You're Saying It Wrong

Thought you knew how to pronounce Adidas? Think again. Here's a List of some of the most commonly mispronounced iconic brand names. You're welcome.

Via Book Of Joe

Speak like a 1950s hipster

I'm too young to talk like this. Honest!

Peel your ears (1) and get this, nickel rats (2). Some nighthawk (3) has been using his noggin (4) so much that rather than hittin' the hop (5) they've compiled a collection of the best US slang from the 1920s to the 1960s. So grab a flop (6), chill your chat (7) and learn how to talk like a real hipster.

More at The Guardian
Via

Stop using these words!

There are a few of these that I use a lot (downsizing, outsourcing, challenge, strategy, facilitate, regarding). Must I stop?

Thirty words and phrases you need to stop using today

Another 30 words and phrases you should stop using right now

Save The Words

A whole lot of very insistent Words.

Each time you use an abandoned word you'll increase its chances of survival.

Figurative Language Bomb

For all you grammar queens:


Via OpticalPoptitude

Death by misused apostrophe

A friend sent me this today. I suspect he's trying to drive me mad.

French Taught by New Zealanders

I should have seen this Flight of the Conchords episode before I went to Paris.

Seen at The Paris Blog

I Could Care Less

John Cleese addresses a common misuse of language that may be top dog in my menagerie of pet peeves.


Via

How to drive a language nerd around the bend

Seen at Wondermark via Verbatim

Hope this helps

What to say/what not to say during sex
Via g-a-b

Learned something new today

I'd never heard the term "bingo wing" until I read this article in The Daily Mail.

According to Urban Dictionary bingo wings are the loose, flabby upper-arm flesh of women in cap-sleeved rayon blouses who attend bingo halls. Bingo wing development can be accelerated by consuming vast quantities of C.Cola and burgers. See also bingo flaps, though my def has more 'ring' to it!
Check the bingo wing on that! If she flapped those arms, she'd take off!

To my relief Mr. Nag assures me that I don't have them - yet.

Pop vs. Soda Stats

This map only shows the US but they also have statistics for Canada.
When I was growing up in Quebec I would ask for a "soft drink" (probably the "other" in the stats). After many years in Ontario I now call it "pop". One of my boys says "pop"; the other, for some unknown reason, says "soda".
















Pop vs. Soda Stats
Via Cartophilia

Verbotomy: The create-a-word game

Verbotomy is about creating words.
Every day they create a new definition and matching cartoon. Your challenge is to create a word -- a verboticism -- that matches the definition.

Celibaspree
Definition: v. To compensate for lack of love, attention and/or sexual favors by buying things, lots of things. n. An object purchased to compensate for sexual dawdling.
Pronunciation: -SEL-uh-buh-spree-
Sentence: Donald had now been married for six years — the 'honeymoon' period was long over — and his wife no longer looked for excuses to spend time with him; quite the opposite, in fact. Having little else to occupy his attention, he spent most of his spare time in the garage restoring his old Mustang. Once he got into it, he found all sorts of extra parts, tools and accessories he could buy for the car. Donald went on a celibaspree, buying new spoilers, chrome valve covers, and new seats for Rose's birthday... Rose was the name of Donald's Mustang, not his wife, (he'd been so busy with the car, he'd forgotten his wife's birthday this year).
Etymology: Celibacy - abstention from sexual relations (from L. cælibatus "state of being unmarried") + Spree - a period, spell, or bout of indulgence; e.g. a shopping spree (alteration of Fr. esprit "lively")
Created by: Tigger.

Check out more verboticisms here.

Via Blort

I'm digging this

Hey cats, drop over over to my pad tonight. I'll drag the bongos out, it'll be a real scene.
How to Speak Hip via Notcot

Ne dites pas ça, c'est sacré!!

The latest dance craze from my hometown makes me mildly uncomfortable. The use of names of sacred objects as profanity (calice, ciboire, tabarnak, etc.) is, I think, peculiar to Quebec. I still cringe a little when I hear these words uttered outside of catechism class or church.

I'm taking Spanish lessons from Grow a Brain

This post came along just in time. I'm sure these phrases will come in handy when I'm in Barcelona next month:

Me gusta tu cabeza y tu estamago.
I like your head and your stomach.

No, guardia. No tengo marihuana.
No, officer. I have no marijuana.

Es como matar un toro con una pistola.
It is like killing a bull with a pistol.

Sólo Nixon podía ir a China.
Only Nixon could go to China.

Lavase, y conduce a mi.
Bathe her, and bring her to me

See more invaluable Spanish phrases at growabrain

Excuse me, do you speak parrot?

Learn greetings in 12 languages-- from a parrot

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location

I'm dubbed a semi-colon and all of a sudden everyone wants a piece of it.

Celebrating the Semicolon

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

He needs to do a few more

In today's St. Catharines Standard:

“We did some learnings this year,” said Ken Weir, president of the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival.

I think he's been taking grammar lessons from George W. This quote reminds me of "Is our children learning?"

*** I just had to add this one - also from the Standard Classifieds:

New & Used Salespeople Wanted

Reading "the paper"

Mr. Nag asked what I was doing and I answered, "Reading the paper". I start each day with 2 local, 2 Toronto and 2 British online news sources - no paper products involved. In years to come my (as yet non-existent) grandchildren may well ask, "Grandma Nag, why do you call online news sources "the paper"?" I'll launch into some foggy, faded reverie about how we used to hold news sources made of paper in our hands and our hands would get dirty from the ink and the bloody things were unwieldy and difficult to handle on the bus. My mythical heirs will chuckle at my quaintness like I did as a child when my grandmother referred to "the wireless".