: Today is the anniversary of the publication of Dr. Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language. …
: The TV in the lobby was talking about #OJ. About 90% “getting away with murder” to 10% football. …
: Before you go out to see the #eclipse, remember the Second Rule of Laser Safety: Don’t look in the …
: On the Wikipedia page for “Free Verse”, it says, “It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, …
: The kids are all right. www.youtube.com/shorts/eG…
: The Royal Road #bloomscrolling
: I would like to live near an airport that has supersonic-jet service because it would mean that the …
: For the first time, I found a micro blog out on the regular web, not from here. Hi, …
: Just failed to open a bottle of champagne while lying on my back.
: The apricot tree is in bloom, which means there will be a hard frost tonight. #bloomscrolling
: Just been introduced to a site that asks you to fill out a form, and then tells you what your stats …
: Two people I’ve encountered today need to hear this: “A jibes with B” means they go together. “A …
: “Tapeworm Ouroboros” is not a phrase I was expecting to read today. 🤢
: I replaced every occurrence of the word “outcome” in a technical report with “fate”. Let’s see if …
: Sixty years later, this poem is relevant to the headlines again. #poetry #gaza …
: “Don’t trust the morning about what the afternoon will bring.” - an unintentionally poetic …
: Breaking News: #Roman numerals from 1 to 8 sort correctly in a spreadsheet.
: People have attempted to get an #AI to make Jackson Pollock paintings, and they just can’t. This is …
: I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t live in Falls Church, because you all never get to see the …
: The old engineer is giving a talk. It would be boring, except he keeps pronouncing “technical” like …
: “It’s not the occult if you tell everybody about it!”
: On the way to work this morning, I stopped to let a family of five white-tailed deer cross the road. …
: Today I shall waste time thinking about the similarities between the German Eichhorn, the …
: Thanks to Project Gutenberg, I know that Lewis Carroll and Mozart share a birthday today. It’s going …
: I am at 38° N latitude. There is a moth flapping around my porch. The temperature was -5 C last …
: Cranky old man mode: Activate! Another plagiarism scandal, this time in Norway. IMHO, the committee …
: I miss Bad Recommendation Engines On a snowy day like this one, in the early days of YouTube, I watched some video or other. A list of …
: At what age does a book no longer need spoiler protection? 📚
: A salute to an amazing technological advance that never gets any attention: the bean polisher. We …
: The US Government has deployed the National Dad-Joke Clearinghouse, available for consultation at …
: This is Lars. Lars is a city dog, visiting us out here at the farm today. Lars went out into the …
: The Washington Post, my hometown newspaper, gave me an end-of-year report on how much I read: just …
: Elapsed time from when the red-tailed hawk departed the fence-post by the bird feeder until the …
: “Moderation is the health of the soul.” - La Rochefoucauld “There are things in life one does well …
: First time I’ve seen a Trigger Warning in a book in French: “Existential horror; abyss; spider; …
: Reading a paper by Tom Shippey is always a trip: “Kemble has been treated very kindly by English …
: Me vs. Apple Upgraded to MacOS Sonoma last weekend. 🍎overwrote my HTTPD configuration file, for some reason that …
: Somebody dropped a bag of dry cat food in the grocery-store parking lot, where it burst open. I have …
: I hope you never need to know this, but #ClevelandClinic appointments in 9300 Euclid Avenue and 9500 …
: 🌱 When the weather cooled down in September, a couple of volunteer pea vines sprouted along the …
: Madness takes its toll. EZ Pass or exact change only, please.
: At the breakfast buffet. The tray had five strips of #bacon all stuck together. I know a message …
: Phrase of the morning comes from Andy Zaltsman: “septic think tank”
: New feature at the #library: the check-out process ends with the computer telling me I’ve saved …
: Got a campaign mailer from a nutcase running for sheriff. He thinks schoolchildren ought to learn cursive handwriting and touch typing. He thinks the …
: In French, a well-dressed person is “chic”. In German, she’s “schick”. In English, she looks …
: The most remarkable thing about the #English language is the word “palooka”. My ancestors coined a …
: Corporate metaphor of the day: “When the coals are hot, you’ve got to jump on them.”
