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

If you see a post that makes you say, "Yes! That!" you can screenshot it and fax it to your senators, reps, and governor free using FaxZero — up to 5 faxes a day. They already have the numbers ready to go.

https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php
https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php
https://faxzero.com/fax_governor.php

#uspol

Ever wondered why we repeat words? For example, why do we say we're reading a "book-book" when we're reading a paper book?

In this week's #GrammarGirl episode, we’re looking at "reduplication" — why we say things like "salad-salad," "book-book," and "job-job" to emphasize the real, original, or most serious version of something.

Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/book-book/transcript

Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/does-book-book-make-sense-fun-words-for-jigsaw-lovers/id173429229?i=1000686172492

Watch: https://youtu.be/0R0uifWhaSo

#GrammarGirl #Linguistics

@killyourfm San Simeon

Timeline cleanse.

It was an exceptionally good day to see sea stars on the central California coast #today.

(I’m adding alt text in just a minute on my computer. Hang on.)

Well, an elderly loved-one is starting day 9 in the hospital after catching RSV during the holidays at a family gathering and has just been moved back to a "higher care" room because she went downhill overnight.

All I can say is if you are sick, stay the hell home, even if it means missing something fun.

The American Dialect Society has chosen "rawdog" as the #woty2024 word of the year!

"Rawdogging" was was also a runner-up this year from the Macquarie Dictionary in Australia and the Collins Dictionary — at least. Those are the two I remember from my WOTY episode with John Kelly a couple of weeks ago.

This is a cool story about a college sophomore doing linguistics research on Jhar, a largely undocumented language spoken in Nigeria. He's sending recordings back and forth with native speakers using WhatsApp.

https://www.syracuse.edu/stories/aaron-lener/

Just some tiny greens overtaking a bit of driftwood in my favorite corner of our yard.

The banana slices and sweet potato strips were still chewy after 10 hours at 158 degrees, so I let them go another 10 hours overnight at 95 degrees, and now they are crunchy.

I can't discern any real difference between the precooked and raw sweet potatoes. If I "squint," the precooked ones might be a tiny bit crunchier, but it's not a dramatic difference.

I shook a little salt over the sweet potatoes before dehydrating, but they could use more.

Two things:

1. The precooked sweet potato chips retained their crunch better than the raw slices. After the chips had cooled for a couple of hours, the precooked chips were definitely crunchier.

2. Even though I rubbed oil over the trays, the banana chips stuck in places. So if you try this, be sure to oil every little spot; those banana chips are sticky. (No similar problem with the sweet potato chips.)

If you love true crime, you'll love this week's Grammar Girl interview with Natalie Schilling, a forensic linguist, talking about what she calls "the case of the mystery dialect":

A girl disappears and a woman turns up later claiming to be the missing girl — but has an unusual accent that doesn't fit. How does a linguist approach this problem? It's fascinating stuff!

Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/schilling-bonus/transcript

Watch: https://youtu.be/MF745suxwEQ

Listen: Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/schilling-bonus/transcript

#GrammarGirl #linguistics

I successfully fulfilled my role providing comic relief at dinner whenever anyone started to get testy. 10/10. Five gold stars to me. 🤪

The best thing about Mastodon on holidays is that I can be absolutely certain nobody I’m hanging out with will read my messages here!

Do you have a familect — words or phrases you use with your family that nobody else would understand — like if you say you "Yosimite'd" dinner because of a funny experience you had camping.

Family gatherings are a great time to talk about familects! 🧵

@ernie I have a 2019 iMac I'd like to use as an external monitor with a Mac Mini. The Apple website and other sites say that's not possible, but that seems inconceivable to me.

I'm not asking you to do research for me, but I thought if anyone is likely to know off the top of his head if there's a hack, it would be you!

This is a great piece by @glennf about the history of boilerplate that includes delightful words such as "flong" and "flapdoodle."

https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-dont-want-just-117791189

Merriam-Webster's word of the year is "polarization."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-of-the-year?2024

#WOTY2024

If you love dictionaries, you'll love this week's Grammar Girl podcast with @emckean, founder of the Wordnik dictionary.

In this clip, I talk about adopting the word "podcast," and she talks about a man who adopted "beautiful" as a gift to his wife.

Check out the full interview to learn how one delightful person can run a whole dictionary!

Read: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/mckean/transcript

Listen: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-your-own-dictionary-with-erin-mckean/id173429229?i=1000679326998

Watch: https://youtu.be/EdU1H85u_HU

#GrammarGirl #Dictionaries

I know you all hate this and yell that nobody wants it, but I have no faith in humanity.

I think 90% of people are going to love hearing chipper people praise their taste, and soon we'll have monthly personalized podcasts from more services than I can even imagine.

Here's your Slack MoNtH iN reVieW!!! "Wow, its amazing how much Bob loved your ideas, and you had such a fun exchange with Maria. You're killing it in all the best ways."

Sigh. I hope I'm wrong.

https://www.wired.com/story/spotify-wrapped-ai-podcasts/

The Oxford Word of the Year is "brain rot, a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media."

https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/

#WOTY2024