Dennis Baron

Gotta love England: two major storms in two days this weekend plus a return to the darkness of standard time means stay indoors and do the work I was hoping to avoid. An empty bus at the Hove Street stop symbolizes the desolation of the long, dark days ahead.

Latte art is ALWAYS for right handers!

New Cambridge Element, Lexicography and the Law by Rebecca Shapiro, out now! Read for free for the next 4 weeks at https://cup.org/3Ub7m8T

So, not surprisingly, we didn't get Bayeux Tapestry tickets, but Tesco had Black Sheep Ale on special, 3 for £6. It's almost impossible to get this Yorkshire ale down south in Hove, actually, and there weren't 200,000 people in the queue buying beer!

Another blast from the past: I was there when Norman Mailer tried to levitate the Pentagon.

FINALLY

It's Banned Books Week. The Navy banned my book. How's your week going? blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/3656...

Pronouns in the news, 1930 edition: The Concord (North Carolina) Daily Tribune calls for the creation of a common gender pronoun (Mar. 14, p. 8), although by this time perhaps 150 such pronouns had been proposed.

Pronouns in the news, 1878 edition: The Detroit News (Nov. 12, 1878) cites Peoria Transcript support for E, es, and em. "The illiterate will say 'they.' But nothing can be more absurd unless it be the word 'he.'" E, es, and em, the oldest nonbinary pronouns I've found so far, were coined in 1841.

The university is always looking out for us.

Pronouns in the news, 1917 edition: The Worcester (MA) Telegram reports that local resident John W. Taylor invented "hier. . . made up of the dominant letters in he or she, his or her, and him or her." 7 years earlier, E. P. Jots, of New Decatur, AL, also invented hier.

Pronouns in the news, 1937 edition: The Kentucky New Era claims that teachers eradicated ain't, a word the paper associates with American independence. The writer wants a common gender (=gender neutral) pronoun that would be useful for referring to women's hats in a theatre. Ain't pronouns grand?

Posted without comment.

US Secretary of Education McMahon wants more civics in classrooms, with students pledging allegiance to a flag with 15 stripes and roughly 60 stars.

What language to campaign in becomes an issue in UK byelections www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Found this tucked away on a high shelf in the linen closet. Could use a touch up with the iron.

Another 🐝 reject and it's not even British.

New technology always gives us new ways to fake it.

Sometimes patriotic re-naming can go too far... an ad for Liberty Cabbage, "formerly Sauer Kraut." The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, Pennsylvania), September 7, 1918, p. 5.

Presented for your amusement, a new version of the author spam/scam, or should I say auteur, sent to me though I didn't write the book, addressing me by not-my-name, en français, and ending, eventually, in an offer to publicize it for me, for $, or perhaps €.

Moon shot

Back to school, or la rentrée

I have a complaint, 🐝 ...

Simon and Schuster rewrite the Surgeon General's warning.

used golf carts waiting to be taken wherever used golf carts go

Guardian spoiler

Shouldn't he just build a wall and make Canada pay for it?

wordle: in three today. why is everyone so upset? i mean the bee 🐝 denied me boffin and nobble. now that is upsetting.

watch this space...

In Québec, no noshing allowed. Read all about it in a new post on the Web of Language: blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/3194...

View from LACMA

Bah, si... (@lacma)

A day at La Brea

L. A. at 5:30 am.

L.A., city of contrasts.

The Deux Chevaux comes with everything you see here. Batteries not included.

Pham: A century-old nonbinary pronoun you never heard of -- a new post on the Web of Language. blogs.illinois.edu/view/25/1359...

You're telling me!

Pronouns in the news, 1918 edition: S. D Smith, of Davenport IA, proposes pham and phem as pronouns for "either a man or a woman." Smith also offers some compounds: congresspham, phamhood, phamself. Illinois State Register, Mar. 22, 1918, p. 4.

Remember this: If Proust had this madeleine hand cream he would have written so much more.

Pronouns in the news, 1890 edition, or, it was always the guns: Former UMichigan regent Ebenezer Lakin Brown offers common gender pronouns ta, tas, and tan, but a writer warns, "If ta comes out west ta should bring tas gun for the protection of tan." Illinois State Register, Dec. 18, 1890, p. 4.

Another lazy day on campus. www.wcia.com/news/champai...