July linkstack
Heroes, coronations, broligarchs, Barbra, and more.
I spent 48 happy hours this month listening to the audio version of My Name Is Barbra, the Streisand memoir published in late 2023. Streisand narrates the book, tossing in ad libs and song snippets. (The clip of her “How Deep Is the Ocean” duet with son Jason Gould is thrilling.) I’d always admired Streisand’s voice but hadn’t considered myself a major Streisand fan; I’d seen only a couple of her movies (Meet the Fockers; What’s Up, Doc?) and had never owned any of her albums. I associated her primarily with the Streisand Effect: the backfiring of an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information. But I listened greedily to the book, riveted by her life story (she’s never had a singing lesson, can’t read music, and has suffered from tinnitus since childhood) and especially by the tale of Yentl, her directorial debut and a project some 15 years in the making. (A bit of dish: Costar Mandy Patinkin does not come off well in the memoir.) Of course I had to find and watch Yentl. What a strange and compelling movie. I also finally caught up with The Way We Were and Funny Girl.
A couple of Streisand extras:
The 900+-page hardcover book lacks an index, so staffers at Air Mail — several of whom are veterans of the late, great satirical magazine Spy — stepped up to the plate. Their “exclusive, unauthorized index” spans “Agassi, Andre” (a former lover) to “Zukerman, Pinchas” (who performed some of the music on The Prince of Tides), with stops at “Gingrich, Newt (B.S. appalled by),” “Obama, Barack (beautiful teeth of),” and “Trudeau, Pierre (makes B.S. feel like Jackie Kennedy).”
Ms. Streisand loves a nosh: cha siu bao, Mallo-Mars, McConnell’s Brazilian coffee ice cream, lobster sausage with wild mushroom risotto. In case you lose track, the hard-working folks at Vulture have generously compiled and annotated “Everything Barbra Streisand Eats in Her 970-Page Memoir: From peas with sugar to burgers with Brando to guggle-muggle.” Thanks, Laura S.!
Newsletter recommendations of the month
is the pseudonymous author of Foul Copy, a newsletter for people who, among other things, often find themselves “intrigued, perplexed, or infuriated by little bits of language (like the word nonplus or the subjunctive mood).” Sample posts: The Yogi Berra Fallacy (on misattributed quotations), Flout vs. Flaunt (“Yes, I’m one of those pickers of nits”), and As Such (so often misused). writes Dispatches from the Home Office: “Uninvited opinions, political triage, deep thoughts, cheap shots, educated guesses.” I’ve known Michael since we worked on the Daily Californian; we were also colleagues in Banana Republic’s creative department. Subscribe for finely honed and slightly askew observations about politics, mostly. is written by Dr. Jen Gunter, whom I’ve followed since the Good Twitter era, when she was known as the Internet’s ob/gyn. As she puts it: “Come for the science, stay for the sex. Come for the sex, stay for the science.”NextDraft is a daily news digest from
, whose byline has appeared in The Atlantic, Time, Wired, and elsewhere. “I pluck the most fascinating news items of the day and then create a modern-day column which I deliver with a fast, pithy wit that will make your computer device vibrate with delight.”How do you do, fellow naming nerds!
, author of the excellent newsletter, has launched a podcast in which she interviews experienced name developers and plays naming games with them! Check out the first two episodes, with Anthony Shore of Operative Words and Tyler Doyle of TBD.name. On a scale of 1 to 5
You’ve seen it dozens of times without knowing it was called the Likert scale, named not for “like” or “likelihood” but for the American social psychologist Rensis Likert (1903–1981). “Rensis Likert” is what we in the profession call quite a name.
