April 01, 2008
You Need a Lesson. You Dig?
Don't be a drag, man.
(via skyelab)
Posted by Groonk at 07:37 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Digital Share, Grammar, History, Tutorials
January 24, 2008
Alaska: Last Speaker of the Eyak Language has Died
A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89.Marie Smith Jones was a champion of indigenous rights and conservation. She died at her home in Anchorage.
[...]
Ms Jones is described by her family as a tiny chain smoking woman who was fiercely independent, says the BBC's Peter Bowes in Los Angeles.
"To the best of our knowledge, she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive," her daughter Bernice Galloway told the Associated Press news agency.
"She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life and overcame it. She was about as tenacious as you can get."
(via warrenellis, bbcnews)
Posted by Groonk at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, People Who Died, USA
November 14, 2007
A Talk with Monkey Punch
Monkey Punch created the LUPIN III manga that the anime was based on. He's got some neat views on comics in The Future.
His work was discovered by an editor of Futabasha, the company behind Weekly Manga Action, for whom he created the Lupin III series, loosely based on the Arsene Lupin novel series and 007 movies. The artist's strange pseudonym, he explains, was given to him by his editor, who compared his characters' faces to those of a monkey.
[...]
Monkey Punch began using computers in his work nearly two decades ago.
"Digital technology allows me to look closely at the details [of the images] and easily change minor things several times. This means, though, that it's sometimes hard to give up the details and complete [the images]."
Cooperating with famous mangaka, including Machiko Satonaka and Tetsuya Chiba, Monkey Punch established the Tokyo-based Digital Manga Association five years ago to explore and develop manga content for the Internet.
"I thought it would be a waste not to utilize the Internet, since it allows us to directly communicate with people around the world," the creator said.
"Japan's manga culture is drawing international attention, but we don't even have an archive containing information about all the manga published here," he said. "I want to find a way to set up such an archive, getting cooperation from other mangaka and relevant experts."
(via green jacketed josh hechinger, daily yomiuri online)
Posted by Groonk at 03:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, Digital Share, Grammar, Interviews, Marketing, Only in Japan
November 12, 2007
Norman Mailer 1923 - 2007
And I didn't know until now but, Norman Mailer died.
Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old "enfant terrible." Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, street-wise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.(via aol news)
Another author that I failed to get around to reading while he was alive.
The word "fug" is thrown around quite a bit on the Internet. But did you know that it was Norman Mailer who coined the word in 1948 in his first book, The Naked and the Dead?(via writer's blog)
No, I did not know that Writer's Blog. I did not know.
On the other hand, he said, writing was now easier for him in at least one respect. “The waste is less,” he said. “The elements of mania and depression are diminished. Writing is a serious and sober activity for me now compared to when I was younger. The question of how good are you is one that really good novelists obsess about more than poor ones. Good novelists are always terribly affected by the fear that they’re not as good as they thought and why are they doing it, what are they up to?"
After reading The New York Times obituary of Mailer, I've come to decide that Norman Mailer was quite mad and possibly an impossible man to know. But it's the mad ones that have all the unique and, at times, forward thinking ideas.
Posted by Groonk at 04:15 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, People Who Died
November 06, 2007
Political Ghost Whispering
This is President Eisenhower's complete (audio only) 1961 farewell speech:
part 2
Everyone please note how this statesman - this Leader - addresses his people. Notice his clear diction. Notice how he talks "to you" and not "at you?" Soak that in for a minute.
Prof. Emanuel Pastreich of George Washington University compares the current state of affairs to Japan's occupation of Manchuria rather than Vietnam. He also mentions Eisenhower coined the term, "Military-Industrial Complex."
huh.
Posted by Groonk at 08:20 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Politics, USA, Video
October 18, 2007
Now We Can See and Hear the Edwardians
(via warren ellis and google video, guba)
Posted by Groonk at 01:02 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Digital Share, Documentary, Grammar, Just Freaking Neat, Video
September 19, 2007
Aussie Slang Dictionary is Not a "Bush Bash"
I assumed wrongly that I already had a link to an Australian Slang Dictionary.
It wasn't easy but we've tried to include uniquely Australian slang here and to exclude British and American slang even though these are commonly used in Australia. We see no point in informing the world that "fridge" is Australian slang for a "refrigerator".
