November 2009
19 posts
COMEDY DEATH RAY RADIO
Check it: I’m going to be on Comedy Death Ray radio today (11/20) at Noon Pacific time with Scott Aukerman, Dragon Boy Suede and UCB’s Matt Walsh. Listen!
I Can't Explain
DID YOU KNOW: the accent in the word “inexplicable” should be on the second syllable?
HAVE YOU TRIED: to say it that way?
IT WILL MAKE: you feel like your mouth is sluggish from dental work.
Over time, the pronunciation with the accent on the third syllable has gained acceptance. As the American Heritage Dictionary puts it: “Just fuckin’ do whatever. Bonghit?”
Super-Arcane Word Fact Known Only To The Most...
There is no A in the word “definitely.” Two is.
Here’s a fun mnemonic in case you’re having trouble:
What are you, six? There is no A in “definitely.”
Sick
Here’s a fun word fact on which my friend Irene White does not hesitate to correct people:
“Nauseous” does not mean “feeling nausea,” but rather “causing nausea.” (As in: The fact that we’ve heard about New Moon nonstop for 10 solid months and it’s only just now coming out, and there are apparently two more books left in the series, is...
Slim
As I read these books and the subjects evolve, real life works to give me material. Just as I’m getting high and mighty about my favorite language*, I turn on the TV and on Fox News** Bill O’Reilly makes one of my most hated errors:
“And what are the chances of Naomi Wolf and Eugene Robinson making the same comparison between Sarah Palin and Eva Peron? If you ask me, slim and...
Word!
It appears Ammon Shea, who will hereafter be referred to as “Ammon Shea,” is a bit of a word nerd. I can relate. I know we’re supposed to be all internet-age and loosey-goosey about usage and spelling and grammar these days, but I just can’t muster it up. I think this may be my gay trait; I can’t operate an iron, make a bed or develop an ab, but I will write the fuck...
My Year Of Everything: Week Seven DOWN.
“Not Buying It” by Judith Levine was like having dinner with a good friend. A really long dinner with a very chatty friend who just went vegan a month ago. Also she just saw “Food Inc.”
I found a lot of therapy-speak about consumer culture, a ton of tut-tutting about America’s “addiction to economic expansion,” but no real consideration to what happens...
By the way
Google Analytics is fascinating. Hello to my reader in Croatia!
FREE AT LAST!
FINALLY made it through “Not Buying It.” Pretty much your standard indictment of America’s consumer culture, except the author actually does buy things! She breaks her own rules a couple of times, and then just goes on like it ain’t no thing. It’s more a “Seldom Buying It: My Year Of Only Buying Things When I Really Wanted Them.” Where is the discipline?
...
Not Buying It
This book is actively fighting me. It does NOT WANT TO GET READ. I’m getting close, but my God, it’s a struggle.
It’s not that Judith Levine isn’t a good writer, and it’s not that she doesn’t make a good point, it’s that she makes a good point a thousand times. People often shop to fill a void inside themselves- got it. Oh, there are studies that back...
Welcome, Newcomers!
If you’re brand new to the enchantment that is My Year Of Everything, you may want to start at the beginning and read what you’ve missed. Click here, and stick around for joy.
Personal Style
No, I was serious about Hip Young Dean. Personal style is key, my friends. Giving it a character name can help you define it, even if only reductively, e.g. Hip Young Dean does not wear jeans that have been “whiskered.”
Try it yourself! I’ll help. Are you partial to unconstructed sportcoats and wallets with chains? Maybe you’re Adult-Alternative Band Manager. T-shirts with...
Need Not
Yesterday, Ben and I returned from two weeks in New York to a house that’s still mainly decorated with boxes. I have no desk in my office, the dining room has a table without chairs, and our new dresser is barely visible over the piles of clothes that won’t fit into it.
Needless to say, Ben went straight to Best Buy this morning to get a Blu-Ray player and surround-sound system.
I...
Need
Not surprisingly, in “Not Buying It” Judith Levine takes American advertising culture to task for its creation and satiation of artificial needs. Point taken; it’s just one of those things that gets on your nerves and fuels the entire world’s economy. Bummer.
Ms. Levine (and everyone else who’s ever written about this subject) argues that we choose our identities from the options the advertising...
Sorry for the light posting!
But I’ve been busy shoehorning the New York City Marathon into every conversation.
The book is still “Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping.” I’m putting myself through a no-shopping stage right now too, employing a strategy I call “being broke.” It works shockingly well, as perhaps you know.
