9 Comments
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Erin L W's avatar

Noun Sense has become part of my daily routine. Just about the only thing I dislike about it is that I can't ask Richard Dawson, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilley for their opinions first.

Quiara Vasquez's avatar

There's actually a very funny precedent for Belteshazzar as a baby name... for girls!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YloUJYz21Wo

W. Michael Johnson's avatar

Nice rabbit-hole collection. I was surprised at how bad I was at British insults, considering my standard evening viewing includes the British shows "Would I Lie to You?" and "Eight Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown." Atomic snark. Anyway, I only got three out of eight, and two of those were guesses. What a rum go.

AM Guarnieri's avatar

“WeLComE iN” 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

Shari's avatar

Nancy! Pure delight in every line. So much gratitude to you for giving me reason to say that. Also! Not only will I, within maybe three months, again be saying, "The squirrels are splooting today," now I can--and absolutely will-- add "because it's so *kokushobi* out there." !!!

Nancy Friedman's avatar

Thank you, Shari! And thanks for the coffee, too -- much appreciated.

P.S. I wrote about "splooting" in 2022, when it was a runner-up word of the year:

https://fritinancyblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/permacrisis/

Shari's avatar

Stop it. Really? Outstanding! I learned it a few years ago when it hit 106-107 degrees (extremely high here) and stayed there for three days. The squirrels were sprawled in our grass and draped limply across our fence tops, bench backs, and porch railings like wet laundry, panting. It was a horror movie. Then I found out about The Sploot.

Enjoy your coffee. Happy my feed found your wonderful work.

Jess's avatar

Fck the NY times...only men get to write about language?

Nancy Friedman's avatar

Well, so far.

Also, to be fair, several women, including Jan Freeman and Patricia O'Conner, have been guest contributors to "On Language"