(via aussie slang dictionary)
Posted by Groonk at 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
August 07, 2007
Has It Really Come Down to This?
(via digg)
Posted by Groonk at 05:04 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
April 19, 2007
China May Start an English Hotline
They're readying for the 2008 Olympics and don't want any embarassments.
Liu said a language hotline may be set up for the games to encourage the public to report nonsense English. China's diplomatic missions abroad are assisting, Liu said, "and our people working in foreign companies are helping with correct usage."
If only there was a hotline for the USA.
(via cnn news)
Posted by Groonk at 05:41 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
April 06, 2007
Kelly Sue DeConnick Talks 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, Swooping and Banging, and Manga
DeConnick has interesting words on translating manga to english. I've always had an interest in that business. She talks aboout 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, mainly, but I'm not as familiar with that work. She also talks about the birth of two terms I use quite a bit.
NRAMA: And finally…you’re credited with being the first to call San Diego Comic-Con "Nerd Prom." How’s it feel to see that term become so widespread?KSD: Heh. Funny you should ask that. There's been a mix-up somewhere. Fraction actually coined "nerd prom." (In fact, I thought it was Han Q. Duong's, but apparently it was Fraction's.) I think I was the first one to use it with Ellis, and thus the legend was born. I came up with "futurephone," and somehow Fraction got credited with that, so I suppose it all comes out in the wash.
(via matt fraction, newsarama)
Posted by Groonk at 01:14 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, Grammar, Interviews
March 08, 2007
'Meh' is the New 'Fuck'
And 'new' is a relative term, of course.
Meh means rubbish. It means boring. It means not worth the effort, who cares, so-so, whatever. It is the all-purpose dismissive shrug of the blogger and messageboarder. And it is ubiquitous. On the I Love Music messageboard, for example, 4,010 separate discussion threads feature the use of "meh".No one is quite sure where it comes from. Graeme Diamond, principal editor of the new word group at the Oxford English Dictionary, says it's not yet suitable for the OED, but he does have a "meh" file, and the first recorded print usage occurred in the Edmonton Sun newspaper in Canada in 2003: "Ryan Opray got voted off Survivor. Meh."
He thinks, however, it sprang into common usage from the Simpsons.
I can enlighten him further. Some credit the 2001 episode Hungry Hungry Homer with the first use of "meh" as a dismissal, when Homer asks Lisa and Bart if they want to go to the Blockoland theme park and receives the answer, "meh". But the Language Log website notes a 1995 episode in which Bart dismisses Marge's discussion of weaving with a "meh".
(via rocketboom, the guardian unlimited)
Posted by Groonk at 06:14 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
February 20, 2007
Save the Languages, Save the World
More than half of the word's 7000 languages are endangered, because they consist of an unsustainably small – and declining – speaker base. Each language death represents a significant erosion of human knowledge about local plant and animal life that was acquired over many centuries, says David Harrison at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, US.
[...]
the Siberian Todzhu tribe has many different and complex names for reindeer, according to the animals' life stages. What is called a "chary" by the Todzu, would be translated in English as "a two-year-old male, un-castrated, rideable reindeer".
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 08:01 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Research
January 25, 2007
Paul Davidson Made Up Some New Internet Slang
I'm sure it'll catch on nicely:
- RRA: Really, really amused.
- LOTI: Laughing on the inside.
- SHRN: So hysterical right now.
- LLL: Living, laughing, loving.
- TTTT (OL): Too tired to type, or laugh.
- CCN: Commence chortle, now.
- WAGNGFL: We are go, no go, for laughter.
- RHIPWMES: Really, honestly — I’m pleased with my emotional state.
- IYWHRNYSML: If you were here right now, you’d see me laughing.
- LIDLIJDNEOTIIMBDTTFTAACIHAPWSOBTLOOMALTTRITIDL: Look, I don’t laugh. I just don’t. Not even on the inside. It might be due to the fact that as a child, I had abusive parents who sort of beat the laughter out of me. At least that’s the reason I think I don’t laugh.
Davidson also does an awesome job of posting some kind of new wordage every day of the week. If only I had that kind of committment,
(via words for my enjoyment)
Posted by Groonk at 01:23 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
January 17, 2007
"Fantastika" will Shag Your Wife Rotten
Today's word is russian.
