Category Archives: language

try this analogy on for size

An anarchist who uses the Internet is as hypocritical as a Protestant who uses the Latin alphabet.

Posted in language, politics, religion | 2 Comments

more great moments in typography

I see I haven’t mentioned here that Charlie Stross’s novel Saturn’s Children is printed in modified Bembo, with single-loop ‘a’ and hook-tailed ‘gy’. It’s remarkable how much the page color is affected by those three letters.

Posted in language | Tagged | 2 Comments

great moments in typesetting

I’m reading Ken Macleod’s novel The Execution Channel (Tor hardcover 2007). It appears that someone replaced every ‘fi’ or ‘fl’ with a ligature, without checking case.

Posted in language | Tagged | 5 Comments

neologism of the day

I don’t care to log in at Kos for one comment, so I’ll put it here. Daily Kos writes: What natural means isn’t specified. But I’m sure there’s an Tex-aytollah somewhere ready to let us know. Allow me to suggest … Continue reading

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whats your excu’se?

Does Spanish normally use apostrophes at all?

Posted in California, language | 3 Comments

more meaningless zeros

A quirk in DVD subtitles: a phrase like “ten minutes before seven” is consistently rendered as 10 minutes before 7:00. Why not go all the way and make it 6:50? I am amused to find that 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, language | Leave a comment

mind tools

Someone recently told me that it’s easier to memorize a sequence, such as a text, from the end: when you recite it you’re moving toward familiar ground. Friday I gave this trick a modest test, when I had to copy … Continue reading

Posted in language, me!me!me!, psychology | 1 Comment