Author Archive

Logophily: Editing + Knowledge, part 2

Please join me as I continue my fascinating journey through someone’s shopping list: Flour=flower, jerks. Don’t believe me? Good. That sort of skepticism is important, particularly for to this sort of linguistic phenomenon. The general rule is that if something … Continue reading →

Logophily: Editing + Knowledge

On Christmas Eve, per usual, we went to eat dinner with family. We were supposed to bring drinks, but nobody told us. I headed back to the closest grocery store to buy some sweet tea and soft drinks [1]. And … Continue reading →

Logophily: More Birds

Crow[1]. Merle[2]. Gull [3]. Raven [4]. Raptor [5]. Falcon and tercel [6]. Parrot. Parakeet [7]. Hawk [8]. Kite [9]. Shrike [10]. Jay [11]. Swallow [12]. Starling [13]. Woodpecker. Sandlapper [14]. Plover [15]. Wing. Feather. Pinion [16]. Buzzard [17]. Gizzard [18]. … Continue reading →

Logophily: What’s a Writer?

What is a writer? I’ll reformulate the question a couple of times [1]. Here’s one of them: How can one tell if someone is a writer? It’s really easy in the case of professional writers: they write; they get paid … Continue reading →

Logophily: Not Understanding Is Underrated

Photo credit: I took this dumb picture of this dumb thing I don’t know what kind of redneck [1] shit this is supposed to be. All I know is that when I saw it on sale for sixty-nine [2] cents … Continue reading →

Logophily: Memes and Macros

People [1] have occasionally [2] written lately [3] about memes — not Dawkins memes proper, but internet trope-jokes, most particularly image macros [4]. The gist of all this writing is more or less the gist of any of this type … Continue reading →

Logophily: Rednecks, or You Can’t Tell a Cartoon

There’s a King of the Hill gag I’m particularly fond of. In the first season, in one of the first episodes, when the character Kahn is introduced, the white Texan characters ask if he’s Chinese or Japanese. He’s Laotian [1]. … Continue reading →

Dreams: “Creative writing instructors hate that shit.”

What shouldn’t you write about [1]? I’ve most often heard about this topic in the context of creative writing class syllabi [2]. My favorite rule comes from a buddy’s class: “No losing-your-virginity stories. They all end the same way” [3]. … Continue reading →

Logophily: 13 Ways of Not Looking at a Blackbird

I spent a good hour [1] the other day [2] firmly establishing [3] that I have no idea what a crow looks like. I can pick a crow out of a lineup [4]. I’ve written about corvids. I’ve sculpted them. … Continue reading →

Names: Beer, Food, Literature — “I don’t particularly give a damn about that sort of contradiction”

Two weeks ago, I talked about beer names. This week, I’ll talk about beer names [1]. Also food names and literature names. But first, names: Names are supposed to let us know what we’re talking about, in one sense or … Continue reading →

Names: Beer, Food, Literature — “There’s not a better current term, dammit”

I’m going to talk about names: beer names, food names, genre names. I’m going to talk about names, and I’m not going to mention that quote you’re thinking of right now [1]. But I will talk about beer, food, and … Continue reading →

Logophily

Lots of words sound alike (1). Often, this sort of thing is coincidence: a language uses only so many sounds, and there’s bound to be some overlap between and among them (2).  Lots of similar-sounding words aren’t related.  A chaise … Continue reading →

Logophily

I like language.  Who doesn’t (1)?  We’re all here because of language, in the metaphorical sense, of course, but in this case I mean us, here, at our devices, reading these words.