Did you know that Friday, September 24th is National Punctuation Day? Get in the mood by submitting an entry to the Punctuation Haiku Contest, sponsored by the organizers of NPD. Read all about it here.

While reading the Aug. 19 Rolling Stone and trying to wrap my brain around Matt Taibbi's latest piece on our country's ongoing financial shenanigans, I stumbled onto an article on Katy Perry, who I know very little about due to my old age.  Continue reading...

A new exhibit at the British Library on the evolution of English will feature some linguistic play that presages the age of "text-speak." As reported by The Guardian, the exhibit will display a comic poem printed in 1867 with lines like "I wrote 2 U B 4" ("I wrote to you before"). I've investigated this proto-text-speak and have found similar versified examples going all the way back to 1828.  Continue reading...

The Twitter universe encompasses some odd creatures, including all manner of "Incredible Hulk" spinoffs typing their primitive tweets in all caps. One that language lovers should follow is the delightful Grammar Hulk. Copy editor Andy Bechtel has posted a Q&A with Grammar Hulk — read it here.

I can only imagine how annoying the words Twitter and tweet are to people who haven't gotten in on the microblogging phenomenon. It's been over a year since I embraced all things tweet-y, and I like it so much that I continue praying to Zeus daily that Twitter never goes the way of Friendster and the pet rock. (Public service announcement: Neuter your pet rock. You can never be too careful.)  Continue reading...