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There's a new campaign to boost awareness of U.S. public libraries that goes by the curious name, "Geek the Library." I'm all for the campaign's stated mission of improving public perceptions of libraries by championing their importance to local communities. But what really fascinates me is the way they're using geek as a transitive verb to mean "be geekily enthusiastic about." I guess you could say I geek innovative uses of the word geek.
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Last spring the New York Times reported that more and more grammar vigilantes are showing up on Twitter to police the typos and grammar mistakes that they find on users' tweets. According to the Times, the tweet police "see themselves as the guardians of an emerging behavior code: Twetiquette," and some of them go so far as to write algorithms that seek out tweets gone wrong.
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The Dictionary of American Regional English is a sprawling, monumental reference work, with a fifth and final volume scheduled for publication in 2011. But if you want a daily dose of DARE goodness, just follow the dictionary's Twitter feed! The Twitter handle is @DAREwords.
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There it was again — a random capital. The offender was the "M" at the beginning of "Mother," as in "Her Mother was the first to notice she could really sing."
If it had been "Mother told me she thought I could really sing," it would have been fine and dandy because "Mother" would have been serving as a proper noun there, referring to a particular maternal figure. But when it's not standing in for a name, "mother" should not be capitalized.
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The British Library is hosting a fascinating exhibition, "Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices," exploring the history of the English language in all its diversity. Think you know your Anglo-linguistics? Try the "Evolving English" online quiz here.
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