Words of the year

From the Australian National Dictionary Centre, teal : “of or relating to an independent political candidate or politician who advocates for greater integrity in parliament and more action on addressing harmful climate change. noun: such a candidate.”

From the Cambridge Dictionary, homer : “This informal American English term for a home run in baseball left players of Wordle who were not familiar with the word feeling confused and frustrated. Tens of thousands of these Wordle players took to the Cambridge Dictionary to understand the meaning of the word homer.”

From the Collins Dictionary, permacrisis, “a term that describes ‘an extended period of instability and insecurity,’” “one of several words Collins highlights that relate to ongoing crises the UK and the world have faced and continue to face, including political instability, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the cost-of-living crisis.”

From Dictionary.com, woman : “Our selection of woman as our 2022 Word of the Year reflects how the intersection of gender, identity, and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary.”

From Merriam-Webster, gaslighting : “In this age of misinformation — of ‘fake news,’ conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes — gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time.”

From voters in a poll conducted by Oxford Languages, goblin mode : “‘Goblin mode’ – a slang term, often used in the expressions ‘in goblin mode’ or ‘to go goblin mode’ – is ‘a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.’” Goblin mode beat metaverse and #IStandWith. I think that in conducting this poll, Oxford Languages was stunting.

I’ll add to this post as more words arrive.

NPR, sheesh

“Similar to [a defeated former American president], Bolsonaro,” followed by some verb.

Better: “Like [a defeated former American president], Bolsonaro,” followed by some verb.

There’s nothing wrong with like here. But as Elaine points out, “Unlike [a defeated former American president]” is even better.

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

[I no longer type the dfp’s name.]

Domestic comedy

From a meeting of the Four Seasons Reading Club (Elaine and me):

“It’s a good book. Its pages are good. It feels good to read it.”

“Good.”

The book is Dorothy B. Hughes’s In a Lonely Place (1947), reissued by New York Review Books. The Hemingwayesque good appears often. Here are the first dozen, smooshed together into a single paragraph for ease of reading:

It was good standing there on the promontory overlooking the evening sea, the fog lifting itself like gauzy veils to touch his face. That too was good, his hand was a plane passing through a cloud. The sea air was good to smell, the darkness was soft closed around him. It was a good moment. This time it tasted good. It was a good omen; it meant Brub wouldn’t have changed. A good fighter. Eyes, hazel; nose and mouth right for the face, a good-looking face but nothing to remember, nothing to set it apart from the usual. Good gabardine suit, he’d paid plenty to have it made, open-necked tan sports shirt. The room was a good one, only the chair was gaudy, the couch was like green grass and another couch the yellow of sunlight. Good prints, O’Keeffe and Rivera. “Because we had to isn’t good enough.”

But really, it’s a good book. As is Hughes’s The Expendable Man (1963). I can’t say as much for Ride the Pink Horse (1946). That one is not good.

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

An unforced Halloween error

The Reese’s Cups Snack Size package shows “approximately” twenty servings per package. We had nine trick-or-treaters and gave out eighteen cups, so I assumed we had about twenty-two cups left over. But when trick-or-treating ended, our orange pail still held a lot of candy.

So I counted. We have thirty-seven cups left over. Which means that a package has not approximately twenty but twenty-five to thirty cups. And a serving must be somewhere between one and two cups. My original caculation was an unforced Halloween error.

Halloween count

Early turnout: in one hour and three minutes of trick-or-treating, we’ve had six children call at our door, already matching our 2015 total (over three-and-a-half hours).

Twelve Reese’s Cups gone, twenty-eight to go. One hour and fifty-seven minutes to go.

*

Three more children. And that’s all. Anyone want a Reese’s Cup?

Mary Miller’s silence

From Politico: “Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15) is the only member of the state’s Republican congressional delegation not to condemn last week’s violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

Mike Bost (IL-12), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Adam Kinzinger (IL-16), and Darin LaHood (IL-18) have all condemned the attack.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

A sharpener sharpener

[Zits, October 31, 2022. Click for a larger view.]

In today’s Zits, Jeremy Duncan has asked Connie, his mom, if there’s anyone famous in the family tree. She cites Jeremy’s great-great-grandfather. Hyphens are already in the air.

But I think I’d hyphenate this job title as pencil-sharpener sharpener.

Connie’s joy makes me suspect that it’s her great-grandfather she’s speaking of.

Related reading
All OCA punctuation posts (Pinboard) : The Hammacher Schlemmer crazy making hyphen shortage problem. : House hyphens : “Hyphen killer” : Living on hyphens : Mr. Hyphen and Mr. Faulkner : One more from Mr. Hyphen

Masks

    [“Brinks Holdup.” Photographs by Ralph Morse and Yale Joel. January 1, 1950 (?). From the Life Photo Archive. Click any photograph for a larger mask.]

None of these photographs appear in the January 30, 1950 Life article about the Boston Brinks robbery. The robbery took place on January 17, so the date for the photographs must be a mistake. There is no indication that these are the masks the robbers wore. But they’re good masks. Here’s a post from 2021 with six more.

The last time Elaine and I committed to Halloween (2015!) we had six kids show up in three-and-a-half hours — pretty sad. On this Halloween there are more kids in our neighborhood than before, so we’re once again going to give out candy, or try to. We are hoping to dispose of the contents of two large bags of Reese's Cups tonight. Good stuff.

Turn up, kids! Or I’ll be the one who has to eat the leftovers.

Happy Halloween.

Related reading
All OCA Halloween posts (Pinboard)

Reaching out

This morning I have had a president, a vice president, and an undefeated former president reach out to me, one of them “personally reaching out.”

Just another Monday.

Gender and evaluations

From Inside Higher Ed: “Two new studies show how bias against women in student ratings operates over time, worsening with critical feedback and instructor age.”

I think that anyone who teaches knows there’s truth in these studies. If the instructor is a man: he’s tough, demanding. If the instructor is a woman: she’s a bitch. And I can only imagine how some students might regard a non-binary instructor.