Save the Semicolon

NOTICE: Boring post follows. But don’t get too bored. It’s bad for your health. The White Stripes claim that their song was stolen and used in the Air Force ad shown during the Superbowl. Ok. I don’t want to talk about it here (but let me Google that for you). Which makes me wonder: Should [...]

…as words go from being considered unacceptable (like “irregardless”) to being completely acceptable (like “finalize”), there are at least two phases….
Tomorrow, my copy of the third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage will arrive…

Not the basketball player, but the amazing Dr. Johnson (who has appeared before in these magical pages). Creator of the first modern English dictionary. Today he would be 300 years old and still bitching. Bitching, that is, in the most witty and quotable way. Go read some of his dictionary. Today’s word is pickapack, which [...]

The English language has (arguably) hit its million-word mark. See for yourself. [Thanks to @foliosociety]

Kurt Vonnegut doesn’t like semicolons. “I have never used semicolons,” Vonnegut says.
… semicolons are “transvestite hermaphrodites,” giving no meaning except to show that the author went to college….