We often try to do too much when we think and, as a result, we become confused and ineffective. To break through this log-jam, try switching hats.  Continue reading...

Whatever you read into it, the "All the king's ___" snowclone is now solidly embedded in the popular consciousness and in headline-writers' bag of tricks.  Continue reading...

Whatever name you go by in plea agreements and apocalyptic prophecies, I'm sure you appreciate discretion. In that spirit, here's my latest roundup of terms that beat around the bush so many times they could give George Orwell vertigo.  Continue reading...

As long as there's a literal Constitution to amend and a metaphorical constitution to defend, constitution will remain an important word. Here's a look at this versatile word, just in time for September 17th — Constitution Day.  Continue reading...

Written language has an afterlife that is practically unlimited. When we commit something to writing we make a record that far outlives the context in which it is produced. Take the United States Constitution for example, now on the job for more than 225 years.  Continue reading...

Turns out evasion can take the form of a Trojan horsepucky so subtle and tiny most would not recognize it as evasive at all. This expanded edition of The Evasion-English Dictionary shows how small, everyday, nothing-to-see-here words can hide as much hokum as the longest and vaguest jargon.  Continue reading...

I'm a big fan of writing that's larded with metaphor, simile and personification. Here's a bit of figurative language I particularly like: to be a writer is to be a figure skater.  Continue reading...