Monthly Archives: April 2008
Vesuvius
The DaD series on handwriting continues. In the above page from an 1887 diary, Frederick Douglass visits Pompeii during his travels. The whole diary is available online from the Library of Congress.
Filed under Handwriting
“Under the Bus”
Newsweek has an interesting comment on the use of the phrase “to throw under the bus.” The expression is both evocative and totally weird. Is it a city bus, or a school bus? Is it moving? Why use the definite … Continue reading
Filed under Found Phrases, Language, Uncategorized
Luxuries
Lately a number of writers have begun to mark the 30th anniversary of the TV series “Dallas.” Of course, someone had to spoil the party by being too serious about it: Nick Gillespie, an editor at Reason, has published a … Continue reading
Stability
Darwin’s first recorded doubt about the “stability of species” from his notebook. See more of Darwin’s handwriting at this new Darwin Online archive. I’ll keep posting images of handwriting from time to time, as a regular feature of this blog.
Filed under Handwriting
Gobbledygook
The House passes Bill H.R. 3548 , The Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008. The New Republic has an amusing anecdote about Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the lone dissenter in the House. Here’s what sponsor Bruce Braley (D-IA) has … Continue reading
Crazy
About Paul Auster’s op-ed today in The New York Times. This is an “emperor’s new clothes” moment for me. I’ve admired the sheer stylishness of Auster’s writing for many years. But it’s difficult to see a sophisticated and careful writer … Continue reading
Filed under Found Phrases, Language
Don’t [Tase?] Me, Bro.
One of the elegances of English is how easily it allows you to turn a noun into a verb and vice versa. We took a flight. We flew. The doctors examined the patient. The doctors performed an examination of the … Continue reading
Filed under Found Phrases, Language
Misspoke
Hendrik Hertzberg has a quick and dirty archeology of the word “misspoke” in The New Yorker. The article is not really exceptional, but Hertzberg distinguishes himself by calling attention to an interesting fact: as one of its samples of how … Continue reading
Filed under Found Phrases, Uncategorized
Treason
Some of my research has been into the correspondence of Archibald MacLeish, the poet, playwright and a B-list member of the Lost Generation. During World War II, MacLeish served as Librarian of Congress and wrote propaganda. Around this time, Ezra … Continue reading
Filed under Found Phrases
Furnished
“Two Men in a Furnished Room” is the title of a short story thriller by Cornell Woolrich (aka William Irish, aka George Hopley). It was made into a film the subsequent year under the title The Guilty. The change is … Continue reading
Filed under Titles
Thought, Language, Politics and Common Sense
Yesterday, I described George Orwell’s “Politics and Language” using two versions of his hypothesis. In the first version, Orwell writes that chaotic politics is a result of chaotic language. In the second version, Orwell’s idea is that thought corrupts language … Continue reading
Filed under Language, Politics, Uncategorized
An Egregious Collocation of Vocables
Ducks and Drakes is a blog about language written by Neil Verma. The title comes from one of the classic texts on writing in English, George Orwell’s essay “Politics and Language” (1946), available here. In the essay, Orwell chastises Professor … Continue reading