* In clicking around, I discover a word. Fantastika. Fantastika appears to be the Russian word for speculative, slipstream or science fiction. Isn't that a gorgeous word? Fantastika. Much better than fantastique. Fantastique is arch. Fantastika is spiky.* "What do you write?" "I write FANTASTIKA. And I just shagged your wife until she saw God. Get away from me now, shitbreath."
--Warren Ellis
(via another Bad Signal "Brain Dump 3", the internet jesus amuses me no end)
Posted by Groonk at 08:58 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Just Freaking Neat, Quotables, Research
January 06, 2007
James Gunn Rules over the Dead
This is not really Myth and not exactly Grammar. I'm just covering my bases so I'm sure to run into it in later searches. Ever since my History of English Language class my fascination with the etymology of names shot up 200%:
1.Is your last name really Gunn? Cuz that's freakin' cool. 2. Were you buds with Rooker prior to Slither? – MikeYes, that's really my last name. My original family name (in Ireland) was MacGilGunn. My relatives there now are all named GilGunn. My grandparents shortened it to Gunn when they came over, to avoid anti-Irish bias (there was such a thing back then).
But even cooler is the origin of the name. MacGilGunn means Sons to the Servants of the God of the Dead. Gunn means "God of the Dead." I shit you not.
And, no, I wasn't friends with Rooker prior to SLiTHER, but I was a big, big fan.
That comes from James Gunn's first blog of the year 007. He did SLiTHER and DAWN OF THE DEAD and SCOOBY DOO and lots of other things. ANGEL fans make a note. The character of Charles Gunn was named after James and Sean Gunn(brothers ya know.
There are lots of other writing and screenwriting questions answered in this particular blog, too.
(via james gunn and possibly james gunn's god)
Posted by Groonk at 04:28 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Grammar, Myth, Tutorials
December 14, 2006
Colbert Officially "Truthy"
Merriam-Webster's 2006 Word of the Year? You guessed it:
I saw it on Colbert 2 nights ago. So it must be true.
(via colbertnation and merriam-webster)
Posted by Groonk at 09:36 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Just Freaking Neat
October 13, 2006
Double-13 Friday Gives Crazies Pause
Paraskevidekatriaphobics think on numbers too much.
The phenomenon hasn't happened in 476 years, said Heinrich Hemme, a physicist at Germany's University of Aachen who crunched the numbers to find that the double-whammy last occurred Jan. 13, 1520.
"Pure chance," the good professor told the press yesterday.
But it's not exactly TGIF for the 21 million Americans who fear the day. Some may not travel or even get out of bed, said Donald Dossey, a North Carolina psychologist who coined the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia" 20 years ago. He estimates that the nation is out $900 million in lost productivity because of Friday the 13th sick-outs.
"It's just ingrained in our culture -- one of those collective, unconscious fears stretching back about 2,800 years," Mr. Dossey said. "But it will be all gone tomorrow. By the time you learn to pronounce 'paraskevidekatriaphobia,' you're cured."
Friday the 13th has had unlucky baggage for centuries, with references to "bad" Fridays cited in the Bible, Norse mythology, Chaucer, French and British history, numerology and folklore sources, Mr. Dossey said.
Presidential hopeful John Edwards must be phobia-free. The former Democratic senator from North Carolina begins his 13th campaign trip to Iowa today, according to the Des Moines Register.
(via 7d and the washington times)
Posted by Groonk at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Holiday, Myth
August 23, 2006
Deadwood Enhances The Pancake Experience for All You Degenerate Cocksuckers
Comedian Justin Schlegel has done one of the better Deadwood spoofs I've seen thus far.
That's Deadwood, kids. That means NSFW.
Deal with it, tit-lickers.
Also, looks like the news of Deadwood getting four more hours of goodness to round out the storylines wasn't a lie(see W. Earl Smith's MySpace blog).
(via ONTD)
Posted by Groonk at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Grammar, Video
January 13, 2006
...and Bob's your Uncle
World Wide Words gives insight into those kooky british phrases of which I've become quite fond.
