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Linguistic Disputes Can Pack a Punch Nov. 14, 2018
Heated controversies over proper usage can lead to food fights at faculty clubs and fisticuffs on co... Read More
These Tools Have Fascinating 'Handles' Nov. 07, 2018
During college, I spent an entire summer with a lute in my hands. No, I wasn't strumming medieval ma... Read More
Trump Sees the Migrant Caravan as a Winning Election Issue Nov. 04, 2018
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has reason to believe that the caravan of migrants heading... Read More
Marrying into a Complicated Family Oct. 31, 2018
Dear Annie: My fiance is amazing, sensitive and wonderful. The only problem is his sister. When we ... Read More
Subject and Verb Beg to Disagree Oct. 31, 2018
Q: The lead sentence in a newspaper story stated, "A string of recent announcements promising jobs a... Read More
Fluent in Just One Language Oct. 29, 2018
Dear Annie: I've always been great at gift-giving. I enjoy giving others things that they will thoro... Read More
Language Pitches Some Learning Curves Oct. 24, 2018
Some random dispatches from the Word Front: — Listen and Learn. The recent confirmation hearin... Read More
Nicknames Pepper Sergeant's Band Oct. 17, 2018
Nicknames can be a curse or a blessing, and sometimes both. Often, they mock a person's physical app... Read More
Are Business Buzzwords on Your Radar? Oct. 10, 2018
Let's play Jargon Jumble! Fill in each blank in the following sentences with the best choice from th... Read More
Eagles and Rams and Bears ... Oh, My! Oct. 03, 2018
NFL owners aren't generally known for supporting liberal legislation, but the investors who founded ... Read More
Me, Myself and I Sep. 26, 2018
In a eulogy honoring Sen. John McCain, former President Barack Obama speculated as to why McCain had... Read More
'I Apologize' Instead of 'I'm Sorry' Sep. 25, 2018
Dear Annie: What's with people saying "I apologize" instead of "I'm sorry"? The former is just used ... Read More
Will Verbal Clues Unmask 'Deep Thwart'? Sep. 19, 2018
Linguistic sleuths are poking into every nook and cranny of the anonymous op-ed piece recently publi... Read More
Should We Be Fraught Over 'Fraught'? Sep. 12, 2018
When a political issue or policy becomes dominant and pervasive, we often develop a shorthand term f... Read More
Hostile Language Apr. 28, 2018
It's an established American tradition to call people what they wish to be called. That's why after ... Read More
Language and Anarchy Mar. 13, 2018
"Yeah, yeah, yeah — you prude!" I can already hear the accusation coming my way. But who cares... Read More
Trump: In Immigration Debate, Race Matters Jan. 16, 2018
President Trump "said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist. ... I cannot believe ... any p... Read More
The Oy of Language Sep. 28, 2017
I grew up talking like Nancy Drew. "Yuck!" I'd exclaim. "So?" "Oh, no!" Then I moved to New York aft... Read More
'It Never Ends' Sep. 27, 2017
Before I started attending Kent State in the fall of 1975, I was a kid living in small-town Ashtabul... Read More
'Arrival': Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner on Alien Saving Time Nov. 11, 2016
"Arrival" is a thinking human's alien-invasion movie. The mood is austere, the story oblique (at fir... Read More
