Yesterday, from Steven Levine on Facebook:
(#1)
Not too long ago the Steven Levine necktie museum received a significant donation from the Arnold Zwicky tie archives, which included a goodly percentage of paisley ties spanning a few decades. From what I’ve seen, there have been takes on paisley prints on neckties going back to the 20s and I’m pretty sure you can find them currently. This polyester tie seems seventies to me.
From Kyle Wohlmut, a pointer to the 7/28/15 piece “Mapping the United Swears of America” on Stan Carey’s Strong Language blog. I missed it the first time around, but now to give some credit to Stan and the research he reported on.
From this research, this map on usage of the vulgar slur faggot (explanation to follow):
(#1)
The Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal from the 24th:
A potentially useful aid to writing, turned into a rigid framework, and so pretty much guaranteed to turn students against the task (not to mention the craft) of writing.
As for the strip, it’s bitterly pessimistic. About schooling, about learning, and about the state of writing in everyday life.
A recent One Big Happy:
There are retainers and then there are retainers, and the kids have good reason to know about one kind of them — the dental appliance — but probably aren’t familiar with the others.
… and more; eventually there will be draft horses, covered bridges, and distelfinks. But first, a bulletin from my cousin Eleanor Severin Houck about the advance of the spotted lanternfly in southeastern Pennsylvania (Eleanor is in Berks County, county seat Reading, in the Pa. Dutch country, where we both grew up).
From the annals of noxious pests, double-team division, a pairing of the disgusting and destructive insect pest Lycorma deliculata with the rampant invasive plant pest Ailanthus altissima.
The name of an Instagram site, which I learned about from Laura Staum Casasanto today. Stunning plants (heavy on houseplants, but by no means confined to them) accompanied by good-looking men, handsomely photographed. Laura supposed, correctly, that the combination would work well for me, and she was right.
… in the September 8th issue of the New Yorker. Both presenting the usual challenges to understanding — there’s a lot you have to know to make sense of them — and both playing on language.
(#1) by Jeremy Nguyen
(#2) by John McNamee
Today’s Zippy lumbers through some plays on bear, in a bear chair:
(#1) The bear figure as both comforting and threatening
Bear chairs, gay bears, flags, and more.
