Perhaps it's because I don't like being told what to do. Maybe it's because I don't like to reflect on some of the things I've done. But as a reader I generally do not care for the use of the second person. I've been forced to rethink my position after reading Sue William Silverman's masterful …
Continue reading Are You Talking to Me? Use of the Second Person
Two weeks ago Facebook celebrated 10 years of making us depressed and envious by creating for each user a personalized video not unlike what you see in an Oscars "in memoriam" telecast. It was a wise move by Facebook's corporate brass to create a video starring ourselves, because academic studies show Facebook encourages narcissism; feeding the …
Continue reading Envy, Narcissism, Depression and Creativity
I covered the sheet cake in white frosting. Squeeze tubes of red and blue icing were used to make the rings on both ends. Yellow and red gumdrops became stones, and some of my son's Lego men posed as the curlers. I don't recall now what we did to simulate their brooms. The cake was …
It is an annual obsession of ours: What new technological words have been added to the dictionary? When did "email" make it in? How about "tweet"? Of course, making the dictionary may insure a word immortality, but it doesn't guarantee continued cultural dominance. I use the word "fax" nowadays about as much as I say "defenestration." (Saying …
Continue reading The Linguistic Legacies of Technological Change
Have you ever, in your line of work, had someone threaten to throw you off a balcony? That happened to a New York City television reporter the other night, and the one doing the threatening was a U.S. congressman. The episode itself--and the congressman's first attempt at an "apology"--demonstrates a phenomenal misunderstanding of the critical role …
The Artist's Road 