I, too, dislike it.

William thought there must be a long compound German word for the way that large events in the world could affect your personal life: the scale was reduced to the point of insignificance, but the everyday effect was amplified.

“

—	Maile Meloy: “The Proxy Marriage” : The New Yorker Yes. There should be compound German words for all occasions.

In 2011, “lunch disco” was officially recognized as a new word by the Swedish Language Council.

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—	Swedes spend their lunch breaks clubbing. - Slate Magazine This is an incredible concept that we should be instituting post-haste. The Swedish Language Council is awesome, and the only one so far whose existence has earned my approval (obviously by virtue of this particular act).

The Oxford Conspiracy is some serious 1% bullshit, and everyone behind the Anonymous film should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

This constitutes my review. That historically inaccurate and poorly shot tripe does not merit further comment.

RADICAL ENGLISH MAJOR OUT.

The factitive verb, for language fanatics, is a gas. The root of the term is the Latin facere, to make or do. Anything that makes something something is factitive, and the making can be as concrete as hammer and nails or as ephemeral as a thought. I can, for instance, consider the dean an idiot, and poof! Grammatically, at least, he’s an idiot. I can make my home a castle; we can elect Senator X president. Moving on to adjectives as complements, I can make you beautiful; I can judge my students wanting. I can even make something something by using an infinitive: I made him stay home.

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—	Make Mine Factitive - Lingua Franca This blog is my new drug. Make me stop.

This dumb sentence has been bothering me all morning. If the two experiences are so disparate as to be incomparable, how could you possibly taste the difference? I’m all for hyperbole, but within the confines of logic please.

Fascinating video on a new typeface designed for ease of use for people with dyslexia, courtesy of K-Monster.

Interestingly, the designers admit the font really doesn’t help people read faster, just make fewer mistakes, and there’s no mention of help dealing with numbers at all. I’d imagine this font is helpful for people far worse off than me on the dyslexia spectrum (which I just made up, but it must exist somewhere)… I need help with speed and not inverting numbers/letters, much more in composition and manipulation than in reading. But an interesting start to be sure.

TripLingo apps specialize in teaching 7 languages on iOS devices, while Memrise boasts an ever-expanding learning database with languages like Swedish, Mandarin and Words Lewis Carroll Made Up. 

“

—	— This morning’s Netted email. That last category is clearly my new favorite language of all time. Better than Icelandic, even.

It's funny working with babies sometimes.

Moi: Hey Will, can you tweet about the blog post I just put up about Dumbledore being gay? (http://blog.friendfactor.org/does-it-matter-if-dumbledore-is-gay/)
Will the Intern: Dude, spoiler alert!
Moi: Shut up, it's not a spoiler when the book's been out three years. Spoiler, Vader is Luke's father!
Will the Intern: Now I don't even know what you're talking about.
Moi: My bad, that shit started in 1977. That was like thirty years before you were born.
Will the Intern: Yeah, because I was born in 2007.
Moi: Hyperbole!
Will the Intern: Dude, I don't know what that means either!
Moi: Spoiler alert! English!

Former IMF chief told police he had diplomatic immunity »

Diplomatic immunity over women’s bodies FTW!

Fun fact: secondary definition of “Diplomat” is “a person who can deal with people in sensitive and effective ways.” Like rape. Totally sensitive and effective.

If you can’t see that words matter, you should go back to running porn magazines. But if you do, yet still allow your editors to use inciteful over insightful language, then far from standing up for Britain, you’re a menace against all things that make it great.

“

—	Fired journalists take shots at their former bosses. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine This quote from Richard Peppiatt. BAM.