Author: Marian Dougan

I have seen the future, and it’s a Twait

I’m been very busy recently with barely time to pause for breath – so I’ve had to put the blog on the back-burner for a

Words

This lovely video, produced by Everynone for Radiolab, has been doing the rounds on Twitter, so you may already have seen it. It bears repeat

Commas: fascinating facts (and a Stop Press)

Fascinating comma fact 1 A comma is not just a punctuation mark, it’s also a type of butterfly, so-named because of the white comma-shaped marking

The Oxford Comma dilemma: a solution?

To those of you still fretting over the Oxford Comma dilemma (and who don’t read the Comments – tsk, tsk!), the “august journal” Speculative Grammarian offers

Oxford commas (2): Live dangerously – take our poll!

Do you use the Oxford (serial) comma? Here’s a sentence with the Oxford comma: My favourite foods are Greek yoghurt, salted almonds, cheese, and dark

Oxford commas (1)

I was puzzled last week to see references on Twitter to the exotic-sounding “Oxford comma”, a new term to me. It turns out (thank you,

If the shoe doesn’t fit (2): eggcorns and etymology

“Shoe-in”, Ben Zimmer points out, belongs to a special family of errors called “eggcorns”: misspellings, mis-hearings or misinterpretations of standard (often idiomatic) words or sayings.

If the shoe doesn’t fit: getting the etymology right

Ben Zimmer’s latest On Language column in the New York Times (Beach-Blanket Lingo, 5 August 2010) examines the terms used by coastal resort residents (from-heres)

Taking care of dem bones

My last post was triggered by my husband Vito being diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis. Since then (last Friday, to be exact), my lovely Mum

Keeping healthy at your desk

My husband’s just been diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and has come home from the outpatient’s department with a well-designed, simply-written care and information