Category: Language
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Alternative Facts? No — Alternative Anagrams!
Itâs official: âAlternative factsâ tops the list of ânotable quotesâ from 2017. Thatâs according to Fred Shapiro, associate director of the Yale Law School Library. He publishes this annual list, which also includes a bunch of runner-up doozies. Shortly after last January, when Kellyanne Conway left this devil-spawn baby on our lexical doorstep, I jotted…
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Two Words: Of
Not literally two words. Just the one word — âofâ — used in two different senses. Both jangling. At least to me! Recently Iâve been hearing statements like âI missed that bullseye âcause Iâm not that good of a sharpshooter.â And there was the case of a minor soap star confessing, âIâm not that good…
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Two Words: Crevice/Crevasse
These look like alternate spellings of the same word. But they aren’t. To be sure, they have similar meanings and similar pronunciations. I’ve always assumed they meant the same. I was mistaken. Here’s the scoop: The other night, at maybe 3 am, I was proofreading the all-new digital version of my 1998 book, The Metropolis…
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One Southern Word: Ratback
A few years ago, there was an upsurge of interest in âhow to talk Southernâ. You could buy books on the language, maybe listen to podcasts. Theyâd teach you things like the Southern definition of âahâ. In case youâve forgotten, âahâ (in Southern-speak) has two meanings. In one sense, it refers to yourself as a…
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Three Words: Another Think Coming (or is it “Thing”?)
Can common usage of a common word like âthingâ be wrong — even when itâs grammatically correct? This question pesters people like me, worrying as we do about whether grammar ârulesâ should be prescriptive or descriptive. For some time lately, Iâve been hearing the expression âanother thing comingâ. As in: âIf Hawkeye thinks itâll be…
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Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!
Happy Valentine’s Day 2017! To all our long-time readers, and to a host of new subscribers: We love you all! Today youâll see plenty of heart-themed features in the mainstream media. Theyâll tell you the history of Valentineâs Day. Theyâll tell you funny jokes and sentimental love stories. What they wonât tell you (but I…
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Two Words: A & Apart
The word âaâ has several notable features. It’s classified grammatically as an indefinite article. This means it refers to something of which there can be more than one. For example, we’d speak of âaâ tall building because there are lots of tall buildings. But we’d say Burj Khalifa (in Dubai) is currently âtheâ world’s tallest…
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Let’s Resolve to Aim High!
One of our recent subscribers to Notes from Stonehaven is a reader named Maroussia Roy. Since she likes anagrams, I puttered around to see what gems I might unearth from her name. Turns out the letters in âMaroussia Royâ rearrange to spell: âYour aim soars.â Perfect! How fitting might it be if each of us…
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Our 30th Ana(versary)gram!
I canât let 2016 escape without noting that this was the year Cheri and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Three adventure-filled decades ago, we committed ourselves to making our union âas a fortress for well-being and salvationâ. Thatâs how Bahaâuâllah describes it in the Prayer for Marriage. That, for us, has been the way it…
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One Word: Antigram
An antigram is an expression formed by rearranging the letters of another expression to mean its opposite. For example, âflusterâ rearranges to spell ârestfulâ. Other classic examples: âlistenâ = âsilentâ; âantagonistâ = ânot againstâ; âearliestâ = âarise lateâ. The word âantigramâ is short for âanti-anagramâ â an anagram being any word or phrase formed by…
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Are Russian Hackers Interfering With Gary’s Anagrams?
For some time, I’ve suspected foreign agents of covertly tampering with my anagrams. Why? Maybe so you’ll vote for competing anagrams by my Twitter buddy Christopher Davis (@TweakYourPC). Maybe just to stir up vandalism. Who cares? Point is, our CIA is now “confident” that the letters in “This anagram was HACKED by Vladimir Putin” rearrange to spell…
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A Grumpy Old Anagram!
A favorite quote of mine, from the 1993 movie Grumpy Old Men: “The first ninety years or so, they go by pretty fast … Then one day you wake up and you realize that you’re not eighty-one anymore.” â Burgess Meredith These words are spoken in the movie by the âGrandpa Gustafsonâ character (Meredith). I…