S-O
I was today years old when I reailzed — not learned, just realized — that the name Esso comes from Standard Oil.
The Brontës get their ë
In Westminster Abbey.
SINATRA, not a word
I think a Strands constructor was having fun.
Names in school (Project 2025)
The deeply sinister message here is that individual identity is not one’s own to decide.
“Mister”
NBC Nightly News: it’s galling to hear Michael Cohen called “Cohen” and Donald Trump called “Mister Trump,” every damn time. Too much deference.
Barry Sachs
One bit of instrument naming I can’t stand: “bari sax.” No one says “al sax” or “ten sax.” Why “bari sax”?
“The five-and-dime !”
“Five-and-dime” or “ten-cent store”?
Mrs. Dash
Mrs. Dash is now just Dash, as I noticed when shopping this past weekend. The Mrs. disappeared sometime in 2020. That gives you an idea of how often I buy Mrs. Dash.
Recently updated
The mystery of the name A. Leddy on a nameplate, solved.
A. Leddy
A name on a nameplate in a movie.
Coot collective
I thought it appropriate to devise a collective name: codger. “A codger of coots” sounds right to me.
Don’t call him MBS
NPR: Please, stop calling Mohammed bin Salman MBS. He is not a brand like BMW or IBM. He is not a hip-hop star like DMC or DMX.
“Asperger”
“Asperger’s syndrome” is a fraught term, as an episode of the podcast The Allusionist explains.
Lloyd Nolan
And other Lloyds.
Mistaken identification
Robert Burton starred in The Anatomy of Melancholy. Richard Burton starred in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Call “Dr. Fauci” by his full name
A note to the news, not that the news is listening: When introducing or making a first reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, please refer to him by his full name and position. He is not a cartoon or character, à la Drs. Evil, No, Oz, and Phil. So “Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” please.
Avant-garde
Gotta love it that someone with the name Avant-garde just won the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“Orange-colored envelope”
A sentence from The Guermantes Way.
Styling the name
When he’s impeached a second time, he’ll be Trump.
A name for the taking
A name for the taking that might be useful to anyone writing family fiction: Sonny LaMattina. “Sonny” LaMattina. Big Sonny. Ding dang dong. Ding dang dong.
I’m in. You?
White House “press secretary” Stephanie Grisham goes Donald Trump one better in declaring anyone who opposes the leader to be “just that.”
“Esperanto”
Esperanto. Mark Esperanto.
Word of the day: flea-bane
Flea-bane, bane of fleas!
Grocery’s
Curtis Honeycutt on weird and wonderful practice of adding -’s to the name of a grocery store.
Ohio place names, pronounced
Includes “Menner” (Mentor).
Remembrance of spam past
Thaddeus G. Blankenship and other spam names.
Yoda, n.
“Yoda” is a new addition to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Smells like teen spinach
Teen spinach is at times awkward, at times moody.
Names and things
Winona LaDuke: “This whole continent is badly named.”
An apple name
There was a Granny Smith.