[A] This is a catchphrase which seemed to arise out of nowhere and yet has had a long period of fashion and is still going strong. It's known mainly in Britain and Commonwealth countries, and is really a kind of interjection. It's used to show how simple it is to do something: "You put the plug in here, press that switch, and Bob's your uncle!".
(full meaning)
Posted by Groonk at 07:14 AM | Comments (2) | Ministry of Grammar
October 17, 2005
Viral Language Propagation
It's a process that happens each time a new thing needs a name, but language researchers have struggled to model how it happens without a central decision maker. Now a computer model shows the process at work - and may give insights into how the first human languages emerged.
Luc Steels of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris in France and his colleagues studied the "naming game", a simple computer model that reflects how people invent words and use them. In the game, a group of "agents" live in a virtual environment with a number of "objects". Each agent makes up random names for the objects, and the agents then interact in pairs, trying to "talk" about those objects.
In each interaction, one agent (the speaker) says its word for an object, while the second agent (the hearer) listens. If the hearer fails to recognise the word, it memorises it as a possible name for the object. But if the hearer understands the word, both agents retain this word in memory and ditch any others they have made up or heard.
How interesting.
New words are created and spread by the "slowest" listener.
(via new scientist)
Posted by Groonk at 08:36 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
October 12, 2005
Understanding Serenity
In the Serenity-verse, it's 500 years in the future and the eastern and western cultures have mixed into this neat little super-culture.
One of the easily identifiable points is that everybody can speak and read chinese as well as english.
I found a site that translates much of the series, the movie, and the comics' chinese dialogue.
Not sure if they are accurate but fan translations usually aren't far from the mark.
My favorites are:
Dong Ma
"understand?"
Ta ma de!
Ta ma duh!
"F*** me blind!"
Tian sha de e mo.
"Tyen-sah duh UH-muo."
"Goddamn monsters."
tian xiao de
"tyen shiao duh"
name of all that's sacred
Wo de ma.
"Wuh de ma."
"Mother of god."
gou shi
"gos se"
"crap"
Course, people in China probably thinking, 'What the fuck is that!?'
Posted by Groonk at 02:44 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Grammar
August 23, 2005
Bushusuru
I remember the incident clearly. I didn't know about the slang verb that was born from it though.
(via ilovethe90s repeat #2004)
Posted by Groonk at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
June 27, 2005
No Disassemble!
This idiocy happened during the groonk.net blackout.
--President George W. Bush
Disassemble means 'to take apart'. 'Dissemble' means 'to disguise or conceal behind a false appearance'.
You got that, Johnny 5?
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 06:10 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Politics, Quotables
June 25, 2005
There's no Soy Ooze in "Soyuz"
I was looking for a Young Frankenstein wav.
[...]
But "Soyuz" is a problem. The "y" is deceptive. In the standard orthography for transliteration from cyrillic into latin latters, the "yu" stands for a specific Russian letter, so it can't be split. This makes the syllables So-Yuz, not Soy-Uz.
Posted by Groonk at 02:46 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
April 27, 2005
Why the Fuck Shouldn't I Say "Fuck"?
The previously posted article gave their views on why we should use the supposed "curse words":
There is no logical reason that any English speaker should be allowed to say defecate but not shit, copulate but not fuck, derriere but not ass. There is even a good illogical reason to use the old words and that is to use them to repudiate the old legacy of defeat and subjection and the newer legacy of hypocrisy and repression. These words, they're so old, so damn old, we ought to use them just out of sentiment and because they have seniority.
Claudia Chapman expands on that theme. She wrote on how she taught her children about "swears".
When the time came to initiate a family policy on swears, I decided to adopt a neutral stance, neither encouraging nor discouranging their use. After all, I myself had used them all on one occasion or another. Even now, If I drop a cast-iron pot on my foot, my language will reflect its Old English, Indo-European roots.When our son Bran first learned from other children that these words could get him in trouble, I explained that they were just words--nothing to worry about. I told him that although some people might worry about them and believe they are bad, in our family we do not. (I did suggest not using them around certain relatives although, if a word happened to slip out, we would not make a fuss about it.) As a result, Bran has no particular attachment to profanity. He seldom uses swear words. And while he thinks that the fractured "Fanky Foodle" verse is sort of funny, he takes no real delight in it.
