After the election
(Not explicitly about language.) From Max Vasilatos yesterday, written on the occasion of the U.S. election returns earlier this week, a postcard with a sweet and sexy Howard Roffman photo, which I...
View ArticleSwiss American
In the NYT Book Review on Sunday, a review (by Rebecca Stott) of Christoph Irmscher’s Louis Agassiz. Agassiz, a difficult character, was a distinguished scientist — and the first notable Swiss American...
View ArticleCelebrities
The line-up of speakers in the upcoming season of the Celebrity Forum at Foothill College (in Los Altos Hills CA): Every year, I note the makeup of the speaker list. Figures from politics, journalism,...
View ArticleThe Slants, still at bat
From several sources recently, news of the battle by the band The Slants to register their name for trademark protection in the U.S. Here’s an NPR story, “Asian-American Band Fights To Trademark Name...
View ArticleOn the racism watch
The current flurries over Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling are rich veins of overt and coded racist language, explored at great length in the news. That provides me...
View Article“illegal”
Yesterday’s Classic Doonesbury from 1974 (#1, here) looked at the foul mouth of Richard Nixon (and his aides) from Watergate days. Today (again from 1974) we get the President defining the limits of...
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