How would you write the sound of a tadpole tap-dancing, or stiff spaghetti banging into a cook's face? MAD Magazine cartoonist Don Martin knew the answer. Read a compendium of Martin's onomatopoetic genius here.

Two months ago we tackled the history of the word bailout. Now it's been named Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Read all about it here.

A panel of judges has selected the year's most popular Japanese words and phrases: everything from guerilla rainstorm to whispering matron. Check out the list at Pink Tentacle.

Over on Separated by a Common Language, Lynne Murphy has her own trans-Atlantic twist on the usual Word of the Year selections. Make your nominations for "Best American to British import" and "Best British to American import."

The literary world lost Michael Crichton and Studs Terkel in recent days. Watch interviews with both Crichton and Terkel on the Charlie Rose Show.

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

Bill Brohaugh is the author of Everything You Know About English Is Wrong, and he has an enjoyable blog of the same name. He calls it "cantankerous commentary on what we speak and why we speak it."