A regularly updated miscellany of links quirky & curious
Why Islam is unfunny for a cartoonist
July 24, 2008: The arrest of a Dutch cartoonist has set off a wave of protests, raising questions for a changing Europe about free speech, religion and art, writes Andrew Higgins in the Wall Street Journal.
Advice to the etymologist: Never lose heart
July 24, 2008: Several times a year etymologist Anatoly Liberman takes questions live on radio, he tells an Oxford University Press blog, and usually can dig out the answer he needs from his database. But then someone asked him about the origin of galoot . . .
Partridge – eventually – to the rescue
July 23, 2008: Journalist Frank McNally, defending himself in the Irish Times against a charge of grammar misuse, calls linguist the late Eric Partridge as an expert witness. They didn't come much more expert than Partridge but even he got it wrong at first.
Global lexis gets a green tinge
July 23, 2008: A domain which has recently made and continues to make a significant contribution to global English lexis is the environmental one, writes Kiwi lexicographer Dianne Bardsley in NZ's Dominion Post.
Top 5 signs you'll take a staycation
July 22, 2008: Motley Fool business writers Tim Beyers and Dayana Yochim turn to the Urban Dictionary, and a made-up word that's perfect for troubled economic times: staycation, or "a vacation that is spent at one's home."
TV talkshows, history and the 'N' word
July 21, 2008: So, on the one hand, we have those black people who have educated themselves about the word's etymology and the history of black oppression in America, writes Marques Camp at The Celebrity Cafe, and on the other . . .
School bans slang – exam results soar
July 20, 2008: A school has banned its pupils from using "street slang" as part of a strict behaviour policy which is transforming its exam results, says a report in the UK Daily Telegraph.