Steal Thunder, a brand-development company in California, writes a blog about "brand moves that get our attention." Here one of the partners writes about inspiring branding from, well, not exactly the world's sexiest retailer: "So I enter the local Smart&Final and have to walk past the checkout, and as I glance up I see the little tagline on the checker's LCD, right where it pays to be reminded: 'The Smaller, Faster Warehouse Store.' So many of the companies we work with struggle to position themselves simply. They want to get to that nirvana of 'one simple, repeatable idea' that not only sets them apart from everyone else, but helps the right customers love them." Read the entire post here.

Next time you're on the green, try not to airmail your shot into the drink, cabbage or kitty litter, okay? To get a handle on golf's rich vocabulary, we called PGA professional and author Mark Blakemore, who runs well-known golf schools in Northern California. Mark takes us down the linguistic fairway:

Airmail. "It means you either hit a shot that flew too far, or a drive that carried in the air farther than anybody else's ball."

Albatross. "A score of three under par on a hole, which doesn't happen very often. The word comes from the fact that an albatross is a rare bird. Naming hierarchy in scoring is like that. A hole in one on a par five, for example, is called a condor, which is an almost extinct bird, of course.

Cabbage. "Slang for long grass off the edges of a fairway. It describes very long rough, like those at the British Open or U.S. Open. The words spinach and lettuce are also used."

Drink. "Refers to a water hazard. 'In the drink' means into the water."

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How do you capture the flavor and texture of another language in your writing? To find out we spoke to Alfredo José Estrada, Cuban-born author of the novel Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway and the forthcoming history, Havana: Autobiography of a City (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Both books lyrically convey Cuban culture and language across a span of historical periods. Alfredo explains how he makes this happen:

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Here are a few favorite blogs of dictionary editor Erin McKean, who we interviewed in this week's "Behind the Dictionary" feature. Make sure to check her own blogs, one on language called Undefined, and one on sew-it-yourself dresses called A Dress A Day!

Cat and Girl, "off-kilter comics"

Cool Tools, "just what the man said"

Crabwalk, "a writer for the Dallas Morning News daily paper"

Heaneyland!, "my friend Francis's blog, mostly puzzles, comics, and wry daily observations"

Language Hat, "a linguistics-in-action blog"

43 Folders, "productivity blog; fun tricks to do stuff faster"

This Is Broken, "Mark Hurst's blog showing examples of bad design and interaction"

Toothpaste for Dinner, "another off-kilter comic"

Erin McKean is the editor of the The New Oxford American Dictionary, the New World cousin of the authoritative, if bulky, Oxford English Dictionary (20 volumes!). She fell in love with words early -- Erin's wanted to be a lexicographer since she was eight years old. She got her wish, working on the Thorndike-Barnhart children's dictionaries for eight years after getting a BA/MA in Linguistics. She's been at Oxford since 2000. We spoke to Erin about writing dictionaries:

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Erin McKean, dictionary editor and author of Weird and Wonderful Words, recommends these books:

Word Origins... and How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone by Anatoly Liberman

The Warden of English: The Life of H.W. Fowler by Jenny McMorris

Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton

Lapsing Into a Comma: A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh

Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams ("Just in case any of you thought I was joking, the essay on ephemeral language is worth reading even if you've never seen an episode of Buffy," says Erin)