lapsus linguae category archives
the dictionary evangelist
Wednesday 3 December 2008 | 12 cookies in the jar
Over the summer, the Umbrella turned me on to this brainy chiquita‘s blog about words (though I’ve been slavering over her garment-sewing blog, A Dress A Day, for months and months—she has, in fact, further enabled my minor obsession with Liberty Tana lawn). And I can no longer remember what word it was the Brujo [...]
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autumnal/premenstrual
Sunday 9 November 2008 | 3 cookies in the jar
From: the unreliable narrator To: oleoptene Date: 9 November 2008 Subject: aetataureate adumbration calabash farrago maceration Ah, you had me at aetataureate. (Though actually maceration vs. mastication was the topic of debate between the B. and myself a few days ago, at the conclusion of which I invoked Julia Child and macédoine, which turns out [...]
all your republican base are belong to us
Friday 7 November 2008 | I like a cookie
My favorite election story, still, as the hours pass and I savor each one. So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching [...]
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clarification
Wednesday 10 September 2008 | someone left a cookie
Dear Presidential Campaigns*, Camp Followers, and Associated Punditry: Strangely, many of you seem to be suffering from a public misunderstanding over what constitutes “sexism.” This is an unusually dated quandary, since every conservative knows that the problems of “sexism” in the US were completely resolved in 1920 and require no further redress. But for those [...]
when danish speakers write in english
Monday 8 September 2008 | 5 cookies in the jar
Cute bubbly guys and girls, it is your time to start your smashing purchase. Never mind whether you belong to the age group of 6 or 60! Are you cute young girls? You’re your pockets with a little amount and start your purchase to get the excellent foot wears. Dansko offers classic variety of shoes, [...]
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hoggify!
Tuesday 15 July 2008 | 2 cookies in the jar
My favorite moment (aside from any time the two falsetto vegan holy men appear to sing backup uncertainly) has long been right after “Oh, liver!” when Cocker, apparently overcome by the thought of organ meat and/or probiotics, FALLS DOWN (or anyway is offscreen for a long moment and then emerges from the bottom of the [...]
david foster wallace’s personal collection of ugly english [diatribe warning]
Monday 7 April 2008 | 6 cookies in the jar
From the opening to his 2001 essay for Harper’s, “Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage.” Are these eggcorns, or, as the Brujo would mutter, just plain wrong? I’m an English teacher, you know what I think. “Save up to 50%—(and More)!” Between you and I. On accident. Somewhat of a. Kustom Kar [...]
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peep yo!
Friday 28 March 2008 | I like a cookie
A NEW GENDER-NEUTRAL PRONOUN: A PRELIMINARY STUDY
one reason why I love my lunette
Saturday 15 December 2007 | 3 cookies in the jar
(A post in which she bravely blogs about her menstrual cup! Although that phrase was difficult to type, thinking of all the various former others who might read it. Oh well, it’s rather too late to care what they think now.) So about three months ago, I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of €35 (and [...]
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from the local newspaper
Monday 24 September 2007 | someone left a cookie
What happened last year, someone’s hair caught on fire? Nothing like a night at the ballet…except, of course, when there are no open flames.
