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  1. Blog Excerpts

     Pop Vs. Soda
    Thu Jun 19 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    Forget about red states and blue states... what really divides Americans is whether they call carbonated beverages pop or soda. (Or coke if you're in the South.) Check out the detailed maps on The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy to see where the battle lines are drawn on this contentious question.

  2. Word Count

     Roget's Legacy: Thesaurus as Tool, Thesaurus as Crutch
    Wed Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    In part one of our interview with Joshua Kendall, we explored how his new book The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus illuminates the mental world of Peter Mark Roget, a man who escaped the disorder of his personal life by creating a very orderly thesaurus. In the second and final installment, Josh discusses the publication of the first edition of Roget's Thesaurus in 1852 and the lasting legacy of his monumental reference work, both for good and for ill.

  3. Dog Eared

     How to Self-Edit
    Wed Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    Successful writers of fiction need to master the fine art of self-editing. Here are a few books to help you clean up your prose.

    Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing

    Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

    Write Great Fiction: Revision And Self-Editing

  4. Word Routes

     Thinking about Tim Russert, Red States and Blue States
    Tue Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    The untimely passing of Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, has led many to reminisce about his lasting influence on political reporting. Some obituaries mentioned that Russert has been credited with popularizing the terms "red state" and "blue state," to refer to states favoring Republican or Democratic candidates. Though Russert's memorable analysis of the twists and turns of the 2000 presidential election no doubt played a significant role in popularizing the "red/blue state" designations, the history of the color coding is surprisingly complicated.

  5. Blog Du Jour

     Bookstore Blogs
    Tue Jun 17 00:00:00 EDT 2008

    If you like checking out staff recommendations at your local bookstore, you'll enjoy these blogs from independent booksellers.

    Powell's Books

    Book Passage

    The Inkwell Bookstore

    Wordsmiths Books

    The Inside Flap

  6. Candlepower

     Vocab Lab: "Said Words," She Ventured
    Mon Jun 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    The word said has an elegant, indispensable simplicity. It's a mainstay of the journalist's art: "Five out of five editors find the noun form of the word 'overwhelm,' currently in vogue among the nation's life coaches, completely unacceptable," said Dr. Carla Ridge, founder of SSOUON (the Society to Stamp Out the Use of Overwhelm as a Noun). And in that context, exclusive use of "said" is appropriate and welcome.

  7. Word Routes

     Pluto: Once a Planet, Now Merely a Plutoid
    Fri Jun 13 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Two years ago, the International Astronomical Union voted to demote Pluto from planetary status, deciding that it was only a "dwarf planet." There was great uproar among fans of Pluto, even spawning a group calling themselves The Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet. The IAU held firm to its decision, though, and moved on to other nomenclatural issues. A term was needed to encompass Pluto and all Pluto-like objects on the fringes of the solar system out beyond Neptune. This week the IAU finally came up with an official term: plutoid. It's not the prettiest word, but it does the trick.

  8. Dog Eared

     On Genius, Madness and Lexicography
    Thu Jun 12 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Joshua Kendall, who we interview this week about his book The Man Who Made Lists, is captivated by the divine madness that drives lexicographers. He's following up his current biography of Peter Roget with a study of the similarly obsessive Noah Webster. We asked him for further reading on the fiery minds behind the masterpieces of word reference.

  9. Blog Excerpts

     Online Copywriting 101
    Wed Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    GrokDotCom has compiled "The Ultimate Cheat Sheet" for writing online copy, with a whopping 101 links to helpful resources. Check out the whole treasure trove here and here.

  10. Word Count

     Roget: The Man, the Mind, the Thesaurus
    Wed Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2008
    Without Peter Mark Roget, there would be no Visual Thesaurus — or any modern thesaurus for that matter. We now take it for granted, but it took a special type of mind to come up with a system for organizing and classifying words and their meanings, in a way that also organizes human knowledge itself. Roget, a nineteenth-century polymath who wrote treatises on everything from physiology to slide rules, certainly had the mind for it. But he also had a deeply troubled personal life, surrounded by mental illness and heartbreaking tragedy. Joshua Kendall has written a fitting tribute to this fascinating figure in his new biography, The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus. We got to talk to Josh about the making of the book, and learned how his previous writing about psychology turned out to be an excellent preparation for exploring Roget's intricate mental world. Here is part one of our interview.
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