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Blog Excerpts
Books & Beer
Thu May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Which beers go best with recent works of fiction? Why not ask the writers themselves? Omnivoracious investigates, here and here.
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Word Count
Five Emergency Room Lessons for Writers and Editors
Wed May 21 00:00:00 EDT 2008
When my son was 18 months, he suddenly started walking with a pronounced limp and he became wild whenever we tried to look at his foot. Concerned, and because it was a weekend, we took him to the emergency room at our local children's hospital. The emergency doc took one look at my son's foot and said, "Ah, he has a bad case of sleeper toe!"
This strange malady occurs when a piece of long hair or thread in the foot of a child's sleeper slowly works its way around the child's toe, essentially garroting it. Fortunately for us, the treatment was simple. It involved a team of big strong guys holding down my son and removing the hair. Not pleasant, but very effective.
I was recalling this incident the other day when it struck me that editing is essentially like being an ER doctor. Let me explain...
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Dog Eared
Type-ologies
Wed May 21 00:00:00 EDT 2008
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Word Routes
Who Are You Calling "Sweetie"?
Tue May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Last week on the Visual Thesaurus, William Safire and Nancy Friedman both weighed in on "Bittergate," the political furor that arose over Senator Barack Obama's comments about small-town Pennsylvanian voters ("It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion"). Now Obama has found himself under the microscope again for his use of a particular word, but this time the context is more "sweet" than "bitter." Responding to a question from television reporter Peggy Agar at an automobile plant outside of Detroit, Obama said, "Hold on one second, sweetie." Later he left Agar a voicemail apologizing about using the word sweetie to address her, calling it a "bad habit of mine." Lisa Anderson of the Chicago Tribune wryly wrote, "Welcome to 'Sweetie-gate,' a place paved with eggshells, where terms of endearment turn into political peccadilloes at the drop of a diminutive."
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Blog Du Jour
English as a Second Language
Tue May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2008
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VT Tip o' the Week
The Meaning Lists
Mon May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2008
To the right of the Visual Thesaurus display are the Meaning Lists, which list the meanings currently displayed by the Visual Thesaurus. Meanings are divided into four parts of speech: Noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Each part of speech is color-coded to match the circles representing meanings in the Visual Thesaurus display.
As you roll over meanings in the Meaning List, the circles representing those meanings in the Visual Thesaurus display area will highlight and their definition will be shown. Similarly, as you roll over circles representing meanings in the display area, the items in the Meaning List will highlight.
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Candlepower
Just Do It! Finding the Tagline to Voice the Brand
Mon May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2008
"Taglines" are the slogans that copywriters and marketers devise to make a brand more memorable. New contributor Sarah Williams, founder of the copywriting company Wordsmith, sheds some light on what makes a winning tagline.
Short quiz — which products match these taglines? "Don't leave home without it," "It's the Real Thing," "Think Different." (Answers at the end of the article.)
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Candlepower
The Political Wordscape
Fri May 16 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Continuing our political theme this week, columnist Nancy Friedman takes a look at the buzzwords of the current campaign season. Her background in developing names and brands gives her a unique perspective into how new political coinages bubble to the surface.
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Blog Excerpts
Media Missteps
Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Regret the Error surveys notices in the press correcting journalistic slip-ups — ranging from the hilarious to the alarming.
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Word Routes
That's Unconscionable, the Mayor Maintains
Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008
Our two-part interview with William Safire about the new edition of his Political Dictionary focused on the lasting contributions of political talk to the English lexicon. But sometimes the language of politics is more idiosyncratic. High-profile politicians who are speaking publicly on a daily basis inevitably develop their own verbal mannerisms, their peculiar linguistic likes and dislikes. Take New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, for instance. We've recently learned that he's a big fan of the word unconscionable, but he's got a problem with the word maintain.
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