December 2012
1 post
“Ovid is, I think, the last great tragic and epic poet of that era because he...”
– Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 217, Roberto Calasso
September 2012
1 post
July 2012
1 post
May 2012
4 posts
March 2012
2 posts
“One question we often receive is usually framed more or less in the form: “what...”
– SpecGram—Epistulae ad Percontatores—A Letter from Editor Curmudgeon H.D. Onesimus
January 2012
4 posts
“This Malbolge program displays “Hello world!”, with full...”
– Malbolge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“INTERCAL has many other features designed to make it even more aesthetically...”
– INTERCAL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“A previously identified linguist who, when asked, “How many languages do you...”
– SpecGram—How Linguistics Got Her Groove Back—Gunnr Guðr Entgegenlächeln
“It can surely be no coincidence that this phenomenon first appeared at a time...”
– SpecGram—The Great Clouseau Vowel Shift—Tel Monks
December 2011
5 posts
“If World War I snapped, as we hear tell, the threads of civilization except...”
– Merrill on Puns
“Shakespeare wrote Moby-Dick, using Melville as a Ouija board.”
– Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 203, Ray Bradbury
“We use certain authors at certain times of our lives, and we may never go back...”
– Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 203, Ray Bradbury
“Something of the awe and terror of crime itself should cling round the figure of...”
– John Dickson Carr, “The Detective in Fiction,” 1932.
November 2011
11 posts
America's First Jet Flight, October 1942 - Videos... →
“Agatha Christie was not cozy. She earned the title the Queen of Crime the...”
– ‘Agatha Christie: An Autobiography’: The Reading Life - latimes.com
“Optimists have pointed to the proliferation of online reviews as an indication...”
– Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald | The Nation
“when the power and money come from a force whose main characteristic is vast and...”
– Technology and the Baroque Unconscious
“A high-tolerance part can serve a low-tolerance function, but not vice versa....”
– Technology and the Baroque Unconscious
“It is also unclear to me that a real-market entity is a good thing simply...”
– Fixing the Game by Roger L. Martin
“Lasagna is pasta viewed as a wave, while spaghetti is pasta viewed as a string...”
– SpecGram—Spaghetti or Lasagna for Linguists—LSA Committee on Comestibles in Linguistics
“The fable is about a group of ravens who defend the musty old corpse of a...”
– SpecGram—Ask Mr Linguistics Person
“Take, for instance, the introduction to the 1931 Loeb edition of the Annals of...”
– Tacitus and Tiberius - The Barnes & Noble Review
On being asked for a War Poem
wwnorton:
I think it better that in times like these A poet keep his mouth shut, for in truth We have no gift to set a statesman right; He has had enough of meddling who can please A young girl in the indolence of her youth, Or an old man upon a winter’s night.
-William Butler Yeats
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
6 posts
“I’m dead serious: the photography hobby almost died in the late 1990s and...”
– Hobbyists vs. Photography
“An interesting educational experiment would be to come at things form a negative...”
– The Last Psychiatrist: Grade Inflation
“An American History professor may be considered somewhat of an expert because...”
– The Last Psychiatrist: Grade Inflation
“This is clearly a linguistic suicide pact. Using the powerful but subtle method...”
– SpecGram—On Linguistic Death Cults—A Letter from the Managing Editor
August 2011
3 posts
“There is an important methodological lesson to be learned here. Any historian of...”
– Nineteenth Century Philosophy: Revolutionary Responses to the Existing Order // Reviews // Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame
30 tags
“while it is true that motel is a portmanteau meaning motor hotel, it is also...”
– Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.
July 2011
8 posts
“But on this we will write another time: the elephants of St. Petersburg have...”
– Poemas del río Wang: The Nazi elephant
Typotheque: Arabic Calligraphy and Type Design by... →
“Most of the various kinds of fireworks we use in our celebrations today were...”
– Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.
“Obviously, loitering must be a threat to the very foundations of the capitalist...”
– Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.
“As for whether to put the nut facing upward or down — I consulted an...”
– Harbor Freight Trailers
“The form is quite simple. Take a familiar phrase—for preference a metaphor whose...”
– SpecGram—Verity Stob and the Super Subjunction—Verity Stob
This could be a good way to explain currying and arity.
June 2011
15 posts
“Which reminds me, some of the articles in the current issue of this journal are...”
– SpecGram—With Apologies to Editor Emeritus Tim Pulju—A Letter from the Managing Editor
