Advice for Hillary
Sally G. McMillen, author of Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement looks at Hillary Clinton’s run for president.
Absurd entries in the OED: an introduction by Ammon Shea
All dictionaries have mistakes. Ghost words creep in, there are occasional misspellings, or perhaps the printer was hung over one day and misplaced some punctuation. In addition to these normal forms of human error there are others that are created by language, as it continues its inexorable change.
Very Short Introductions: The Quakers
Pink Dandelion answers a few questions on his Very Short Introduction to The Quakers
Some Words Have A Reputation To Live Up To
It is not fortuitous that many words like ‘puzzle’, ‘conundrum’, and ‘quiz’ are themselves puzzles from an etymological point of view. They arose as slang, sometimes as student slang, and as we don’t know the circumstances in which they were coined, our chances of discovering their origin is low.
“Only 22%” Political Blog Readership Is Pretty Good…
Perlmutter looks at the readership of political blogs.
Traditional Polynesian Tattooing
Adrienne L. Kaeppler, author of The Pacfic Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia, tells us a little about traditional Polynesian tattooing
Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles
Ben’s place of the week is Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles.
2008 Bancroft Prize
A closer look at the Bancroft Prize.
District of Columbia v. Heller: What to Look For?
What should we look for in the District of Columbia v. Heller case?
Putting in Writing What You Want (and Don’t Want).
An excerpt from Lawrence J. Schneiderman’s Embracing Our Mortality.
A New Approach To Health Care Reform
An opinion on health care reform
Hirabayashi v. United States
A look at Hiraybayashi v. United States.
Friday procrastination: link love – activism, art, and autism
Happy Friday to all! It’s been quite a crazy week here in New York but fear not, I still have lots of links to distract you today. Happy surfing. Why peace activists shouldn’t get discouraged. Why you should be reading the financial news. Dirty car art (not that kind of dirty!) What you need to […]
Word Love
Some word loving links.
Taking Evidence Seriously: Alan Sokal goes Beyond the Hoax
Alan Sokal, author of Beyond the Hoax, discusses why we should take evidence seriously.
Wild Honey With and Without Locusts
Two opposite forces act on the brain of someone who sets out to trace the origin of a word. To cite the most famous cases, coward is supposedly a “corruption” of cowherd and sirloin came into being when an English king dubbed an edible loin at table (Sir Loin). Such fantasies have tremendous appeal.