Category Archives: art

Slay Ride

Posted on June 14, 2023 by JE

The latest round of student papers gave me a chance to use one of my favorite cut-and-paste comments. The principal parts of this verb are: slay, slew, slain. “Bob slays monsters. Joan slew monsters. Hey, all my monsters have been … Continue reading →

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Hungry Heart

Posted on May 7, 2023 by JE

Typo of the day is hamelt, for an intended Hamlet. Clearly I should not have skipped lunch.

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Don’t Put an Otch in My Nadder!

Posted on April 29, 2023 by JE

Apparently English notch arises from a word-division error due to the English movable n: it wasn’t originally a notch, it was an otch (cf. French oche “a notch”). So says the AHD and the tyrant OED. This is analogous to … Continue reading →

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Pointing Toward the End

Posted on April 29, 2023 by JE

Wearing my grading face (which strongly resembles Mung making the Sign of Mung).

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Joans Against the Moon Men

Posted on April 26, 2023 by JE

I misread a student’s handwriting and thought they had written “Prester Joan” (instead of “Prester John”). Now I can’t stop thinking of Prester Joan teaming up with Pope Joan to, I don’t know, conquer the moon or something. [edited to … Continue reading →

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Gormless Gomes on the Ground

Posted on April 14, 2023 by JE

This afternoon I was reading up on Danish King Gorm (a.k.a Gorm the Old, a.k.a. Gorm the Lazy, a.k.a. my new role model), and idly wondered if it was the same root as the gorm in English gormless “clueless”. It … Continue reading →

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The Final Problem

Posted on April 10, 2023 by JE

This is going to be a tough post to write—no easier because I’ve seen it looming for a while. Lennie Briscoe, the Great Detective, has gone to investigate the ultimate mystery. His spine gave out last night and we just … Continue reading →

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Winter Is Over

Posted on April 8, 2023 by JE

The Spring Equinox notwithstanding, I know that winter has ended when the westering sun doesn’t reach through the southern window of my bookroom to punch me in the eye as I’m writing on my computer. That happens sometime around the … Continue reading →

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The Hood, the Bad, and the Bitey

Posted on April 8, 2023 by JE

I was looking up something else in Cleasby & Vigfusson’s Old Norse dictionary when my eye fell on gríma, meaning “a kind of hood or cowl”; by extension “the night”. A lot of badasses, starting with Óðin, are called Grímr … Continue reading →

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The Weird of the Worm

Posted on March 19, 2023 by JE

Reading Snorri’s account of Ragnarǫkr this noon over blunch, and I was struck by this poetic phrase in Snorri’s prose: Þórr berr banaorð af Miðgarðsormi “Thor bears the baneword from Midgard’s Serpent”. Old Norse orð is cognate with English word, … Continue reading →

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