|
|
Search the Site
-
Candlepower
Vocab Lab: If Left to My Own Poetic Devices...
Thu Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008
I love the assonance in my name, the repeated long "u" sound in Julia Rubiner. Which isn't to say I haven't daydreamed that my name is Julia Jubiner (or for that matter, in the manner of Scooby Doo, Rulia Rubiner) because then I'd enjoy both assonance and alliteration, two of my favorite poetic devices, and, as I've learned in my copywriting work, two great tastes that taste great together (the writer who coined that phrase on behalf of Reese's to describe the relationship between peanut butter and chocolate clearly knew a thing or two about assonance).
-
Blog Excerpts
The Serenity Prayer
Thu Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008
It's one of the most famous quotations in modern history. But who first wrote it? In the Yale Alumni Magazine, Fred Shapiro presents new historical evidence and sparks a debate that is far from serene.
-
Dog Eared
Crystal Clear
Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
-
Word Routes
Beyond "Boyfriend" and "Girlfriend"
Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Last Friday I was delighted to be a return guest on the Wisconsin Public Radio Show "At Issue with Ben Merens" (audio available here). Our ostensible topic was "words of the summer" (including skadoosh, of course!), but once we started taking calls from listeners, the floor was open to any topic of interest to word-savvy Wisconsinites. Much like what happened when I was on the show last December, conversation turned to perceived "gaps" in the English language that callers thought should be filled with new coinages. This time around, Robert from Coloma expressed dissatisfaction with the words boyfriend and girlfriend, suggesting a new word to cover both: inti-mate.
-
Candlepower
Bad Science
Mon Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Science education may be on the decline. The general level of scientific knowledge may be headed back to the Dark Ages. But the language of science has never been more popular.
Or more woefully abused.
-
Blog Du Jour
Mystery Writers
Mon Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 2008
-
Backstory
Heather and Rose MacDowell, Authors of "Turning Tables"
Fri Jul 11 00:00:00 EDT 2008
"What was it like, writing a book together?"
This is the second question people always ask — after "Are you identical twins?" — when we tell them that we recently finished Turning Tables, a novel based on our experiences waiting tables. That we wrote it while living on opposite coasts sparks the next question: "Wow, did you ever argue?"
Apparently, yes.
-
Word Routes
From the Subprime to the Ridiculous
Thu Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2008
If there's one word that captures the zeitgeist of our current economic downturn, it's subprime. The American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Year for 2007, and as I described in my last column it is among the new entries in the latest updates of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. But it's a pretty odd word when you stop to think about it. The newly announced Merriam-Webster definition reads as follows: "having or being an interest rate that is higher than a prime rate and is extended especially to low-income borrowers." Wait a minute: a loan with a rate that is higher than prime is called sub-prime? How did that happen?
-
Blog Excerpts
Crossing the Pond
Thu Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2008
-
Dog Eared
For Younger Writers
Wed Jul 09 00:00:00 EDT 2008
|
|
267 268 269 270 271
Displaying 2681-2690 of 3488 Results
