A blistering dissection of David Foster Wallace and Simon Winchester's previously published essays on English usage, by Mark Halpern. Though I like some of Wallace's writing, I admit it's nice to see the scalpel taken to Wallace's "style for style's sake".
posted by Big Fat Tycoon
on Oct 19, 2001 -
29 comments
A Little Light Relief - and Brush Up Your English While You're At It. In the spirit of poking fun at one's own flesh and blood - and respecting all those who aren't - I offer the most appalling tribute to Shakespeare's and Emerson's language since time itself began.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the great Portuguese scholar Pedro Carolino, whose "English As She Is Spoke" Mark Twain considered to be the funniest book ever written.
Start with "Familiar Dialogues 1" and, if you've still been able to keep a straight face, try "Idiotisms and Proverbs" for the full effect...
(Thanks to Ganz's Humor Page)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 20, 2001 -
19 comments
You Stupid #@$! In England, children are learning how to swear. What the #@%&? Aren't they learning enough of this #@&! on the street? I believe that the standards for streets smarts have really slipped over the years. Children should be learning their four letter words at the same place they learn about sex, on the street!
posted by aj100
on Jul 2, 2001 -
9 comments
Freespeling.com (with one el). Because only 17% of native English speakers can spell "height", "necessary", "accommodation", "separate", "sincerely", and "business" correctly. Good idea or bad idea?
posted by Firda
on Apr 5, 2001 -
30 comments
It's easy to get complacent and not learn foreign languages when you speak native English. In the UK, knowledge of foreign languages
verges on the comical.
posted by ecvgi
on Feb 22, 2001 -
23 comments
October Coffee Crisis. Montreal Gazette: "In its communiques, the BAF warned that Second Cup franchises were to be 'in the line of fire' and warned of an escalation of violent acts if Second Cup and other chains insist on keeping their trademark English names." More Trudeau nostalgia?
posted by todd
on Oct 12, 2000 -
7 comments
When colleagues in countries outside the U.S. attempt to get me to understand how the rest of the world could loathe us quite as much as they do,
this is what they are talking about. "Well, shee-oot, they don' even speak English down there, howthehell they gonna know them tires is not safe? Just slap a little ol' label on 'em and
say they're safe.... Oughta be good 'nough!"
posted by m.polo
on Aug 29, 2000 -
16 comments
CatchPhrase BuzzWord of the NanoSecond -
issue terrain i.e.: "The issue terrain favors us enormously." LOL! I can't stop laughing!
issue terrain! What? They have men sitting in little smokefilled rooms coming up with these things? "The political
climate is bad for Gore (brrr!), but how about his
issue terrain?" "Oh that's good! No one knows what that is yet cuz we haven't defined it, so naturally his issue terrain is good!" ROTFLMAO!
posted by ZachsMind
on Aug 14, 2000 -
4 comments
Well, I'm compleetly fed up with english speling for everything. Its so dammed inconsistant and ilogical, Ill never get the hang of it. Forchunately, now theres a way to express yourselfs using chinese-like english characters. It's called
Yingzi and now you can write english as quickly as you can write
for
Fellini or
for
Peach
posted by lagado
on Jul 23, 2000 -
13 comments