(via Fankey Foodle Fandy 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 02:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
Dirty Words Explained
A truly fascinating article on the entymology of various dirty words and a look at words that used to offend Puritans, Victorians and, to a lesser degree, the old English. Who knew that belly, leg, and stink were not that long ago, taboo?
Also covered are the naughtier words:
Take cock for instance. (These days most people can't understand the relationship between cocks and...ahh...cocks. If you've never handled a live rooster, you probably don't know that when you wrap your hand around its neck, it has a very penile feel. If you're familiar with chickens it's obvious why a penis is called a cock and if you're not no explanation will suffice.) The word is first found in written English in Chaucer. Shakespeare himself uses it in puns, jokes, and wordplay but by the late 1700's and early 1800's the taboo had grown so strong that apricox, haycocks, and weathercocks became apricots, haystacks and weathervanes. As the old word was rooted out, new ones, and not so new ones, came to replace it - such as prick, Peter, Dick (thus a Dickless Tracy is a policewoman), Jack, John Thomas, knocker, tool, gun, pistol, short arm, truncheon, pole (as in Mae West's immortal line: I wouldn't let him touch me if he had a ten foot pole.), schlong, putz, shaft, root, snake, one- eyed trouser snake, Cod, bone, fishbone (the bone used to fish in what Shakespeare calls that peculiar river) and so on and so on. Penis replaced cock after the older word became unprintable even in scientific literature. Penis is Latin, not for cock, but for tail. The Latin word for penis is gladius or sword, something placed in a vagina or sheath.
"Plop, plop. Fizz, fizz" has a whole new meaning to me.
(via 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 01:52 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
April 25, 2005
Things I learn When I should be Studying
1. badger ugly
An extreme to coyote ugly. The victimized male finds himself in the company of a slovenly woman in the morning. He finds himself trapped with one arm under his date. He gnaws his arm off to escape and subsequently gnaws off the remaining arm to avoid the same fate in the future.
That girl is badger ugly.
Posted by Groonk at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
April 23, 2005
Googlmancy
I'm still researching the ideas behind magic and anything related to it.
Googlemancy is a term which is catching on in occult circles as quickly as its secular counterpart ?googling? is in the mainstream. Search engines offer us the ability to train our magickal consciousness using Spare?s framework. Though googlemancy is primarily seen as a divinatory process, it also has applications in enchantment and illumination. Using it to develop adept consciousness is a fairly simple process and starts off by mirroring the letter scramble approach to sigilization.
Go figure there's a livejournal community commited to Googlmancy.
(via warrenellis)
Posted by Groonk at 02:08 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Google-fied, Grammar, Research
April 19, 2005
What is Unobtainium?
While watching the blandest disater movie ever(aka The Core) I heard most excellent actor Delroy Lindo use the word unobtainium (aka Handwavium)as he laid his techno-babble laden lines on the suspecting audience.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that DARPA is actually seeking unobtainium and that there's written declassified evidence of that search.
Wikipedia has a list of chemical substances that fall under the definitionof unobtainium.
Posted by Groonk at 08:46 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Research, Science
April 02, 2005
WWII german Military Phrasebook
Somebody scanned in this original 1943 US Army German phrasebook.
look closer
The US government will pay!? That's nothing but lies and also lies.
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 05:34 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, War, WorldWarII
March 22, 2005
Neil Gaiman said...
A while back, someone sent Mr Gaiman a post link that declared, "said is dead."
Gaiman absorbed this information then politely pointed the reader to his previous thoughts on the use of said.
"Said's" are invisible. They vanish onto the page. The eye barely sees them -- they become one with the inverted commas that indicate that something is being said. They're the arrows on the speech balloons that show you who's saying what. Lots of authors, when they start out, remember from school that you shouldn't repeat words too much, and are careful to replace each "said" with "growled" "uttered" "yelped' "hissed" "exclaimed" "asseverated" "muttered" "affirmed" and so on, and cannot work out why people dismiss the writing as amateurish. Use them, but use them sparingly. It's like salt in a dish. Too much and it's all you taste.
Since Mr Gaiman is the local god of all good writing, I'll follow his advice before I would some unknown, and possibly insane, creative writing teacher.
