Frog crisis in Greece

Language Log is often interesting. I'm linking to this post because there's a comment by me, dated this morning. It's about the kind of stuff that makes you go "whaa?"

Infallibling

Today I was working on a book with a quotation from a nineteenth-century Englishman; the quotation had infallible as an adverb. So I looked infallible up in the OED to see whether it was used as an adverb at the time. It wasn't, but it was obsoletely used as a verb long ago. My favorite exemplary quotation is from The Golden Law (1656), by S. H. (Samuel Harsnett):

We will next pursue it with right Reason which will selfly infallible it.

No big deal. I just liked it and wanted to share it.

You know you're in trouble when "proverbial" appears twice in one paragraph

Lots of iterativity here: me reprinting a Jonathan Chait item that cites someone who Chait claims is Nico Pitney (at the end of the cited column, several names appear including Pitney's) quoting and making fun of Eric Alterman. Says Chait:

"Finding all the cliches and mixed metaphors in this Eric Alterman paragraph is like cutting fish in a barrel with a butter knife," writes Nico Pitney. After reading the paragraph in question, I think he understates:

And yet even with all its proverbial ducks lined up—a populist crusade is just what the doctor ordered for a divided and dispirited party going into perilous midterm elections—the administration and its lieutenants in Congress are still shooting as many blanks as real bullets at the bad guys. It’s not that their bills are all bullshit, as the Republicans’ clearly are. They contain many worthy measures that would, as almost any fair-minded economist will tell you, provide a proverbial “step [or two] in the right direction.” But somewhere along the line, whether in Obama’s White House, Tim Geithner’s Treasury Department, Barney Frank’s House Banking Committee or Christopher Dodd’s Senate side, a decision was made to let the big fish get away.

Jonathan Chait, "Like Teaching an Old Dog That Didn't Bark to Herd Cats," New Republic, posted May 4, 2010

Worthless grammar edicts from Harvard

Specifically, from economist Greg Mankiw. This post by Geoffrey K. Pullum is well worth reading. (Even though he doesn't know how to spell "Jeffrey.")

The danger of pouring the derogatory language on too thick

IMPORTANT REMINDER: THIS BLOG HAS NO OPINIONS ON ANYTHING CONTROVERSIAL (SEE "ABOUT ME AND THIS BLOG" IN THE LEFT MARGIN).

[Conservatives] have a general hostility to government and proposals formulated by Democrats, and since they reject the overwhelming majority of actual health care experts on ideological grounds, they have relied on a tiny handful of self-styled conservative pseudo-wonks to fill in the details for them. [emphasis added]

--Jonathan Chait, "The Conservative Misinformation Feedback Loop, Cont'd," New Republic

So here's the conversation:

"So, tell me a little about yourself."

[With smug, satisfied smile] "Well, I like to think of myself as a pseudo-wonk."

***

Yes, stuff like this does sometimes appear in the scholarly stuff that we edit.

Addendum to last post

I was so excited when I wrote the last post that I sent it without including an anecdote about my old pal. He used to sing, and this really cracked me up, he used to sing, "Hey, little Donna/You still wanna?/You said that I should ring you up when I was in Tiranë."

What He's Been Up To Lately

Well, I hadn't heard from him much lately, but yesterday I got an e-mail from my old pal Enver Hoxha. Enver, like so many who send me e-mails, is in the pharmaceuticals biz. Writes he,

Weither it's Viagra or Vicodin, we carry it all at the lowest price around.Anxiety, Sex Stims, Pain Killers, and more with no need for a doctor!Overnight Shipping100% money back Gaurentee Find our store @ [whatever].

Sorry. You're probably not interested in what my old friends are up to. This is becoming a downright blog.

Inconsistency, Ad Hominem, and Straw Man

No, that's not the name of an accounting firm. It's the title that the Fallacy Files gave to a little something that I wrote (wrote very badly, if I may say so) some years ago, before this blog existed. I hope you find it worthwhile. If you want to read it, you can go to the link and scroll down to "Inconsistency, Ad Hominem, and Straw Man."

Oh!, the Megacity of It All!

The OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) both list megacity, defined by MW as a megalopolis. The OED doesn't define it--it just lists it among a bunch of words that begin with mega-. As noted in the "about me" thing in the left-hand margin, I sometimes have opinions about stuff nobody cares about. And this is one of those times. To me, megacity looks like it should be pronounced /mɜg'æsəɾi/ (I based this on the OED's pronunciation for mendacity, except that OED uses a /d/ instead of a /ɾ/; I guess nobody ever told them about postalveolar flaps). So what? So I think it should be hyphenated (mega-city) for the sake of clarity, that's what.

We could force the issue by making up and popularizing a word megacity that rhymes with mendacity.

Thank you for your attention.

Cognitive whateverism

Important reminder: this blog has no opinions on anything controversial.

The New Republic carries this article by James Kirchick, titled "Tom Coburn: Unwitting Cog of the Gay Agenda," which ends thus:

If the President of the United States can "engage" with all manner of tyrants and petty thugs, then surely a small group of enterprising homocons [gay conservatives] can co-sign an op-ed with a conservative Senator from Oklahoma who, not so long ago, was railing against the "gay agenda." What Coburn may or may not realize is that he's just become an unwitting cog in it.

Two questions. Do agendas have cogs? More importantly, how can you realize that you're an unwitting cog?

Thank you to Digital Roberts for sending us this item.