Words to Good Effect

The car (auto?) industry’s Poet Laureate. Or, what’s in a name.

My last post was about Britain’s Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Today’s is about American poet Marianne Moore and her relationship with the US car

POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS

My first post on this blog, on 1 May, celebrated Carol Ann Duffy’s appointment as Poet Laureate. Her first poem since then has been published in

And the one millionth English word is…

… “Web 2.0”, according to The Global Language Monitor, which uses statistical techniques to document, analyse and track trends in language the world over, with

One million words (well, nearly)

Writing in today’s Telegraph, Simon Winchester celebrates the joys of English, “our truly global language”, which should soon number 1 million words. Here’s his eye-witness

Absquatulating snollygosters: the week in politics?

No, don’t worry – I’m not about to turn this blog political (well, maybe just a little bit). The political reference is because I’ve discovered

Of [talking] mice and men

The New York Times has been reporting on research by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Antropology in Leipzig, where scientists have genetically engineered a

Languages as they is spoke, by Catherine Tate

A little light relief for anyone working or sitting exams on this Spring Bank Holiday. And for long-suffering language teachers! and With thanks to Jill

Begging the question

An e-flyer arrived in my inbox last Thursday from the Italian Tourism Summit organisers. It read: La tripla crisi del turismo italiano: come uscirne, soluzioni

Translators’ time warp – again

Once again my work days are out of kilter with the rest of the country – it’s a bank holiday here in the UK but

Faster typing and fewer typos

A productivity tip on typing expansion software “From the Desk of David Pogue” at the New York Times. Typing expansion applications work like Microsoft Office’s