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RECENT COLUMNS
Full-dress English
What's formal usage, anyway?
Modern angst
The new guise of a word we love to fret over.
Skadoosh!
The story behind the word of the summer.
The whether report
Do you see what Grammar Girl sees?
When girls are 'guys'
Can guys, if they're plural, be dolls?
Remember the Alamo
To understand "line in the sand," you need to know that the sand is incidental - it's the line that's essential.
Let's office!
If we all enthusiastically took up officing, we would eventually embrace the word.
No to appeasement
The word "appeasement" made its obligatory election-season appearance.
(5/31/08)
'Optic' nerve
Political-speak takes a techie turn (Boston Globe, 5/27/08)
Just so
A walking tour of bogus language history (Boston Globe, 5/11/08)
The think thing
What do we have coming, exactly? (Boston Globe, 5/4/08)
Gut check
Is that a lump in your stomach - or a void? (4/27/08)
What, me worry?
English isn't getting any dumber (4/20/08)
Pony up
In her Wall Street Journal column in February, Peggy Noonan celebrated the then-thrilling primary ride, writing of loving the "brunt force of it." (4/13/08)
The mullet strategy
It's more than a bad haircut
Almost unique
What's wrong with 'one of the only'? (3/23/08)
Over 'involved'
The Monday news flash, as relayed by a radio announcer, was startling: Eliot Spitzer, Democratic governor of New York and former crusading attorney general, had admitted he was "involved with a prostitution ring." It's an euphemism that raises more questions than it answers (3/16/08)
Hey, Kool-Aid
The sloshing sound isn't just your imagination: If you follow the news, you've probably noticed the rising tide of references to "drinking the Kool-Aid." (3/9/08)
Grammartini
A day to toast precision -- and tolerance (By Jan Freeman, 2/24/08)
Stormy weather
How 'Nor'easter' became standard, even though we don't talk that way. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 2/17/08)
Hoodwinked
Is Obama speaking in code? (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 2/10/08)
Sign language
It's not easy being clear (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 2/3/08)
Next times
Can we agree on a day to meet? (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 1/27/08)
The whole story
Is one half equal to the other? (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 1/20/08)
Off base
A business blogger was quoted in the Globe, a couple of weeks ago, on his company's approach to "building concepts based off insights and observation." (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 1/13/08)
Heartbroken
"One of my pet peeves is 'he died of an apparent heart attack,' a reader and former newspaperman wrote recently. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 1/6/08)
Burning question
"Huckabee's meteoric rise has reset expectations for Romney" in the Iowa presidential caucuses, a Washington Post report observed last week. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 12/30/07)
Prii, Prix, Priora{hellip}
What's the plural of Prius? When asked that last spring, I dredged up some remnants of high-school Latin and guessed "Prioria." But recently, a couple of corrective e-mails have drifted in. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 12/23/07)
Star-crossed language
There were no injuries in the fire that destroyed a Cape Cod restaurant in October, the Globe reported, but "two firefighters were treated for exertion, according to Joe Carrara, deputy fire chief in Bourne." (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 12/16/07)
Variety show
In its recent review of the Met's reopened Oceanic galleries, The New York Times noted that the people of the Pacific Islands have spoken "about 1,800 different languages." (Boston Globe) (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 11/25/07)
Knight moves
During his pre-Veterans Day visit to Washington, French President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded the Legion of Honor to seven American veterans who served in France during World War II. (By Jan Freeman, 11/18/07)
Lawn needs cut
Charlie Berthoud moved to Pittsburgh five years ago, but he and his family are still having a bit of trouble with the local lingo. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 11/11/07)
End games
So it's official: According to last Sunday's New York Times , the word vajayjay - launched into the mainstream last year by "Grey's Anatomy" and embraced by Oprah - is the friendly new term for the female genitals.(Boston Globe, 11/4/07) (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe)
Do the math
ACCORDING TO A wire report in the Globe last month, a proposed geothermal power plant in New Hampshire "would emit 35 times less carbon dioxide per kilowatt" than traditional coal-fueled plants. (By Jan Freeman, Boston Globe, 10/21/07)
Entirely wrong
"NOT AVAILABLE IN all areas," the ads for new cable and phone services say, warning potential customers that their neighborhoods may not yet be wired for all the bells and whistles.
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