An awesome photo by Steve Coleman
Reedikuluz
The National Spelling Bee is on now, and there are protesters outside the competition who want our spelling rules changed.
Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.
“Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways,” Mahoney said.
The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, “Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much.”
Thanks to Peter Sokolowski for this link. He is a lexicographer with Merriam-Webster and claims, “English spelling is arbitrary, but it is the key to the rich history of the language. Normalize the spelling, and we lose touch with history.”
Ten Writing Mistakes
Mary DeMuth has some common writing mistakes, like weak verbs and wordiness. That needs another “ness,” doesn’t it? Wordiness-ness. Wordliness. That’s better. How about verbessence?
Tough Black Men
Ken Blackwell suggests, “Maher says what liberals think.” So, don’t ask for outrage, cause it ain’t comin.
Milosz' Poem: So Little
Czeslaw Milosz wrote this poem of death or perhaps the end of an experience:
“The white whale of the world
Hauled me down to its pit.”
I'm so excited, one of my eyebrows twitched
I’m kind of excited about this. Thanks to Grim’s Hall for putting me onto it.
This is a painting I’ve loved for years. It’s included in Osprey Publishing’s volume, Elite 3: The Vikings. Osprey publishes many, many fine books on military history, replete with illustrations. By far their best artist was the late Angus McBride, who painted this one. It illustrates a moment just prior to the death of King Olaf Trygvesson, an event that happens (offstage) in my novel, The Year of the Warrior.
I have a couple quibbles. The saga says that Olaf was wearing a red kirtle (or cloak, translations differ) over his mail that day. And anyone who wears mail knows that—especially with a shirt as long as that one—you wear it with a belt, to take some of the weight off your shoulders.
But I consider it probably the best Viking painting ever done, and I’ve got one coming. Osprey has made a limited number of prints available, and my order is in, my copy in the mail. They only announced it yesterday, so if you’re interested you might e-mail them yourself and try your luck, but I wouldn’t count on any being left by now. I think this is a print a lot of people will want.
Which reminds me of the funniest thing I heard during the Viking fighting in Elk Horn last weekend— “There’s no laughing in combat!”
And speaking of Vikings, I’m going to be representing the Viking Age Club and Society in Story City, Iowa tomorrow and Saturday at the Scandinavian Festival. Then I’ll be with the other Vikings for Danish Day at Danebo Hall in Minneapolis, on Sunday.
If I live.
As always, my renter will be protecting my house. He recently contracted rabies.
How Many Bureaucrats Does It Take to Save a Newspaper?
Zero. They can’t.
The Federal Trade Commission is talking about using the iron boot of government to “to support the reinvention of journalism,” whatever the fruit that means. Jeff Jarvis writes, “Most dangerous of all, the FTC considers a doctrine of “proprietary facts,” as if anyone should gain the right to restrict the flow of information just as the information is opening it up. Copyright law protects the presentation of news but no one owns facts — and if anyone did, you could be forbidden from sharing them. How does that serve free speech?”
But don’t worry much. They barely recommend anything, and I don’t think they can write any laws. (via Books, Inq.)
"Relearning how to concentrate"
Here an Englishman talks about distraction. Alain de Botton writes, “The past decade has seen an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. To sit still and think, without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine, has become almost impossible.”
He is the author of many books, including The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Stuff from FakeAPStylebook
This kind of thing abounds, and some of it, like the stuff at The Bureau Chiefs Store, is pretty good.
“Remember, brevity is.”
Criticizing Keillor's Op-Ed
I linked to Garrison Keillor’s Death of Publishing article a while back and feel compelled to link to this collection of criticism. For example, Jason Boog of MediaBistro.com observes:
“‘In the New Era, writers will be self-anointed,’ [Keillor] writes in his op-ed, which is nonsense. In this new world, many more writers will self-publish, it’s true. But every one of them will have to build an audience just like he did. These new writers will use Twitter, Facebook, podcasts, blogs, book clubs, and all the 21st Century community-building tools at an author’s disposal, just like he used the radio.”
Maud Newton also notes, “Writers of books will always need good editors. Self-publishing is not a new phenomenon. Cf. Benjamin Franklin. Yes, publishing will change, but it will also continue to exist. And so, unfortunately, will ill-informed kids-these-days rants like this one.”