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Two Words: Shuffle Diagram
It’s easy to invent stuff. The tricky part is coming up with things that haven’t already been invented by someone else. I accepted this reality a long time ago. It therefore didn’t faze me to learn that my latest invention – the shuffle diagram – is old hat. Not only are shuffle diagrams already all…
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One Word: Convey
The real challenge is to convey what we mean. It’s tough enough to say what we mean. But it’s more difficult – and far more important – to convey it. Those two are not the same. To say something well, we put it into precise words that capture, and perfectly express, our meaning. But what…
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Vintage Words Back in Vogue
Vintage words are making a comeback. (Thanks to Richard Green for spotting an eye-opening article about this.) Words like “peruse”, “smitten”, “bespoke”, and “dapper” are rising sharply in popularity since year 2000 – the turn of the 21st century. The same is true of words like “thee”, “thou”, “fortnight”, “bedchamber”, “amongst”, and others that are…
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One Word: Solitude
Some words I love because of the way they sound. The way they feel when I write them. Their playful ambiguities. Their spelling quirks. Others I love mostly on account of what they mean to me. “Solitude” is a word I love for many reasons – but mostly for its meaning. I love to be…
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The SAE Anagrams
Let’s see — how many words and phrases can we find in “Sigma Alpha Epsilon”? It’s a timely question, now that this national college fraternity (SAE for short) is back in the news: It’s taking heat for running its parties on a “White Girls Only” basis. This won’t help it recover from last March’s viral video…
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One Word: Worth a Thousand Pictures
Does anyone else feel oppressed by the “tyranny of pictures”? I do, and I’m fighting back with a new series of posts about words I love. Words that interest, fascinate, and delight me; words that (for me) carry depths of meaning mere pictures can’t duplicate. One article per word — posted ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇs. Here’s why…
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Real Names Are Highly Overrated!
Google recently reversed its “real names” requirement for members of its Google Plus social network. Good call, Google — and good riddance. It’s about time! In the Internet’s early days, being online was all about anonymity. You could create a mask. You could hide behind it in cyberspace. You could be — or appear to…
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The So-Called “Islamic State” Is Not “Islam”
It’s bad enough to speak of Muslims as if they all were terrorists. But isn’t it even worse to call terrorists and terrorist organizations “Islam”? Even if they call themselves Islamic. Especially then! Inflammatory references of just this kind are creeping into popular speech. They pop up in unguarded, off-the-cuff comments — the kind that disclose our real thoughts and…
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Format Text on tsū? Here’s How!
Text formatting on tsū, the new social network that pays for submissions, may at first seem impossible. It isn’t! Oh, tsū still doesn’t have the rich formatting options of Google Plus. (No bold or italic for example.) You can’t even divide your text into paragraphs, as you can on Facebook. Yet. I say “still” and “yet” because tsū is…
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See Me on tsū!
See Me on Tsu! Let’s connect on the network that pays us for what we post. Seriously, Tsu — pronounced “Sue”, as in — is a new social platform. It’s barely a week old. It’s hot. Need an invite? Use mine: http://www.tsu.co/GaryMatthewsWhen you sign up, Tsu will ask you to “enter a member’s shortcode”.…