Handling
Unintentionally funny bit from an article today. The article discusses the lack of delays today from passengers requesting a “pat-down” instead of going through backscatter machines. Then it switches topics...
The arguable fact
I have some sympathy for this kind of construction, 'cause I've done it too: There's no way to two-step around the fact that season 11 of Dancing with the Stars...
Literally
Several years ago, I took a sideswipe at “literally” in an entry about something else. John S and Shmuel both gently pointed out that I was wrong to be fussy...
Headlines to confuse time travelers
Just saw this headline: 77 Percent of Android Devices Running Eclair, Froyo And I wondered: if a time traveler from fifty or a hundred years ago saw that headline, what...
The future of pot is hazy. Get it? Get it? I made a joke!
Nearly every major-news-venue article I've seen about California's Proposition 19 (the one to legalize marijuana) has used the word “hazy” and/or some other pun about marijuana smoke or getting high....
Spammer names
Still clearing out old comment spam, but close to done. Most of the time, spambots either enter non-name phrases into the Name box or use pretty ordinary names. But I...
metumpsychosis (sic)
The other day, while doing some editing, I came across the word “psychopomp,” which obliquely reminded me of an incident from high school. Possibly earlier, but I think it was...
First Lady
I always thought that the phrase “First Lady” meant, by definition, the wife of the head of state; in particular, in the US, that it specifically meant the wife of...
Many of those two
The sort of phrasing problem that comes up when you try to present statistics in terms of small numbers: More people are using condoms, for example, but they still play...
4G phones
I heard a TV commercial the other day that I thought referred to “the first orgy phone.” Turns out I misheard; it was really a 4G phone. Oh, well....