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The Streisand Effect
The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually...
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Happy St Patrick’s Day!
I had an Irish father (from Kilconnell in Galway) and am an Irish citizen, so I enjoy St Patrick’s Day, the day when everyone feels Irish! My family actually had the contract for bottling Guinness at...
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Eggcorns
see source in imageThe misuse of certain phrases in English is something that really gets my goat. Some examples: baited breath instead of bated breath here here instead of hear hear step foot instead...
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Periods
Did you know that there is a Museum of Menstruation? It is run by a man and is actually really interesting – educating people on things such as that most women now will have 350 periods in their...
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South African English
People are often surprised when I tell them that South Africa has 11 official languages, and that not many people have English as a mother tongue. This existence as a small language with pressure from...
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Smallpox vaccination scars
I overhead a young boy on the train the other day asking their mother why ‘old people’ had circular scars on their upper arms. As one of those people, I never ever think about it but it must seem...
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Why typography matters
Can you see it? And they have now used another font: Before: ….and after: Source SaveSave SaveSave
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BRA airlines
Bra means good in Swedish, and the BRA means Braathens Regional Airlines but, being English speaking, I find it just a little funny.
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Driving on the left
The reason for driving on the left is quite logical. In feudal societies, where most people were right handed, you held your sword in your right hand and your scabbard was on the left. This meant that...
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Cat’s Eyes renamed Road Studs
The lack of apostrophe would have shown that it was not actual cats’ eyes that were removed, surely? Cat’s eyes were invented by Percy Shaw in 1934 and in 2006 were voted one of Britain’s top 10...
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Use of the word ‘gotten’ and ‘fall’ vs ‘autumn’
One oft-criticised word that I do use now and then is gotten, though only in spoken English (never written). Sometimes no other word will fit nicely in a sentence. Usually it sounds a little unwieldy...
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Planes, hotels and the number 13
Planes AirFrance, Iberia, Ryanair, AirTran, Continental, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, and Alaska Airlines (but only on their Boeing 737-800′s) do not have a row 13. I first spoke with Jennifer Janzen,...
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