: Join the Zorganite Encumber. By reading this, you already have. …
: This is the time of year when the mailman brings me stacks of reminders of how many times I’ve …
: The ancient Romans had another god, similar to Janus, who could listen in two directions. He was …
: They said I could be anything I wanted, so I became a UFO. #selfie #shadow
: Can anyone recommend a tutorial on multinomial modeling that’s not for machine-learning application? …
: The Virginia DMV will provide car owners, for a consideration, with a “don’t tread on me” license …
: In the woods by the river, cleaning up trash. A cloud of bugs is buzzing around my head. So I walked …
: Those vineyard/tourism/wedding venues all over the Shenandoah Valley have a long pedigree. (Gift …
: OK, which one of my neighbors named their wireless network “FreeVirusZone”?
: El Niño doesn’t have much to do with the weather here in #Virginia, I read a few years ago. (We’re …
: The Hollies song “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” considers 5’9” to be remarkably tall. There has …
: Day 8 since the milkweed patch bloomed. I’ve seen at least a dozen species of insects buzzing around …
: Worst time to get an #earworm is when you’re on a long drive and everyone is asleep and you don’t …
: I weeded the garden this afternoon. Among the crabgrass was a lot of lambsquarters. Honey, can we …
: If, like me, you were never able to finish “The Aeneid”, this may make you feel better. #Latin …
: “The forces of anarchy are having trouble getting organized.” - A.A. Gilliland
: “…one of those unsound but illuminating thoughts you have when you have been sleepless or hungry.” - …
: It just sank in that the ice cream truck is playing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. That’s just not …
: Henceforth, I shall use “splat” as the past tense of “split”. #grammar
: Way in the back of the bathroom closet, I found a roll of pre-Covid toilet paper. It’s so …
: For some reason, it annoys me when I find someone has coined a glib label for something I am. This …
: The lyrics of “Haitian Divorce” by Steely Dan are iambic pentameter. #SlowLearner 🎵
: There’s a P.D.Q. Back wiki out there, where they try to use the collective intelligence of the …
: It’s 75° and partly cloudy, with a light breeze from the south. The tomato and pepper seedlings …
: At dawn I sat out on the patio with a mug of tea, to see what kinds of wildlife would happen by. A …
: I don’t know who needs to hear this* but when you’re removing a small dead tree from the lawn, leave …
: My shirt matches the splash guards in the urinals in this building. #fashion
: There’s an opportunity for a species of insect 🐝 to evolve to collect pollen from car windshields. …
: Leftover vegan hot dogs. Nobody in the house liked them, so I tossed them on the compost pile. Next …
: Pulled half a cubic yard of weeds out of the vegetable garden plot. That’s all of them, right? …
: This time of year always reminds me of my old cat Zizi. He loved to help me in the garden. But a …
: 50 years ago, an artificial-intelligence researcher said, “Tell me something only an intelligent …
: The Ages of Man: 1. Youth 2. Older than the cop 3. Older than the doctor 4. Older than the President …
: Filling out a survey. The last question was, “what are your three favorite brands?” Having none, I …
: Jewish deli, lunchtime The owner comes out of the kitchen to a table near mine. “Are you the one who ordered a Reuben with …
: 33 degrees and snowing outside, and this feral daffodil thinks it’s spring.
: Congratulations to Jeph Jacques, who just got to the 5,000th Questionable Content comic. …
: I took a series of screenshots on my iMac and somehow it made them into a single multi-page .png …
: The Internet Archive lets me check out a 200-page book for 1 hour. I wish I could read a lot faster …
: My new iMac says PHP has been deprecated. What do the cool kids use these days, to stick one dynamic …
: Pollster on telephone: Please tell me your age group. Are you 18-25… Me: skip to the end
: braddelong.substack.com/p/in-whic… contains people saying something nice about @manton
: Depressing Landlord Story I hired a real-estate agent to find me a tenant. She came back with two stacks of applications. One …
: Just got a fundraising letter from a candidate who hopes to be “only the tenth woman to hold …
: Brad Delong is the one who persuaded me to join micro.blog. He has a book out today: …
: “Sportsball” is a useful term to describe the subset of sports that has TV timeouts.
