INTERVIEWER: ...very briefly, what would you want a reader to take away from this book?
ANTHOLOGY EDITOR: Oh, I think just the enormity and the complexity and the wonderful richness of the book, all of the things that the book offers.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
4:06PM
Saw a sign the other day that said:
Minimum Clearance 6' 11"
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Venezuela's populous president, Hugo Chavez
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Bill Cosby's new book should have been called Come On, People
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Ivana Trump marries... again.
Ivana Trump, former wife of earth's tackiest man, pledged her undying love the fourth time this weekend. An article from People magazine covered the event in exhausting detail, and noted that "the Donald" was among the 500 guests. Lookups on Ivana jumped an astounding 1,928% and related searches on "ivana trump wedding" and "ivana trump pictures" also skyrocketed. Despite the interest in all things Ivana, some folks were more intrigued by her new hubby. Queries on Rossano Rubicondi jumped 2,271%. So much for the wedding being all about the bride.
It isn't enough that she's getting married for the fourth time, but four times in the same weekend? Yikes! Not enough time for the honeymoon to end or the bodies to grow cold.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
4:44PM
Good grief, I have finally found kindred spirits among the tubes of the internet. My introductory post shall be in three parts.
1. I have experienced considerable overlap between the set [pedantic people] and the set [writers]. Obviously this makes sense; both demographics thrive on the cultivation of deep respect and affection for words. I have started a community for the discerning writer who longs to give and receive critique more useful than "this is gud rite moar," and I wouldn't be surprised if many of you found it interesting. Please take a moment to check it out at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) brutal_critters.
2. The misuse of the word "antisocial." People. This is not goddamn antisocial. This is goddamn antisocial.
3. I've labeled this concept "nominal descriptors," since nobody else seems to have come up with a name for it. I'd really like to get the opinions of some other people who are as linguistically geeky as I am.
I'm referring to what happens when a speaker or writer uses a descriptor for a facet of someone's identity -- "black," "homosexual," "female," "blonde," "Mexican," and so forth -- and uses it, not as an adjective as is generally accepted, but as a noun. Describing someone as "a black," "a Mexican," "a male." For some reason, the use of these descriptors as nouns carries a strong negative connotation, whereas their use as adjectives does not.
I interpret it thus: A thing can have many traits, but only one nature. To use an adjective to describe a person is to label one facet of who they are; to describe them with a noun is to presume to define the whole of their self with that single identity. It is as if that single trait -- double-X chromosome, extra melanin, predisposition to initiate intimacy with members of the same biological sex -- sets them as members of a group, and from this membership, we can infer everything else about them.
Take, for example, these two sentences.
"She is blonde."
"She is a blonde."
On an explicit level, the meaning is the same. But the connotations of the sentences, I would venture to say, are quite different; while one speaks to nothing deeper than the subject's hair color, the other invokes a myriad of stereotypes about her.
Can any of you offer insight as to the basis of this syntactic phenomenon? I would appreciate any and all ideas.
I'm terribly sorry for having gotten this long-winded on my first post. Please don't beat me with the pretentious bat.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
From an office email:
"Will the account manager for Client X please me or the database team?"
Thursday, December 20, 2007
12:57PM
From the Penguin US page for Upton Sinclair's Oil!
"...Sinclair turned his sights on the early days of the California oil industry in a highly entertaining story featuring a cavalcade of characters including senators, oil magnets, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist."
Sunday, December 2, 2007
"Trooper's condition improves whose car flipped during chase"
Monday, October 29, 2007
The following text appears at the end of the Columbia Teachers College virtual tour:
Teachers College begun as and remains an institution that values education and the wealth of students that have passed through its doors. If you would like to learn more about Teachers College...
Thursday, October 4, 2007
From today's Wikipedia main page:
"Did you know... that the Black Kangaroo Paw (Macropidia fuliginosa; pictured), is a plant native to Western Australia and survives being burned to the ground?"
Yeah, thanks a bunch. And I am annoyed and lament.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
I was at Jcpenneycareers.com looking to see if there were any positions open in my area. I was in complete shock at this sentence:
Sales Support Assistant – Are Sales Support Assistant's are key to keeping our stores an easy and exciting place to shop for our customers.
Monday, July 23, 2007
I posted a small rant in my blog last night about basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that bother me. While I didn't intend to offend anyone on my friends list, it appears as though I have. This person is actually trying to defend the use of "should of" and various other common errors. I never imagined anyone would ever try to defend poor grammar.
Current mood:  amused
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The drivel on this page makes me angry. Click me.
Current mood:  angry
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