Posted by Groonk at 08:40 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
February 21, 2005
Mind in the Gutter
A couple of Aussie phrases from what I'm guessing is an Australian blogger. One I knew, the other I didn't.
root a crude, very ocker way of saying have intercourse with, or the noun pertaining to same (so, did you get a root last night?). Not used that often, at least amongst the rarified social atmosphere in which I circulate, but a lot more Australians probably think of this meaning than dig around in, as might a pig, or bottom bit of a plant when the word is mentioned, which makes for much laughter amongst Aussies whenever the Unix family of operating systems are discussed.wanker
wank means to masturbate. Simple as that. This isn't Australian slang as such (more British, I think) but I'll bet that 90% of the Americans who use it as an amusing example of something that British people say don't realise what it means, or how graphic it is. The closest US slang equivalent would probably be jerk-off, but I would say that wanker (though it is used mostly as a general insult) probably retains more connotations of its original meaning that does jerk-off.
Hope you get a root.
(via funkwit)
Posted by Groonk at 10:57 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
February 08, 2005
Scamto
Fancy some Jesus and his brothers, or a ride in a g-string? And why is it that abantu abu baie bane kwal'nge-cherry?This is South Africa's latest street slang -- a mix of the 11 official languages with nicknames thrown in for beer, cars, weapons and sexual positions that has grown out of the country's sprawling townships.
Hailed by its fans as a symbol of the country's diversity 11 years after the end of apartheid, "scamto" has become the language of choice for South Africa's black urban youth and its first exhaustive guide is due out next month.
"It's real, it's raw, and it captures the diversity and confidence of the new South Africa," said 24-year-old advertising executive Lebo Motshegoa from Soweto, the author of "Township Talk: The People, the Language, the Culture."
Scamto took off in the 1990s with the explosion of kwaito -- the townships' homegrown brand of hip-hop -- which uses the street slang extensively...
[...]
Jesus and his brothers means J&B whisky, while riding a g-string means driving a BMW. Black Label beer became tomato and then Red Bull -- nothing to do with the energy drink.
And 'why is it that abantu abu baie bane kwal'nge-cherry?' is what a young Sowetan might ask when he wants to know why his friends envy him for his girlfriend.
(via 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Grammar
February 04, 2005
Objectgraph
It's a snazzy little dictionary.
Posted by Groonk at 12:56 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
December 09, 2004
2004 Word of the Year
Blog noun [short for Weblog] (1999) : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer
Posted by Groonk at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
Dictionary Slang
Another dictionary full of slang, this time focused on the United Kingdom.
via MedicMike
Posted by Groonk at 06:21 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
Dude!
An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the four-letter word has many uses: in greetings ("What's up, dude?"); as an exclamation ("Whoa, Dude!"); commiseration ("Dude, I'm so sorry."); to one-up someone ("That's so lame, dude."); as well as agreement, surprise and disgust ("Dude.").Kiesling says in the fall edition of American Speech that the word derives its power from something he calls cool solidarity - an effortless kinship that's not too intimate.
Cool solidarity is especially important to young men who are under social pressure to be close with other young men, but not enough to be suspected as gay.
In other words: Close, dude, but not that close.
"It's like man or buddy, there is often this male-male addressed term that says, 'I'm your friend but not much more than your friend,'" said Kiesling, whose research focuses on language and masculinity.
via 7d
Posted by Groonk at 06:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
November 13, 2004
Where "fractal" comes from
An enlightening interview with Benoit Mandelbrot was found on boingboing who found it on New Scientist.
What is it like seeing the Mandelbrot set emblazoned on T-shirts and posters?
Fractals seem to appear all over nature and in economics. Even the internet is fractal. What does that say about the underlying nature of these phenomena?
Well, it depends on the field. Circles and straight lines also appear everywhere. Does this mean that all those phenomena have something in common? Of course not. The roughly circular trajectory of a planet around the sun is due to gravitational interactions. Berries are round because a sphere has a smaller skin. The beauty of geometry is that it is a language of extraordinary subtlety that serves many purposes.
You have recently started writing your memoirs. What has that been like?
It has been a strange exercise.
How so?