: Definition of “inadmissible”, by Ambrose Bierce INADMISSIBLE, adj. Not competent to be considered. Said of certain kinds of testimony which juries …
: Is this where the cool kids are going to hang out now?
: No matter which store, they’re always nearly out of plain soy milk but they’ve got a full shelf of …
: Trying to remember how old I was when I figured out that Ron wasn’t Mr. Bacardi’s first name.
: A blue jay is sitting on the garden fence. A minute ago, he was holding a cicada in his beak. Then …
: I haven’t filled up the bird feeder lately, so a squirrel just climbed up there with a walnut in his …
: Had to clean up a roadkill skunk in 95° heat today. Even though I’m fully vaccinated, I think I’m …
: 2020 has me much the worse for wear. #mbnov
: Oh, say can you see? It’s cloudy and rainy today.
: Some of my jokes are so elderly that audiences pay them respect.
: The way things are named in the Pentagon these days, maybe the Navy should change its name to the …
: The pampas grass was knocked down by a storm. I had to bind each tuft up with string to keep it off …
: The kids across the street are using a bicycle pump to inflate a glow-in-the-dark basketball so they …
: What will the holiday shopping season be like this year? Without all the hustling and bustling? It’s …
: Every morning, the flowerpots on the front stoop make sure I know it’s not summer anymore. #mbnov
: Old pickup truck with Farm Use plates, up on blocks. Drive shaft lying on the ground. Underneath the …
: Such a weird feeling to drive past the polls today without stopping.
: According to the OED, “astonish” used to be the word for what an electric eel does to you. “Stunned” …
: The smartest professors warned last summer not to schedule any exams this week. No matter how things …
: “Once upon a midnight dreary…” is all done for now. November 1st is a traditional holiday for …
: I don’t know who needs to hear this but Bordeaux doesn’t go with apples.
: Playing a CD of Mozart’s 1st Horn Concerto in my car. Park. Go into hardware store, where they’re …
: Found this old newspaper clipping in a desk drawer this morning.
: Madame is drinking Chianti from a Champagne glass. We are alphabetical oenophiles here.
: Apple tree bloomed yesterday. Winds gusting to 40 knots today. It’s always something with fruit …
: A pileated woodpecker has come by this morning to tell me I have termites in the timbers around a …
: This is the time of year when my neighbors complain about my lawn, because I refuse to mow …
: The biggest problem with bluetooth headsets is that you can’t solve problems by unplugging them and …
: Last fall I raked up leaves to use in the compost heap this spring. Piled them in the back yard by …
: I’ve finally figured out what the emoji with the tongue means. This one: 😜. I tried asking my niece …
: Just came in from planting kale in the vegetable garden. Kind of a surprise to see the water turn …
: Neighborhood dog-walker had an old bulldog with her & two little terriers straining their …
: Children being born now will not immediately understand why the word “glacial” means “slow”.
: Pulled a bag of invasive weeds out of the woods yesterday. My wife made them into pesto, which we …
: Todæg in Cristesmæsseæfne: Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor allthingslinguistic.com/post/1359…
: They usually have the news on TV at the Old White Guy Diner (excellent cheeseburgers). Today all the …
: Today was the first time in 25 years I’ve seen my dentist while I was standing up. He’s really …
: Yesterday’s project required a piece of hardware that’s been sitting in my toolbox since 1994. I was …
: “Stay” by Susan Fassbender and Kay Russell youtu.be/nqESiexGZ…
: Went to a store today. Has anyone measured the influence of Christmas music on the growth of online …
: First frost last night. Covered the carrots by cutting the bottoms out of some milk jugs and …
: My neighbor across the street is teaching his son how to play “cornhole”. Unfortunately, he used to …
: I just did my refresher security training at work. This jumped out at me: Similarly, sometimes, an employee might use his or her access to sensitive information for personal …
: Anyone interested in Old English is invited to my other blog, where I tell little stories about …
: Corn fields look so orderly this time of year.
