Today’s Bizarro:
Don Piraro is a great pun fan — mostly imperfect puns, as in this case, where miner and mimer are phonologically distinct, but also phonologically very close, differing only in the segments /n/ and /m/, which are only one (position) feature apart.
Today is the summer solstice, the “first day of summer” in some reckonings. But there are a number of these reckonings — in the U.S., the summer season is often taken to begin with Memorial Day, late in May and about three weeks before the solstice, and the autumn to begin with Labor Day, two to three weeks before the autumnal equinox. So there are often pointless arguments about when a particular season “really” begins.
Here’s a brief summary, using the (somewhat chaotic) Wikipedia survey as a starting point.
From Gwendolyn Dean on Facebook, a link to this photo, now re-posted all over the place:
There’s some question about whether this is Photoshopped, but the t-shirt is certainly real, offered on a number of sites, in an assortment of sizes and colors — including on the Jake Watch Online Store, which sells all things Jake Gyllenhaal.
In any case, another contribution for Pride Month.
From Melinda Shore on Facebook, this image, presented as a puzzle:
Yes, a flint arrowhead, in remarkably good shape. As it happens, I have three such arrowheads, though not quite so beautiful as this one:
Not about language, but another installment in the Memories of Ann Daingerfield thread, about our wedding on June 16th, 1962. Recollections from Ann’s great friend Benita (Bonnie) Bendon Campbell, appearing here with her permission and my notes.
(For Ann’s grand-daughter Opal Eleanor Armstrong Zwicky.)
From Jon Lighter to ADS-L on the 13th, a link to a piece on Dan Casey’s blog from the 12th, “The Virginia General Assembly borrows a page from George Orwell”, alluding to Newspeak in Orwell’s 1984:
In devising a bill for a $50,000 study of rising sea levels along the Virginia’s coast, [Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly] deliberately rewrote it to avoid terms that are apparently too politically charged — such as “sea level rise” or “climate change.”
Casey gives a link to a Scott Harper story (“Lawmakers avoid buzzwords on climate change bills”) in The Virginian-Pilot on the 10th, which gives a longer version of the tale.
This story has come to me several times — first from Gregory Ward, with the Guardian‘s version, then from Chris Ambidge, with the BBC News version, then from friends on Facebook and on the Grapefeed site. Headers from the Guardian site:
‘Sexual depravity’ of penguins that Antarctic scientist dared not reveal
Landmark polar research about the Adélie penguin’s sex life by Captain Scott’s expedition, deemed too shocking for the public 100 years ago, is unearthed at the Natural History Museum
(story by science editor Robin McKie on the 9th). Not much linguistics here, beyond the inclination of people (including scientists) to anthropomorphize animal behavior.
… in today’s Bizarro:
Another meta-cartoon, this one playing on the conventions for representing being dazed and confused after a blow to the head: swirls, stars, asterisks, and of course those little birds.