To realise what one remembers and what one doesn't remember. My life seemed to be a series of events and accidents. Yet when I look back I see a pattern. For a long time that pattern was imposed by catastrophes, namely the fall of Poland and the occupation of France during the second world war. Those events dictated everything. Different people had different reactions to this kind of youth. A great many people were left with an enormous desire for calm and regularity because life had been rough: they were tired of big events. Somehow I reacted differently. I do not particularly like danger. I didn't like the close encounters with danger. But I found that I could bear them. And they brought other advantages. Being raised under such hair-raising conditions can have a strong effect on someone's personality.
Posted by Groonk at 05:01 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Science
October 25, 2004
Proverb Mastery
Wikipedia has proverb listings from everywhere:
Latin Proverbs
Claude os, aperi oculos! "Shut up and watch!"
Japanese Proverbs
Inu mo arukeba bou ni ataru - things happen when you do something (lit. even walking dogs hit a bar)
English Proverbs
All roads lead to Rome. - There's more than one way to do something.
German Proverbs
Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual. -- Literally, "He who has the choice, has the distress."
Posted by Groonk at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
October 19, 2004
Today's lesson, the Monomyth
Apparently I knew the structure of the Monomyth without knowing its name. Once again observation teaches me more than a professor.
Here's the structure of the monomyth as broken down by mythologist John Campbell.
Separation
call to adventure
refusal of the call
supernatural aid
theshold crossing
belly of the whaleInitiation
road of trials
meeting with the goddess
woman as temptress
apotheosis
ultimate boonReturn
refusal of the return
magic flight
crossing return threshold
master of two worlds
freedom to live
By following the previou slinks you get a brief description of each level and neat visuals using Wolverine and Star Wars as examples.
Posted by Groonk at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
September 28, 2004
Interrobang ‽
This sucker will be used by me.
In 1962, the interrobang (‽), was introduced by the New York publishing establishment as "a twentieth century punctuation mark". The interrobang combined the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point. It received some attention at first, but never caught on, although for a brief period during the 1960s it was added to some typewriter keyboards.
More on the interrobang
Posted by Groonk at 02:25 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
September 22, 2004
"necessary"
What happens whenyou put the word "necessary" in the Goole search engine? You get a crapload of interesting links, that's what.
Posted by Groonk at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
August 07, 2004
Car Speak-To-English Glossary
GRAPHICS -- artistic designs painted on cars (but not including pinstriping).HAMMERED -- the top of the car is lowered, chopped and dropped.
HEMI -- hemispherical shape of combustion chamber over cylinder bore.
Those and many more car terms explained for the layperson.
Posted by Groonk at 02:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
July 29, 2004
MAD onomatopoeia
A glossary of sound effects used by Don Martin in the MAD comic strips.
APPLAUD YEA! -- Audience --MAD #55 June 1960, Page 8ARARAGH!! -- Large Lion In Gorilla Suit Growling -- MAD #65, September 1961, Page 44
ARARGH!! --Large Gorilla Growl --MAD #65, September 1961, Page 44
ARGLE GLARGLE GLORGLE GLUK -- Princess Using Mouthwash -- MAD #190, Apr 1977, Page Inside Back Cover
ARRARGH WAMP BLAMP OOF YUG -- A Lady And The Hulk Making Love -- MAD #221, March 1981, Page 17
Posted by Groonk at 05:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
June 30, 2004
Etymology Online
A debate between MedicMike and I over the differences or similarities between 'revenge' and 'vengeance' spurred me to seek out their respective etymologies.
I'll be damned if there isn't an Etymology Online:
revenge - 1375, from O.Fr. revengier, from re-, intensive prefix, + vengier "take revenge," from L. vindicare "to lay claim to, avenge, punish" (see vindicate).To avenge is to get revenge or to take vengeance; it suggests the administration of just punishment for a criminal or immoral act. Revenge seems to stress the idea of retaliation a bit more strongly and implies real hatred as its motivation. ["The Columbia Guide to Standard American English," 1993]
or:
vengeance - 13c., from Anglo-Fr. vengeaunce, O.Fr. vengeance "revenge," from vengier "take revenge," from L. vindicare "to set free, claim, avenge" (see vindicate). Vengeful (1586) is from obsolete M.E. venge "take revenge.""Vengeance is mine, ... saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." [Paul to the Romans, xii:19-20]
Etymology Online is a labour of love via Douglas Harper.
