Others
Donalds.
Three B s
A great name appeared in my spam folder this afternoon: Mr. Berenguer Bolivar Basilio.
Muriel and Victor redux
Dowdy names in Henry, again.
Van or van
Van Gogh or van Gogh? The Chicago Manual of Style decides for me.
Orderly, dark and deep
Verlyn Klinkenborg (born in Colorado, living in upstate New York) recounts waking up with “a deep taxonomic yearning” to identify the trees around him.
Proper names in America
Mencken: “In Connecticut, some years ago, there was a politician named K. N. Bill whose given-names were Kansas Nebraska , and he had a sister baptized Missouri Compromise.”
Dowdy Name loves Dowdy Name
Vic loves Muriel.
On Duke Ellington’s birthday
“Duke” is not the only nickname I’ve had or enjoyed.”
Subdivisions of the imagination
The Real Estate Subdivision Name Generator.
Trail and Rhodes
Mark Trail, Dusty Rhodes.
Penguin Random House
I think Penguin House would have made a better name. Or Random Penguin, better still.
The plurals of Prius
“A current television commercial for the Toyota Prius avows, aloud and on the screen, that ninety percent of ‘Prius’ are still on the road. Toyota must be reluctant to use its chosen plural form, the ungainly Prii.”
Poem v. story, sidewalk v. floor
A poem is not a story. A sidewalk is not a floor.
Eponym of the day: satyr
The Greeks have nearly swept A.Word.A.Day’s week of eponyms.
Eponym of the day: hector
“Hector is a brave and dutiful character, but unfortunately his name is now sullied in the language.”
A week of eponyms
From A.Word.A.Day
Bands and punctuation
Some of what’s here is diacritics, not punctuation. But it would be pendantic to point that out.
Gaddafi? Kadafi? Qaddafi?
However you spell it, he seems to be dead.
Goodbye, Qwikster
Netflix flip-flops.
Netflix messes up
Qwikster. Ugh.
Word of the day: namby-pamby
From 18th-century poetry wars
Rap taxonomy
How to pronounce "Zooey"
"Zoh-ee"? "Zoo-ee"?
Diane, Nadine
Almost the same.
Radio Shack renaming
On Radio Shack’s (ill-advised, I’d say) decision to rename itself The Shack
How do you pronounce "Blagojevich"?
People outside Illinois need to know.
Spam names
Fish, Herring, Mayo, and Ham
"George Fox"
Eliot Spitzer's odd choice of alias
The long e
Vowels in girls' names
The folks who live in the mail
A few days ago I found myself fascinated by the names attached to the junk that pushes its way into my "mailbox" (that's a metaphor; I'm spe...