After the glorious June greenness of the Shenandoah Valley and McCormick’s farmstead… my next destination was Arlington, Virginia, where my old friend Martin lives with his wife Patti. And now you have to meet Chester. See that battered old guitar? It has a name, and that name is Chester Lee Kachouzel. I tossed Chester in … More Chester and Martin
What’s the best level of language to use? It depends on your purpose. If you want people to trust you, use Level I. If you want people to think you’re oh-so-intelligent, use Level II. If you require absolute precision in specialist occupations, use Level III words. If you want to offend someone, use the Basement. … More So What’s the Best Level of Language to Use?, You May Ask.
So we were talking about Donald Trump and his 4th-grade vocabulary level. Trump is still doing well in the polls as of mid-August, 2015, though that could change this week, or next, or the next. And he is doing well despite the insults that…
As anyone who is not a zombie knows, there has been quite a bit of commotion in the 2016 presidential race. The Republican primary contest has expanded to 17 candidates, but only one is getting headlines in the media: Donald Trump.Trump has been sucking all the oxygen out of the political space for a couple of … More Donald Trump and the Fourth-Grade Vocabulary: The Social Use of “Short,” “Medium,” and “Long” Words
Photo by Ben Greenberg While I love mountains, having lived in and among them most of my life, I also love the corresponding valleys. I mean seriously, can you have a mountain without a valley? A fish without water? A lover without a beloved?
Here is a diagram showing the different words we might use for the concept of “Walk.” The red color signifies home words, the blue signifies educated words, the purple signifies scholarly or scientific words, and the gray (like the dust in our attics) signifies rare or poetic words. We use Level One words when we … More How many ways can you say “walk”?
As a Level One word, a post is a pole or large stick of wood, used to fasten or attach things to. In this picture, the horse is tied to a hitching post. The word is very old in English–it comes through Old French from Latin postis. But post in Latin (not postis) also means (as a preposition) “after.” There are many … More Your Word for the Day: “Post” Words Meaning “After”
“Fantastic” and “Fabulous” …used to mean something completely different These words, so often used to express a great admiration for someone or something, didn’t originally mean what most people think they mean. “Fantastic” comes from the Greek phantazein, or imagination. It’s related to the English “phantasm,” or a ghost, imaginary creature, nightmare creature. So “fantastic” … More Your word for the day: Fantastic, Fabulous
When people are trying to learn English, they usually don’t realize how important the “music” (rhythm and intonation) are. This is an interesting video. Are they speaking English? How English sounds to non-English speakers The people in it ARE NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH (so don’t be surprised if you can’t understand it). They are speaking … More The Beat’s the Thing!
Lance played jazz back in the ’40s…and ’50s…and ’60s…and ’70s…and on and on and on. He remembers Jim Crow times, traveling to bars throughout the South to play in places where he couldn’t eat. Although he’s nearly blind now, he still knows his way up and down a saxophone, and in and out and everything … More Lance
Em Turner Chitty 