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Category Archives: Lists

Word List from Copyeditor’s Stylesheet for The Writing Class (coming in June 2008)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

(this being what copy editors, without whom writers would look pretty silly, have to worry about) a while (2 wds as obj of prep) a.k.a. anymore (1 wd as adv) awhile (as adv) axe-wielding backseat backstory basset hound bioterrorist bling blond, fem., n. & adj. blond, masc. or neut., n. & adj. brand-new buttload buzz [...]

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Name That List (and no fair Googling)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The spur of cheese. The mustard-pot of penance. The cobbled shoe of humility. The furred cat of the Solicitors and Attorneys. The Teeth-chatter or Gum-didder of Lubberly Lusks. The Ape’s Paternoster. The Fat Belly of the Presidents. The Merciless Cormorant, by Hoxinidno the Jew.  

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What does this mean?

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Readers are invited to explain selected sentences from current news stories.  You can be creative if you want, but I wouldn’t mind a straightforward explanation.  Also feel free to suggest other puzzlers.  (No politics, please: the focus is language.) From WRCB-TV in Chattanooga:  …”We have the three climbers..all are mobile..no one is ambulatory.”  Four guesses [...]

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Novel Hybrids

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Gentle Ben Hur Thrill to the heartwarming saga of a 600 lb. brown bear who befriends a lonely young boy, wins a chariot race, and witnesses the crucifixion of Christ. Little Women Who Run With the Wolves …try valiantly but can’t keep up, which is probably just as well. Suddenly Last Summa Theologica The prolonged [...]

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Sexiest Letter of the Alphabet

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

B Runner-ups:  L and H

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Funny-Looking Words

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

(a work in progress) Adjectives: Berserk Blotto Gassy Eleemosynary Flocculent Verbs: Disembosom Buttress Gainsay Lambaste Nouns: Crabapple Loblolly Kumquat Bomb Blowtorch Botfly Flange Lardoon Galoot Poltroon Spittoon Besom Disembosomee Frottage Onus Larb Phlebotomist Philatelist Nozzle Rumpus Nosegay Yurt Haboob

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What you should be reading instead of this

Friday, November 3, 2006

Moby Dick Great Expectations Les Liaisons Dangereuses Anything by Robert Benchley Anything by James Thurber, except his late stuff Ditto by S.J. Perelman “The Young Immigrunts,” by Ring Lardner Archy and Mehitabel, by Don Marquis Nonsense Novels, by Stephen Leacock The Once and Future King, by T.H. White Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis Portable Prairie, by [...]

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