: This excavator was stopped at a red light beside me. There was no such sign on the truck cab — they …
: Walking the riverbank with a forester from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Attacked by stinging …
: Me, looking at rows of little jars, in no apparent order: “How are these arranged?” Clerk: “By the …
: Harvested 12 pounds of fingerling potatoes yesterday. Pretty good, considering that I didn’t plant …
: Lately iTunes hasn’t been downloading two of my favorite podcasts reliably. I suppose this is to be …
: Rescued this little guy after he fell 5 feet down into a disused outhouse on the farm. If I don’t …
: Does anyone want to read a blog written in Anglo-Saxon? Of course you do! ierthling.joviation.com
: Hey, google & amazon: you wanna be useful? Don’t show me ads for things you think I want. Show …
: I don’t think I’m really going to count as fluent in French until I stop reading “biologique” as …
: The Road-Runner’s Gender Apparently I’m the only one who thinks the Roadrunner in the Warner …
: I just diagrammed a sentence, for the first time since the Nixon Administration. Can’t believe I …
: Pre-dawn power outage in 5° F weather. A big salute to all the backup systems in my life: sump pump; …
: Processing dried rosemary and then flossing one’s teeth is a real flavor-experience.
: For the first time in 25 years, I do not have a Unix box with the hostname “lion” on my desk. RIP, …
: People who didn’t grow up speaking English usually try to use a plural unit in phrases like …
: My neighbor across the street is shoveling snow off his driveway. He has a 10-year-old son; my …
: Working on my New Year’s Resolution. So far, I’ve got, “Whereas…”
: Decision Matrix Moves Doesn’t Should move No Problem WD-40 …
: Which is the best idea? * Wheeling, West Virginia * Licking, Missouri * Flushing, New York * …
: Reverse list test #2: 3. Use HTML pre tag 2. Put in newlines manually 1. Fix autocorrect when it …
: Trying again. 4. This line starts with a “4” because the list is in reverse order. 3. I typed this …
: Leaderboard: most boring pop lyrics of all time. 🎶 3. “So therefore”: Dexy’ s Midnight Runners, …
: Could someone please invent a wine basket for the outside of a car, so that the champagne is chilled …
: Bleg 📚 I recall reading a science-fiction story (1970’s?) about robotic child-care workers that were …
: Now my dream is in reach. I can set up a small shop where I produce hand-crafted, artisanal …
: The plan is to surreptitiously replace all the shopping-mall Christmas music with Telemann concerti, …
: “Grading on the steep curve by which he is judged…” …and there’s no need to read any …
: Enthusiasm for John Crowley’s Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr. 📚 …
: The better your paper-shredder is, the harder it is to clean up after you drop the basket.
: Looked up “gammon” in the OED. “1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 332 In the pestle and …
: For some reason, this post from my blog gets hits every day. www.idiosophy.com/2017/08/a… 📚
: Graphical representation of how the Inklings influenced each other. …
: Today a woman in a niqab told me how much she regretted missing her chance to tour with Prince.
: I had a tweet go viral last week. It was nice to meet a thousand new, interesting people, but I’m …
: Blue jays foraging in the cornfield after the harvester went through. They swallow kernels whole.
: Gave the cat a bath. Initial assault repelled with heavy losses. Reprise of the attack succeeded. 🐱🐅
: TIL the Russians have a version of the polka that’s danced in threes. Delightful, until I realized …
: The rain gauge had a pint of water in it, so I emptied it into the vinca patch. Out jumped a rabbit, …
: Telling academia.edu that I’m a physicist was a mistake. Now I get alerts about things like this:
: I feel a chill when someone calls the head of a Congressional caucus “Leader Pelosi” or “Leader …
: Yesterday I met a woman named “Selene” who married a man whose last name is “Luna”, and kept her …
: Remembering a French perspective on Henry V. www.idiosophy.com/2018/11/w…
: Today on the farm It was just before sunset. A red fox with an enormous brush dashed out of the forest belt along the …
: A brief note about ownership in Tolkien, with respect to modern intellectual-property law. 📚 …
: A brief note about ownership in Tolkien, with respect to modern US intellectual-property law …
: Unicorns at the Musée de Moyen Age. www.idiosophy.com/2018/10/c…