Not a nickname
“Rather than thinking of Lucy as short for Lucinda or Lucille, we should think of those names as ‘long’ for Lucy. That’s the real origin story.” (Namerology)
Not French
“Though ‘nom de plume’ looks like a French term, because of course it’s comprised of French bits and pieces, the term was in fact coined in English by English-speaking people, with a tip of the hat to the authentically French ‘nom de guerre.’” (
, A Word About, footnote 7)Wicked, wicked ways
When did people in Boston start using “wicked” as an adverb? (Boston.com)
Anti “hero”
“Wherever the Greeks got it from, it’s been all downhill for hero since those heady days.” — “Heroes: Where Did They All Go?” in Ken Grace’s
. I’ve written about the overuse of “hero” myself more than once.Crowning glory
“Coronate is very much a real word. And it’s not, technically, a back-formation, which is a word formed from an existing word from which it appears derived, typically by removing a suffix.” - John Kelly, aka Mashed Radish, returns to blogging with an etymology lesson.
Out of the blue
“Yes, cerulean blue is like pizza pie and tuna fish and so on: the definition of the first word includes the second.” - James Harbeck, aka Sesquiotic, on “a little piece of heaven.” Btw, you may know cerulean from that famous scene in The Devil Wears Prada in which Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) schools Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway). James provides context: “The cerulean fashion lines referenced in the monologue . . . were made up by the screenwriter for Miranda’s pocket disquisition. In fact, the monologue didn’t exist in the movie script either, at first. It started with a few lines by Miranda disparaging Andy’s fashion sense, which were then cut, but Meryl Streep asked for it to be added back and fleshed out.”
And the blue of Anne Hathaway’s sweater? If truth be told, it’s closer to cobalt.
Vault around and vind out
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team has an unofficial name: “Fuck Around and Find Out.” (People) I wrote about FAFO — the American Dialect Society’s acronym/initialism of the year for 2023 — in my January 2024 post on the Strong Language blog.
Bros’ rule?
“Broligarch would finally hit the mainstream press on 20 July 2024 with Donald Trump’s selection of J. D. Vance as his running mate in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” (Dave Wilton, Word Origins)
Deadbox
The DVD-rental-kiosk network Redbox is shutting down, but that’s not what caught my attention. I hadn’t known that Redbox, founded in 2002, was owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, publisher since 1993 of all those little homily anthologies. CSftSE has filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 7 liquidation. No soup for you! Wired called Redbox “a bad idea at the worst time.”
Name that (quasi) moon
The contest is open through September 30; the winning name will receive recognition by the International Astronomical Union. Please, for the love of Zeus, no “Moony McMoonface.” (IAU)
Comic (Sans) relief
Coming in October: Comic Sans: The Biography of a Typeface, by Simon Garfield, who also wrote All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia, which I loved. (Via Kottke.org)
Cage match
One of my favorite writers on Substack and elsewhere,
, interviewed Nicolas Cage for The New Yorker (“Nicolas Cage Is Still Evolving”), and the result is a nutty delight. (Fun fact: Cage’s first audition was for “The Dating Game.” He was 14. He didn’t get the gig.) In case you’ve forgotten, Orlean wrote The Orchid Thief, which was adapted by Charlie Kaufman into the 2001 film Adaptation, in which Meryl Streep (yes! again!) plays Orlean and Cage plays two incarnations of Kaufman. After I read the interview I watched Adaptation for the fourth time (still brilliant) and watched Dream Scenario (2023) for the first time (as weirdly transfixing in its way as Adaptation). Additional Cage recommendations are welcome.
re: Redbox. Yes, it was a bit of unfortunate timing — basically, an automat version of the old video stores — but it definitely filled a niche. In my experience, their locations were evidence of this. They set up in neighborhoods where the residents might not (he said delicately) be able to afford the monthly fees for multiple streaming services. Neighborhoods that also have dollar stores and check-cashing places. It might not always make a successful business model, but it's useful to consider the needs of people in different demographics, let's call it, and who definitely don't read "Wired". Data point: our local library has a BIG shelf of DVDs that people can check out.
>no “Moony McMoonface.”
Let the people speak! :)
Thanks so much for the lovely recommendation, Nancy! And for this especially meaty Linkstack, which has already caused me to open WAY too many browser tabs...