From Patsy McGarry’s “Church ‘lied without lying’” (Irish Times: 26 November 2009):
One of the most fascinating discoveries in the Dublin Archdiocese report was that of the concept of “mental reservation” which allows clerics mislead people without believing they are lying.
According to the Commission of Investigation report, “mental reservation is a concept developed and much discussed [...]
Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, law, religion, security, word of the day | No Comments »
From Darryl Taft’s “Enterprise Applications: 20 Things You Might Not Know About COBOL (as the Language Turns 50)” (eWeek: September 2009). http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/20-Things-You-Might-Not-Know-About-COBOL-As-the-Language-Turns-50-103943/?kc=EWKNLBOE09252009FEA1. Accessed 25 September 2009.
Five billion lines of new COBOL are developed every year.
More than 80 percent of all daily business transactions are processed in COBOL.
More than 70 percent of all worldwide business data [...]
Posted on September 25th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history, security, technology | No Comments »
Image by rustybrick via Flickr
From Robert McMillan’s “Security certificate warnings don’t work, researchers say” (IDG News Service: 27 July 2009):
In a laboratory experiment, researchers found that between 55 percent and 100 percent of participants ignored certificate security warnings, depending on which browser they were using (different browsers use different language to warn their users).
…
The researchers [...]
Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, language & literature, security | No Comments »
From Larry McCaffery’s “Conversation with David Foster Wallace” (Dalkey Archive Press at the University of Illinois: Summer 1993):
Irony and cynicism were just what the U.S. hypocrisy of the fifties and sixties called for. That’s what made the early postmodernists great artists. The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, history, language & literature, on writing | No Comments »
From Roger Ebert’s “The O’Reilly Procedure” (Roger Ebert’s Journal: 14 June 2009):
The seven propaganda devices include:
Name calling — giving something a bad label to make the audience reject it without examining the evidence;
Glittering generalities — the opposite of name calling;
Card stacking — the selective use of facts and half-truths;
Bandwagon — appeals to the desire, common [...]
Posted on June 16th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, on writing, politics | No Comments »
photo credit: 708718
From Annie Karni’s “Gabbing Taxi Drivers Talking on ‘Party Lines’” (The New York Sun: 11 January 2007):
It’s not just wives at home or relatives overseas that keep taxi drivers tied up on their cellular phones during work shifts. Many cabbies say that when they are chatting on duty, it’s often with their [...]
Posted on May 30th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, language & literature, politics, security, tech in changing society | No Comments »
photo credit: newneonunion
From Roy Kesey’s piece in “Remembering David Foster Wallace” (Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits: 15 September 2008):
The first story of David’s I ever read was that one Brief Interview that he had in the Paris Review maybe ten or eleven years ago. For me it was paradigm-altering, quietly fantabulous, in exactly the way [...]
Posted on May 7th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
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From Bill Katovsky’s “David Foster Wallace: A Profile” (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: November 2008):
“I spent a lot of time as a volunteer in a nursing home in Amherst last summer. I was reading Dante’s Divine Comedy to an old man, Mr. Shulman. One day, I asked him where he was from. He said, ‘Just east of [...]
Posted on April 26th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
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From Pat Holt’s “The Ten Mistakes: Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)” (Holt Uncensored: 17 November 2008):
EMPTY ADVERBS
Actually, totally, absolutely, completely, continually, constantly, continuously, literally, really, unfortunately, ironically, incredibly, hopefully, finally – these and others are words that promise emphasis, but too often they do the reverse. They suck [...]
Posted on April 25th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
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From David Foster Wallace’s “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub: Seven Days In The Life Of The Late, Great John McCain” (Rolling Stone: 13 April 2000):
The weird thing is that the word “leader” itself is cliché and boring, but when you come across somebody who actually is a real leader, that person isn’t cliché [...]
Posted on April 19th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, politics | No Comments »
“Dear heavenly day in the morning!”
“Ye gods!”
“Oh fudge!”
“Dirty words!”
“Cheese and crackers!”
“Gee willikers!”
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Posted on April 10th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
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Posted on April 5th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
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From D. T. Max’s “Notes and Errata*: A DFW Companion Guide to ‘The Unfinished’” (The Rumpus: 31 March 2009):
He explained that endnotes “allow . . . me to make the primary-text an easier read while at once 1) allowing a discursive, authorial intrusive style w/o Finneganizing the story, 2) mimic the information-flood and data-triage I [...]
Posted on April 5th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, language & literature, on writing | 1 Comment »
From Natalie Angier’s “In One Ear and Out the Other” (The New York Times: 16 March 2009):
In understanding human memory and its tics, Scott A. Small, a neurologist and memory researcher at Columbia, suggests the familiar analogy with computer memory.
We have our version of a buffer, he said, a short-term working memory of limited scope [...]
Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, language & literature, science | No Comments »
From Wiktionary:
Sitzfleisch:
From German Sitzfleisch, from sitzen (“‘to sit’”) + Fleisch (“‘flesh’”)
…
The ability to endure or carry on with an activity.
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Posted on February 12th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | No Comments »
Image by rsgranne via Flickr
Image by rsgranne via Flickr
Image by rsgranne via Flickr
From Dave Alan’s “Interview with Alex Christopher” (Leading Edge Research Group: 1 June 1996):
Legend: DA [Dave Alan, Host] AC: [Alex Christopher] C: [Caller]
…
(Note: according to former British Intelligence agent Dr. John Coleman, the London-based Wicca Mason lodges are one-third of the overall global [...]
Posted on December 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
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Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
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From Christopher M. Fairman’s “Fuck” (bepress Legal Series: 7 March 2006):
The PTC [Parents Television Council] is a perfect example of the way word taboo is perpetuated. The group’s own irrational word fetish – which they try to then impose on others – fuels unhealthy attitudes toward sex that then furthers the taboo [...]
Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, language & literature, law, politics, tech in changing society | No Comments »
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Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
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Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
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