Good Grief!

I’m almost certain he snuck in and changed the sound scheme on my computer. Something keeps making the Windows start.wav noise, and I can’t quite put my finger on the specific trigger. I deserve the payback, and as much as this pains me, I must salute him for his evil genius. […]

Today’s pick is another piece by a popular Philadelphia artist. In many respects, it is similar to her last installation, reviewed here. Note the similarities—especially the limited palette and unstable medium. However, the new work is bolder and more innovative, perhaps even groundbreaking. The canvas has been cleverly placed in a […]

It’s been kinda fun to watch the blogosphere get itself into a knot over the recent terminations of tenured professors at Penn State Altoona and the University of Southern Mississippi. Everybody who’s anybody is weighing in:

Eugene Volokh
Ralph Luker
Kieran Healy
Matt Weiner
Erin O’Connor
Not surprisingly, all of the above are academics of some sort. They’re right […]

Here’s a good one for the afternoon coffee break. The Smoking Gun reports that when Alice Regina Pike couldn’t use her Wal Mart cards at the checkout counter (they had a combined total of $2.32 on them), she attempted to pay with a one million dollar bill. Since her total came to $1671.55, […]

It’s not really surprising that y’all trounces youse in a Google smackdown. But here’s a shocker–y’all is more common than youse in the state of New Jersey. Bert Vaux and others at Harvard University compiled a dialect survey back in 2002, and one of the questions was “What word(s) would you use to […]

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Since I work in New Jersey, I can’t really blog about y’all without also considering youse. It’s North versus South in the battle for second person plural dominance. A quick Google smackdown shows that y’all is the undisputed champion (at least on the internet):
y’all (574,000)
youse (27,800)
PS: Artman.com defines a Google smackdown as […]

Today’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner puts to rest (sort of) the y’all–singular or plural? issue. From Doug Hill’s article (hyperlinks are mine):
The popular Texas mystery writer, Kinky Friedman, claims that, “Y’all is singular. All y’all is plural. All y’all’s is plural possessive.” But he’s an ignorant fool. The American Heritage Dictionary, always a more reliable […]

Philadelphians are probably familiar with the city’s various marketing tactics to make sure residents comply with recycling laws. For example, there’s Curby, the cartoon recycling bucket, and Officer Friendly, who warns that refusal to recycle could result in a $30,000 fine (Curby and Officer F. are on the city’s old recycling website). According […]

This is a sort-of follow up to the Navigator’s post about the worst sandwich contest on nfl.com. A few people responded to the contest in the form of haikus (!), including Bridget Gavaghan of Philadelphia, who wrote about a “Surf-n-Turf” sandwich at Michael’s Deli (4th and Wolf). The surf-n-turf is two hot dogs and […]