Notices by Mignon Fogarty (grammargirl@zirk.us), page 2

If you're moved by what you see happening in Minnesota and beyond, this page has lots of ways to help.

https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/

What's with people writing ellipses like this lately... with a space on only one side?

I suspect it's an AI thing because I've never seen it before, and suddenly, it's everywhere — so much so that I doubted myself and just checked AP & Chicago. But nope, they still do a space on both sides.

I'm ASTONISHED by how many people are saying they write an ellipsis with no space on the left and a space on the right!

I feel like I've never seen it before the last 6 months, but clearly, I'm mistaken.

I will definitely defend your right to have a "house style," but AP and Chicago styles both call for a space on both sides. Here are screenshots of their example sentences.

https://zirk.us/deck/@grammargirl/115981155118952227

Pat and I just spent our lunch hour calling and writing our rep and senators.

We got voicemail for everyone, so if you are shy about calling, it's likely you won't even have to talk to a person right now.

The Congressional switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. You tell an automated system who you want to talk to.

You don't need to be long or eloquent because they're likely just logging big-picture opinions (although Pat seemed to enjoy unloading on them).

Did you know there's an Inuktitut word for "noisy walking on hard snow"? And a Yup'ik word for "powdery snow that enters through cracks in a house"?

This week, I talked with Dr. Charles Kemp about using big data to answer the big question "Do the Inuit really have more words for snow?"

We also covered words for rain, smell, and even chocolate. Check it out!

WATCH: https://youtu.be/RiH2MvytFa8?si=vg3mEYArQqIeRaLO
READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1155/transcript

This is the switchboard for the U.S. Congress. An automated voice will ask you which senator or representative you want to reach and will transfer you to that person's line.

If you call today, you'll get voicemail but will usually be able to leave a message: (202) 224-3121.

Yesterday, I interviewed a tech guy who told me something too important for me to wait until the podcast comes out for you to hear it:

Many free AI detectors have especially high false positive rates because they make money selling software that "humanizes" writing. 1/2

They tell students papers sound like AI — even when they're the students' own writing — so the company can scare them and sell them a product.

This goes beyond the general problem that even good AI detectors aren't perfect and shouldn't be the sole reason to accuse someone of writing with AI.

I'm helping an elderly person with a patient portal, and wow, there are about 4 different problems ranging from unclear instructions to pages that don't work well when the phone is zoomed in enough for an older person to actually read the text.

Plus, the iPhone keeps popping up unhelpful gunk.

This person isn't particularly afraid of technology either, but they literally can't do it.

I now think every web developer should be forced to walk through their processes with an 85-year-old.

I know there's a lot going on, but if you need a mental health break, this morning I have an interview with one of my favorite Mastodonians:

In addition to posting delightful items here, @overholt curates the Samuel Johnson collection at Harvard's Houghton library. 1/2

WATCH: https://youtu.be/-ot4tHoUmnQ

READ: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/1149/transcript

LISTEN: https://pod.link/173429229

#GrammarGirl #podcast

Well, this was an exciting thing to wake up to!

I'm on a list of the best podcasts from women over 50 — alongside amazing women like Amy Poehler, Katie Couric, Michelle Obama, Kara Swisher, Gretchen Rubin, Mel Robbins, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more!

I'm also thrilled because it feels like the writer has actually listened to the podcast. Sometimes these lists are thrown together, and they just grab the description from Apple, but this one feels thoughtful.

https://www.theflowspace.com/lists/best-podcasts-female-hosts-over-50/good-hang-with-amy-poehler-2/

Getting together with family is a GREAT time to talk about familects — the words and phrases you use just with your family that nobody else would understand.

Ask your elders! Why does our family say "we're on Edgar" when the gas tank is low? Why do we say something is "blondie hot" when it's extra hot?

I share these stories on each Grammar Girl podcast and people love them.

Record yours for me to share here: https://www.speakpipe.com/grammargirl

I'm relieved Merriam-Webster chose "slop" as the word of the year!

I recorded a WOTY episode Friday with Jess Zafarris and Danny Hieber, and M-W hadn't made its choice yet. But The Economist & Macquarie Dictionary had already chosen "slop," so it's in the show.

It's an obvious and fitting choice. Jess & I also both chose it.

I love how it's used to make so many other words:

— slopaganda
— sloperations
— slopographers
— sloptimists

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year

#WOTY2025

@GuyDudeman Thank you!

I am also interviewing @overholt soon — curator of the Donald and Mary Hyde collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson and early books & manuscripts at Harvard's Houghton Library and one of my favorite follows here.

What questions do you have for him?

📚 📚 📚 I'm super excited to finally be able to tell you about my new Patreon and how you can get an AMAZING list of 100 books my podcast guests recommended over the last year.

I ask guests for their 3 favorite books of all time, and this list is a treasure. As I was editing it, I just want to move to an island and read for the rest of my life.

It's organized by genre too, which makes it easy to find gift ideas: a great sci-fi book for your mom, sports memoir for your dad, etc. (cont.)

You have to be naturally curious to be a science writer, so I wasn't surprised the writers at "Science" tested AI to see what it could do for them. But I was surprised by the duration and breadth of the test.

— They chose ~ one article a week for a whole year for AI to summarize, and they compared each AI-written summary with a staff-written summary.

— They tested many *types* of articles.

1/X

It wasn't a perfect study, and it was completed in late 2024, so today's LLMs are likely better than the ones they used, but senior science writer Abigail Eisenstadt's thoughts on how the study came about and why they did what they did were interesting.

In the end, the systems they tested weren't up to their needs, but they may try again in a more limited way with newer models, and they did think AI might be useful for writing social media posts about their articles.

2/X

I just got tricked by Gatorade. 🤢

I grabbed the only green version from the shelf, thinking it would be the original flavor, and when I got home, it was cucumber-lime. Who wants CUCUMBER? That was worse than biting into a raisin cookie thinking it was chocolate chip.

I just made an extra donation to my local food bank.

It's going to be a rough time for a lot of people who suddenly aren't getting SNAP benefits, and nobody should go hungry. If you're able to help, please do.