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  1. Blog Excerpts

     5 Years After Its Discovery, a Washingtonian Typo Lingers
    Mon Feb 17 00:00:00 EST 2014
    Today is the federal observation of George Washington's birthday, also called Presidents' Day. Five years ago, an unfortunate typo was discovered in a quotation from Washington chiseled on the front of the New York State Supreme Courthouse. That typo still lingers today.

  2. Lesson Plans

     A Dickensian Take on Things
    Tue Feb 07 00:00:00 EST 2012
    In celebration of Charles Dickens's 200th birthday, this lesson looks at how the legendary writer’s work inspired the creation of an adjective that is used today: "Dickensian."

  3. Backstory

     Jamie Ford, Author of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet"
    Fri Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009
    On a foggy February morning in 1983, fourteen people were gunned down at the Wah Mee club in Maynard Alley, just shy of South King Street in Seattle's Chinatown. It was the worst mass-murder in Washington State history.

  4. Word Routes

     Crossword Tournament '09: Saturday Report
    Sat Feb 28 00:00:00 EST 2009
    The first day of competitive play at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament saw 684 contestants fill the main ballroom of the Brooklyn Marriott, solving six puzzles that ranged from breezy to downright fiendish. With the interim results tallied, the scoring leaders are mostly familiar faces in the crossword world — with one notable exception: Dan Feyer, in only his second year of tournament play, is sitting pretty in the number one spot.

  5. Dog Eared

     John McWhorter is the Perfect Parade Marshal for Our On-the-go Language
    Mon Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2016
    It's mind-boggling that many people who profess to love language have bizarre, backwards ideas about it based on superstition and hokum. Educated folks who mock evolution-deniers have no problem believing equally unsupported ideas about language—such as "English is worse than ever!" and "Words shouldn't change!"

  6. Teachers at Work

     Turning the Page: Short Fiction for English Language Learners
    Mon Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Getting to grips with stories in the EFL environment is more than simply dealing with problematic vocabulary. It's all to do with context, and how words work together to form a greater whole. Finding the right trigger means students being able to exceed the "normal" lexical load.

  7. Word Routes

     The "Geronimo" Code Name Controversy
    Fri May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2011
    One of the more unforeseen outcomes of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound is a controversy over a code name used during the mission: Geronimo. Native American groups have protested the use of the code name as a denigration of a heroic historical figure, by equating him with a modern-day terrorist and mass murderer. Strong opinions on the topic were voiced yesterday at a Senate Indian Affairs committee hearing on combating Native American stereotypes. It's the latest unusual chapter in the long history of the name Geronimo.

  8. Candlepower

     Style vs. Style
    Mon May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2007
    When we talk about writing style, we mean one of two things: a set of rules and conventions regarding words and punctuation (sometimes known as the "house style" of a given publication); or a distinctive, identifiable way of assembling words and punctuation (sometimes known as "tone" or "voice"). The first kind of style is all about standards: it's why newspaper writers spell out all numerals under ten and why New Yorker editors -- alone of all their tribe -- spell vendor as vender. The second kind of style is about deviations from the standard. It's what makes us recognize a passage of prose as indisputably Ernest Hemingway's or Joan Didion's or David Foster Wallace's or Maureen Dowd's.

  9. Word Routes

     Debunking the Legend of "Upset"
    Fri Jul 12 00:00:00 EDT 2013
    Some stories about word origins recall the old Italian saying, se è non vero, è ben trovato: even if it is not true, it is well invented. One such too-good-to-check story involves the sporting usage of upset, which, it is said, came to be because an unfavored horse named Upset beat the great thoroughbred Man o' War.

  10. Blog Excerpts

     One Man's Quest to Correct "Comprise" Usage
    Thu Feb 12 13:00:00 EST 2015
    The story of Steve Henderson — a software engineer bent on single-handedly fixing every use of the word comprise in Wikipedia entries where compose would be more appropriate — has captured the popular imagination. Yesterday, Southern California Public Radio invited our own Ben Zimmer to explain the difference and weigh in on the wisdom of Henderson's quest.
125 126 127 128 129 Displaying 1261-1270 of 3460 Results