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The singular “they”

Posted on 2021-07-06 by GaryOctober 18, 2021
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In the not-too-distant past English used the pronoun “him” to refer to individuals of unspecified gender in phrases such as “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion.” This understandably annoys some people, who prefer “Everyone is entitled to his or … Continue reading →

Posted in English, That ain't good English | Leave a reply

The 2020s are here, dagnabbit

Posted on 2020-01-01 by GaryJanuary 1, 2020
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The eternal debate on when decades start In the comic above, Ponytail accuses White Hat of being pedantic. Hah. I’ll show you pedantic. The 21st century began on the first day of 2001. This has nothing whatsoever to do with … Continue reading →

Posted in English, History, Just interesting, Math | Leave a reply

British cultural imperialism in the form of Peppa Pig

Posted on 2019-03-13 by GaryMarch 10, 2019
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Not having young children, I was unaware that this was going on until I leaned of it from Stephen Colbert: Link: https://youtu.be/2jp0WVtoXX0 But it’s been mentioned elsewhere, including local television news, for example wherever this is: Link: https://youtu.be/A0YpuCcX0h0 by … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Funny comedy humor, Funny peculiar | Leave a reply

Hanlon’s razor

Posted on 2018-07-29 by GaryFebruary 3, 2019
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A few months ago I quoted the aphorism “never attribute malice to what can adequately be explained by stupidity,” and was asked for its source. I had to confess that I had no idea, but I’ve since managed to look … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Just interesting | Leave a reply

Game of Thrones: English is not their forte

Posted on 2017-07-31 by GaryAugust 10, 2017
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Fear not, no spoilers or even a review below, just one incredibly picky gripe. Sunday night I watched the third episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones, and one of the main actors, as well as one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts and entertainment, English, That ain't good English | Leave a reply

Free college-level (and other) textbooks

Posted on 2017-07-08 by GaryJuly 7, 2017
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The latest issue of Sky & Telescope has a short article by astronomy professor Andrew Franknoi on a project to address the high cost of college textbooks. OpenStax, a non-profit based at Rice University, has commissioned a series of new … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts and entertainment, English, Esperanto, Just interesting, Science | Leave a reply

Vsauce on the Zipf mystery

Posted on 2017-02-02 by GaryFebruary 1, 2017
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Suppose you’re designing a language course. All else being equal, you’d probably want to teach the most common words first, and there are a number of references you can check for that purpose. (For example, Wikipedia’s page for the most … Continue reading →

Posted in English, Funny peculiar, Just interesting, Math, Science, Video clips | Leave a reply

Whose/who’s, your/you’re, its/it’s made ridiculously simple

Posted on 2016-09-06 by GarySeptember 12, 2016
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A lot of people have trouble distinguishing between with “your” and “you’re” or “whose” and “who’s.” Many years ago I realized there’s a simple rule for remembering which is which. I still get them wrong, but at least I can … Continue reading →

Posted in English, That ain't good English | Leave a reply

The useful but abused verb “comprise”

Posted on 2016-08-22 by GaryAugust 27, 2016
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The parts compose the whole. The whole comprises its parts. That’s a useful pair of words, but unfortunately “comprise” has come to be used as a sort of redundant synonym for “compose.” In fact, nowadays one probably encounters the verb … Continue reading →

Posted in English, That ain't good English | Leave a reply

“Between you and I” and related weird errors

Posted on 2016-08-09 by GaryAugust 8, 2016
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A lot of people don’t especially care about grammar, usage, and style as long as they get their message across. If you’re one of them, just ignore me when I go off on the subject. A lot of this stuff … Continue reading →

Posted in English, That ain't good English | Leave a reply

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