Lest you get the impression that my son is the only one in this family who likes silly word play:

Me: It was a free association.
Jeremy: ".. with purchase of a second association of equal or greater value!"

My favorite unintentional evesdropping moment this week: "We need to communicate how we're going to communicate."

Also, my silly son's completely-spontaneous coolest new phase: "I'm sorry, my brain was off task." Yep! Like when I'm too sleepy and I start a perfectly rational sentence, but it takes an unexpected turn somewhere and becomes...surreal

I started teaching shoes_the_dog sentence diagrams the other night while trying to explain direct objects. I know they are almost never used anymore, but I found them amazingly helpful. It's applying visual thinking/teaching methods to language skills. The idea of teaching one type of thought to people who are better at another type of thought by using a ( Read more... )

One of my clients used the coolest word by accident the other day: obliveration: obliteration performed through obliviousness, i.e. cultural destruction by well-intended foreign-aid workers who are clueless ( Read more... )

Definition: keming I laughed so hard when I read this! (Via darkmane.)

I'm so weird. A well-put-together sentence, elegant grammar, exotic words used well...these things make me hot. Seriously. I get so excited when I read a word I don't know, or the rare sentence that makes me gasp and re-read three times in stunned ecstasy. Once, in a college class, we had to trade papers to give feedback. I was reading a paper ( Read more... )

(Copied from uncledark because it's too cool to not save.)

From The Devil's Dictionary
Arrest, v.t.
Formally to detain one accused of unusuallness.

Linguistic comedy brought to you by shoes_the_dog"Some kinds of horns go 'honk-honk' and some kinds of horns go 'bonk-bonk ( Read more... )

I'm not sure I would engage in any business transaction with someone who put up a sign reading "horse's for sale."

This particular error (and its inverse) drives me nuts!