Coming Next Year to Cambridge University Press
I’m excited to announce that I have a new publication coming out next year. Last year I was invited to contribute a chapter on dictionaries and editors to The Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary, and the book is (finally!) available for preorder. You can get 30 percent off with free shipping for the next month […]
35 Percent Off at the Arrant Pedantry Store Today
Hey, folks! Today’s the biggest sale of the year at the Arrant Pedantry Store! Get 35 percent off on T-shirts, mugs, tote bags, stickers, and more for the language lovers in your life. Just click “Redeem” near the top of the page. The sale ends today, so check it out!
The Volkswagen Beetle Car Game
The long-awaited results of the Name That Car Game survey are here! I had to throw out some results that did not appear to have valid postal codes or that left the postal code blank. (Unfortunately, due to the original wording of the survey, some people who weren’t familiar with the game answered “N/A” or […]
Name That Car Game
A few weeks ago, I tweeted about a car game in which players call something out when they see a Volkswagen Beetle and then hit the person next to them. The game is known by a few different names, and I’m wondering if there’s any sort of geographic distribution to the names. Whether or not […]
22 Percent Off at the Arrant Pedantry Store Today
Sorry for the complete dearth of real posts lately! I promise something is coming in the near future. In the meantime, you can take advantage of one of the biggest sales of the year at the Arrant Pedantry Store. Today only, you can get 22 percent off all orders just by clicking on “Redeem” near […]
25 Percent Off at the Arrant Pedantry Store
Today’s the biggest sale of the year at the Arrant Pedantry Store, with 25 percent off all orders. There’s no coupon code required—just click the “Redeem” button below the navigation bar. And don’t forget that you can customize colors and even put the designs on other products. The sale only lasts today, so check it […]
I Am Begging You to Learn How Dictionaries Work
It’s a phenomenon as predictable as the tides: a dictionary adds new words or definitions, and then people grouse about those changes, either because they don’t like the new words and think that the dictionary is declaring them acceptable, or because they personally have never heard of those words before and therefore don’t see why […]
A Sale and a Speaking Event
Today through May 28, you can get 20 percent off everything at the Arrant Pedantry Store—just click the “Redeem” button on the blue bar near the top. Check out old favorites like Stet Wars and Battlestar Grammatica or newer items like Hwæt and Ask Me About the Great Vowel Shift (fair warning: people will actually […]
What I Learned from Teaching Editing
Last semester I finally had the opportunity to do something I’d thought about for many years: teach a college class. I’d applied for a full-time teaching professor job before, but I’d been passed over in favor of someone with more experience. I’d also been approached about adjuncting before, but I passed up the opportunity because […]
Right, Wrong, and Relative
A while ago at work, I ran into a common problem: trying to decide whether to stop editing out a usage I don’t like. In this case, it was a particular use of “as such” that was bothering me. To me, “as such” is a prepositional phrase, and “such” is a pronoun that must refer […]