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A bit of a meander here, but bear with me. First, Steven Pinker says something about the “n-word” that sounds reasonable but is pretty stupid, backing himself up with something even more stupid (that people somehow take seriously). Corey, AKA TiltedListener, does a fine job dismantling the latter sentence-by-sentence and Taylor Jones, a linguist cited in the article, demolishes whatever credibility is left. Where all this ultimately led me was to some writing about “ableist language”, which poses an ongoing challenge in my own speech. Particularly the word “crazy,” which, for some reason, I battle with myself about changing. || See also, John McWhorter’s interesting take on the poem that started the whole thing.
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“Shocking” is right. → The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage
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Forensic linguist reveals how murderer was snared sending texts because of commas || See also: Words on Trial and What is Forensic Linguistics?
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Whither Clark Bars, Mary Janes, Thin Mints and the eponymous half-chalk-dust half-sugar wafers? → Necco shuts down abruptly, is sold
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Fore-edge painting! → A Hidden Art Form You’ll Flip For (fore-edge painting) || Fore-Edge Paintings at the Lilly Library || Fore Edge Painting – An Introduction | On the Edge. Previously: The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.
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“Kurt Vonnegut compared the role of the artist in society to that of the canary in the mines: Both alert us to the presence of danger. The reading brain is the canary in our minds. We would be the worst of fools to ignore what it has to teach us.” → Screen Time Is Changing Our Brain Circuitry || Pairs well with Why ‘getting lost in a book’ is so good for you, according to science.
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Katexic Clamorites know one of my favorite topics is words we mispronounce(d) because we learned them by reading. Daniel Midgley, host of the fab Talk the Talk podcast, proposes calling them “calliopes” (rhyming with ropes), “persephones” (rhyming with telephones), or “booklish.” Then he and the Speakeasy hosts share many great examples. → Speakeasy: accidental mispronunciations
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I Say LOL, You Say Ek Number: How People Around The World Laugh Online
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This week in visuals and visual art: The Daring Golden Bridge || Visarute Angkatavanich’s amazing betta fish photos || Dennis Isip – The Neon Archives
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Today in 1927, Wings, the only silent film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (at the first annual award ceremony in 1929), premieres at the Criterion Theater in New York City. Starring famed flapper Clara Bow, Wings not only set the standard for aviation films thanks to the technical achievement of its air-combat scenes, but was also the first movie to show two men kissing and among the first wide-release films to show nudity. This was perhaps in keeping with the debauchery around the set in San Antonio (where The Rough Riders was simultaneously being filmed), which director William Wellman would later describe as the “Armageddon of a magnificent sexual Donnybrook.” Remastered by Paramount in 2012, you can watch ► clips of wings on YouTube and, naturally, pay to see the rest.
Wild Life
► Wild Life tells “the story of a dapper young remittance man, sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching in 1909. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. A film about the beauty of the prairie, the pangs of homesickness and the folly of living dangerously out of context.”
Smoked Watermelon
I’d eat that. → ► Watermelon Smoked to Look Like Meat.
“The Purist” (Ogden Nash)
The Purist
I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!”
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”
—Ogden Nash
—from The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash (1945)
etiolated
etiolated /EE-dee-ə-lay-təd/. adjective. Whitened due to lack of sunlight. Figuratively, weakened and/or stunted and/or having a pale, sickly appearance. From French étioler (to become pale, to grow into stubble). From éteule (stubble). From Latin stipula (a stalk or straw).
[Read more…]
Links: August 19, 2018
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A powerful story providing one small entry point into an amazing and amazingly different world. → Raising a DeafBlind Baby
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Turns out our tears are more artistic than even the most dramatic amongst us might have thought. → Rose Lynn Fisher’s microscopic photography, the Topography of Tears. || Earlier: Fisher’s stunning BEEyond series of microscopic photos of bees.
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From micro- to macro-photography… → The Turn-of-the-Century Pigeons That Photographed Earth from Above
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This might make me start not only believing that the “millennials” label means something, but also that I like them. Alas, it is but a dream. → How Millennials Killed Mayonnaise || See also: You Can Now Watch A Livestream Of This Mouldy Fatberg 24/7 || And while I’m just free-associating: Animal fat on ancient pottery reveals a nearly catastrophic period of human prehistory
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A really well-written article about the trying dynamics of civility and dialogue in a small town characterized by both a liberal arts college and a philanthropic family with deep roots in the region…and the NRA. → How Civil Must America Be?
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Via Reader B., who says, “my favorite part of this was the Russian AI.” → The Quantified Heart
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Love this: students author a handbook for teachers (and it includes a lot more than just the fascinating “Philly Slang” section). → Jawn? Ocky? Philly kids school teachers with new handbook
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Last week it was forensic linguistics…this week, food linguistics. → The Creepy Language Tricks Taco Bell Uses to Fool People Into Eating There
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I try to stay away from links to Atlas Obscura, which all Clamorites should be reading anyway, but this was too interesting not to note. → Tattooing in the Civil War Was a Hedge Against Anonymous Death
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MOAR TWITTERZ! → First, from Reader A., Deleted Wiki Titles (@DeletedWiki) posts “actual article titles that have been removed from Wikipedia for various reasons.” On screen right now: Oscillating penguin of ultimate seduction — Five clicks to jesus — Category: Farts in literature — I DONT NO HOW TO MAKE A WIKERPEDIA ATRICLE. || Second, a thread of “metaphorical invective” that made me literally LOL and has that old-school-twitter vibe or, in the words of Reader S., who shared the link, a “community feel.” || And finally, the sometimes fascinating examples of real-time text-to-image generation in this thread.
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Today in 1902, Ogden Nash, perhaps the finest light verse poet ever (in the English language, anyway), is born in Rye, New York. Perhaps most famous for his 1931 poem “Candy / Is Dandy / But Liquor / Is Quicker” (updated in 1968 with the additional line “Pot is not”), Nash composed over 500 pieces, may of which used unexpected rhyme schemes, twists-of-words and turns-of-phrase that word nerds in the Clamor should appreciate. “Further Reflections on Parsley,” the first Ogden Nash poem I read, when I was not yet ten, I still remember completely: “Parsley / Is gharsely.” See also: ► Ogden Nash recites ‘Oh, Please Don’t Get Up!’ and ► Common Cold by Ogden Nash (read by Tom O’Bedlam).
What if English Were Phonetically Consistent?
► What if English Were Phonetically Consistent? The result sounds kind of like Finnish to me. I’m amazed the narrator was able to pull this off. Also, Shakespearean language loses all of its verve when rendered “consistent” in this way.
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