Every once in a while, something will pop up that puzzles me. Today, I thought I may as well put them in the LJ for other people's consideration.

First, why do you suppose that there are common English/American surnames that are the same as five colors but not for the others. There are numerous people named White, Black, Gray, Brown, and Green, but ( Read more... )

Many public radio stations link to and broadcast the BBC World Service radio news channel from midnight until 6 a.m. WHYY in Philadelphia is one of those, and sometimes in the middle of the night when I'm in the mood for a few minutes of sound before getting back to sleep, I'll turn it on.

What always amuses me is how aggressive the BBC interviewers ( Read more... )

What's with this current craze of grown women talking like Betty Boop or Cindy Brady (of The Brady Bunch)? It seems like half of the women interviewed on the radio these days are trying to convince us that they are nine years old and none too bright. It is not a good ploy if you want to be taken seriously (and not laughed at or scorned) to take on ( Read more... )

I know a lot of people hate getting a service rep on the phone who is not from the U.S. Complaints I have heard most involve the difficulty with understanding their accents, especially because they're on the phone and not standing in front of you and giving you half a shot at some lip reading. This morning, my own preference for getting Indian or ( Read more... )

Alberta Hunter and Eubie Blake were a famous and wonderful blues team, she singing, he on the piano, in the mid 20th Century. They both lived to great age, Eubie Blake to 96, Alberta Hunter to 89; and they were performing almost up to the day of their respective deaths.

In those days, sex had to be alluded to subtly, not blatantly as it is today. ( Read more... )

I don't know if I've invented a new word or not, but the concept of "psychosomatic" has come up a few times recently in terms of some of my aches, pains, and respiration. I hasten to add that it's been I who have brought it up, not other people's diagnosing me. However, the term implies a physical reaction or problem stemming from a nervous system ( Read more... )

Today, I've really gotten going with Michael Palin's journals, this particular book covering 1980 to 1988. There is at least one other collection of his journals (from, I believe, earlier years, though I'm not certain of that). This collection has made me realize two things: first, one's life needs to be varied and full of adventures in order to ( Read more... )

Today just happened to provide two especially alarmingly bad interviewees on National Public Radio. Anyone who has read previous posts knows my feelings about so many people using "Thanks for having me" when they are thanked for appearing. Although yelling at the radio these days is stimulated by interviewees of both genders, today's were both ( Read more... )

Yes, I admit it. I have an odd relationship with the English language, compared to the vast majority of Americans. It could even be characterized as a "self-contradictory" relationship; I realize that language is an ever-changing structure and find the works on the American language written by the late H. L. Mencken convincing; but at the same time ( Read more... )