Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
The Devil is in people’s thoughts, and his names are many. One of them is the obscure ‘Old Nick’. The word nicker “water sprite” explained as an old participle “washed one” – is unrelated to it. Then there is ‘nickel’. The term was easy to coin, but copper could not be obtained from the nickel ore.
This month’s book club pick is…
D. Michael Lindsay looks at faith in the military.
Author Philip Davis begins his blog.
Ben’s Place of the Week is Sark, UK.
Evan Schnittman sings the praises of CafeScribe.
Advice to help you get your teenager out of bed.
When should you allow your child to stay home from school?
The joy of short weeks, Friday is here before you know it! Here are some links to distract you from your work. Finally, a balanced look at e-books. The joy of tabs. Show Tango some love. MSNBC fumbles. For the love of typewriters.
Michael Lindsay shares with us how he secured an interview with Karen Hughes.
Ben Zimmer looks at why we love the word “schadenfreude.
L. Sandy Maisel talks to OUP about American Political Parties and Elections.
Oxford University Press offers our condolences to Richard Cook’s family and friends.
Language changes through variation. Some people ‘sneaked’, others ‘snuck’. The two forms may coexist for a long time, or one of them may be considered snobbish. Once the snobs die out, the form will go to rest with them. Or the snobs may feel embarrassed of being in the minority and ‘go popular’.
Ben’s Place of the week is Gog and Magog.
Bottom Billion love connections.