In the home stretch of the presidential campaign trail, John McCain has been saying that his opponent Barack Obama is so sure that he's bound for the White House that he's already "measuring the drapes." It's a durable political expression, though very often it's said as "measuring for drapes" (which makes a bit more sense), and sometimes it's curtains that get presumptuously measured (for), rather than drapes. What's the difference, anyway?  Continue reading...

On OUPblog (the official blog of Oxford University Press), Ben Zimmer sings the praises of the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee.

We recently interviewed Orin Hargraves about his new book, Slang Rules!: A Practical Guide for English Learners. Orin consulted a wide range of sources to build his guide to American slang, including works of fiction. We asked Orin to recommend books by writers with a keen ear for the American vernacular.  Continue reading...

Since we launched the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee this past summer, we've been delighted to see how much you've all been playing it. The numbers tell the tale: so far about 500,000 words have been spelled by about 15,000 players. All of that player data has allowed us to improve the Bee on a continuous basis: every five minutes, words are rescored for difficulty taking into account the latest results from spellers. We've made some additional changes to fit the Bee to different skill levels, in order it make it an even more challenging and educational experience for players of all ages and abilities.  Continue reading...

Acclaimed mystery novelist Tony Hillerman passed away on Sunday. Here are some online remembrances.

Jacket Copy

Prairie Sun Rising

Native Intelligence

Art and Literature

You say you're not familiar with text messaging? Well, all the kids are doing it. It's so much easier than talking on the phone, which, after all, requires the laborious movement of one's jaw and the ever-taxing production of sound.  Continue reading...