Do animals get a fair shake in language? Bring along your cattle prod, whip, and lasso this month to the Language Lounge as we explore the Visual Thesaurus and follow boldly in the footsteps of our ancestors in making sure that mankind reigns supreme.  Continue reading...

This month the Language Loungeurs are in the Larder again, using the Visual Thesaurus to address that age old dilemma: how can I bring seemly order to all these disparate remnants of rigatoni, conchiglioni, and the like? Even a plethora of pasta in your pantry can now be regimented using these state-of-the-art principles!  Continue reading...

Words in the Visual Thesaurus occasionally come unglued from their bearings and wander, lost, into the Language Lounge, where the resident staff are always ready to provide whatever therapy is needed and guide the words back to where they belong. Recent casualties include throe, stealth, issue, and challenge.  Continue reading...

Our British visitor last month left a copy of the Financial Times in the Lounge. We were reading in it the other day and nearly choked on our soy-milk-softened Postum: "Wine writing in English has, over the past decade, become almost violently pragmatic." First of all, wine writing: you mean it's a genre? Second of all: violently pragmatic? Don't bet the chewy backbone in your delicately vegetal Cabernet Sauvignon on it.  Continue reading...

If you've been wondering what that archway in the north wall of the Language Lounge leads to, now's the time to find out. It's the Language Larder, and this month we're going to hang in there for a while, sampling the lexical delicacies available via the Visual Thesaurus.  Continue reading...

We're dusting off the piano in the Language Lounge this month and exploring the world of musical directions. No matter if your keyboard skills are not up to par: for this interlude the only keyboard you need to use is the QWERTY one connected to your computer, and the Visual Thesaurus.  Continue reading...

Can a word's inner life be revealed by the company it keeps? We set off this month to find out just that, examining April through the prism of the Visual Thesaurus and some other word investigation tools we keep in that big sideboard over against the wall of the Language Lounge.  Continue reading...