Pseudodictionary has accepted a coinage of mine.

Jeff Rowland’s swell cartoon When I Grow Up has come to an abrupt end, to be succeeded by a new strip.

Here is a relatively harmless violation of the Tenth Amendment: the Social Security Administration publishes lists of Americans’ favorite names for babies. Do similar data exist for other countries?

Emily, Hannah and Madison lead the pink pack for the second year running. Madison?! Do her parents fondly imagine her growing up to be a porno star, or has some other famous female Madison escaped my attention?

Much much later: “Madison” (taken from a street sign) was the name assumed by the nonhuman lead character in a movie that I never saw.

When allusions whoosh by to movies that I never saw, like these, I worry a bit less about homogenization of culture.

While I’m up: why do some -ize verbs like baptize have nouns in -ism, while others take -ization (half Greek and half Latin)? Would anyone understand me if I wrote “homogenism” above?

The Oxford English Dictionary wants your help in finding early citations of words coined in science fiction and fandom.

2022: The project is now independent of OUP.

White House In Orbit is a charmingly retro secret-agents strip by Reinder Dijkhuis and Geir Strøm, or perhaps the other way around.

An old friend calls my attention to this proof of the irrationality of pi, which happens to be a mere link or two away from this favorite essay in historical linguistics; each is in a perhaps surprising literary form.