Posted by Groonk at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
June 22, 2004
Online French to English
This simple dictionary is pretty handy.
Posted by Groonk at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
May 31, 2004
American Dialect Society
...the American Dialect Society is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it
Posted by Groonk at 06:25 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
May 07, 2004
The Ultimate List of Words
Words are my life. Rather, I hope to be making a living off of gathering various common and unusual words together to form sentences and phrases both elegant and uncouth.
When a boingboing reader drops them a site that lists words for manias, fights, and countless other rare words and phrases, you just know I'm all up in that.
gigantomachy -- war of giants against the godspneumatomachy -- denial of the divinity of the Holy Ghost
psychomachy -- conflict between the body and the soul
theomachy -- war amongst or against the gods
titanomachy -- war of the Titans against the gods
ablutomania -- mania for washing oneself
marry -- expression of surprised agreement
Holla.
Posted by Groonk at 12:52 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
March 11, 2004
Fleshbotting
We have decided that We must limit our other blog linkings to at most 3 per day. We have noticed We are rehashing others postings a bit too much. We begin the corrections this very evening.
Having said that, We find that the most gregarious Fleshbot has served Us 3 links that We wish to keep tabs on.
Posted by Groonk at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Sex, Video
February 26, 2004
Elmore Leonard's 10 rules for writing
Elmore Leonard gives us writing kids a few rules:
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Posted by Groonk at 04:28 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, Grammar
February 20, 2004
Interjections
There is now a new grammar category. Let's open that sucker right:
Interjections }} {Hey!}
Show excitement, }} {Yow!}
Or emotion. }} {Ouch!}
They're generally set apart from a sentence
By an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.
Now have a list of them:
There are 148 interjections in MWCD10. The complete list: adios, ah, aha, ahem, ahoy, alack, alas, all hail, alleluia, aloha, amen, attaboy, auf wiedersehen, aw, ay, bah, begorra, bejesus also bejeezus, bingo, bleep, boo, by or bye, bye-bye or by-by, cheerio, cheers, ciao, crikey or crickey, cripes, dear, egad or egads, eh, eureka, faugh, fie, fore, gad, gadzooks, gar, gardyloo, gee, gee whiz, gesundheit, glory or glory be, golly, gosh, gramercy, ha, ha-ha, hail, hallelujah, haw, heads up, heigh-ho, hem, hep, hey, hey presto, heyday, hi, hip, hist, ho, ho hum, hollo also holloa or holla, hoot or hoots, hosanna also hosannah, hot dog, howdy, hoy, huh, humph, hup, hurrah also hurray, hut, jeepers also jeepers creepers, jeez, jingo, la, lackaday, lo, lo and behold, lordy, marry, my word, od or odd, oh, ooh, oops, ouch, ow, pardie or pardi or pardy, phew, phooey, pip-pip, pish, poof, pooh, prithee, prosit or prost, pshaw, quotha, rah, rats, righto, roger, selah, sh, shalom, shalom aleichem, shoo, shoot, so long, touche, tush, tut, tut-tut, ugh, uh-huh, uh-oh, uh-uh, view halloo, viva, voila, waesucks, wahoo, welcome, well, wellaway, whee, whoopee, why, wilco, wirra, wisha, woe, wow, yech or yecch, yikes, yippee, yo, yoicks, yoo-hoo, yuck also yuk, yum-yum, zap, zooks, zounds, zowie.
In addition, MWCD10 says these words are often used interjectionally: adieu, au revoir ball, bam, bang, bon voyage, bosh, bother, botheration, boy, brava, bravo, come on, f***, fudge, go to, good-by, goodness, hard cheese, hard lines, hello, here, huzza, indeed, Jove, know, like, man, mean, my, nerts, no sweat, peace, period, rather, right on, rot, shuck, silence, skoal, so, son of a b****, son of a gun, there, timber, truly, whatever, whew, whisht, whist, whoop, whoosh.
The Oxford Dictionary of English, published in 2003, added the interjection BADA BING (also "bada bing bada boom") as an exclamation to emphasize that something will happen effortlessly and predictably.
Posted by Groonk at 06:44 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar
