Animal Idioms
I love idioms; they bring abstract concepts to life with vivid imagery, and range from the practical to the hilarious. If I said someone was clumsy, that’s all clear and well enough; but if I said...
View ArticleConcerning Fairy Tales
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” G.K. Chesterton
View ArticleWhen Insults Had Class
Before the diluting of the language through modern acronyms and text messages, insulting one’s foes was an art form in itself. Here are a few well-know gems: “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses...
View ArticleAll About Perspective
“So much is exhibited to the eye that nothing is left to the imagination. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, and human faculty dwindle away...
View ArticleCanadian Tourism Q&A
This was posted by Andy over at his blog, and I just had to repost it – the questions are priceless, but I love the answers. True sarcasm is a fine art. Obviously the answers are a joke; but the...
View ArticleStop Apostrophe Abuse
Okay, grammar pet peeve time: Apostrophe abuse. It needs to stop. Now. There are only two instances in the English language in which apostrophes are used: 1) Contractions, as in: you are = you’re,...
View ArticleParaprosdokians. Parawhat?
Paraprosdokian is not a word I would readily remember. I can even admit freely I’d never heard of it until recently. Maybe I’m just weird, but I can remember a word much better if I know where it...
View ArticleSpoonerisms
A Spoonerism is a deliberate (or accidental) play on words in which the corresponding consonants of two words, vowels, or morphemes are switched between two words in a sentence to create two new words....
View ArticleOn intellectual laziness
“Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced a craving for literary nips. The torpid brain… has grown too weak for sustained thought. There never was an age in which so many people...
View ArticleObsoletus vocabularium, or: Up with Archaism!
English is a relatively young language, as languages go; like a parasitic sponge it absorbs words and meanings from other languages, soaks them in until it’s bursting to explode, and then – well...
View ArticleWhat a Pink Tutu Can Do
What on the surface just looks like a man going through mid-life crisis in a pink tutu turns out to be a heart-warming and inspirational story that will make you smile every time you see a pink tutu...
View ArticleLost in Translation 1
I love it when signs or notices are translated by non-mother tongue English speakers;it can be anything from cute to funny, misleading or just downright embarrassing. I especially love Asian...
View ArticleHow To Boost Your Focus
I’m probably the most organised person I know; I’m not OCD about it, I just work better when things are organised. Writing a book means that I accumulate bits and pieces of information, research...
View ArticleIlliterate? Read These Ads…
Once in a while I come across ads that hit my funny bone; Some are simply not thought through as far as double meanings are concerned, while others are just downright bizarre. My all-time favourite is...
View ArticleVague Exactitude
Recently I asked my Facebook connections if they could help me with a Latin phrase; the phrase has to do with the computation of days in the Julian calendar (calends, ides, nones, etc.). Here is my...
View ArticleAnonymously Bad Grammar
The following sentences are taken verbatim from comments on unwitting websites; I’ve collected them as I’ve come across them since Autumn of 2013. Sometimes I couldn’t help myself and put my comments...
View ArticleYe Olde Spelling Laziness
Have you ever wondered about the old-fashioned “ye” in shop signs? It was a lazy printer’s solution to saving space for “th”, and should be pronounced as “the”, not “yee”! The Old English character...
View ArticleImagining a Brighter World
Use your imagination for creating exciting new possibilities! And just to get you started, here’s a writing prompt:
View ArticleBack in the Land of the Living
Last week I took a much-needed break from the computer after launching my latest novel, The Cardinal (Parts One & Two)! It is such a complex story with rich landscapes that it deserved the room to...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....