We in the Rifftides Department Of Language Reform realize that it has been only a year since this item ran. But it failed to change peoples' lousy usage habits, so here it is again. This time, please pay attention. The Rifftides Department Of Language Reform (DOLR) has been neglecting its duties. Its members claim that their failure to stop the misuse of "absolutely" and "no problem" discouraged them. At a staff meeting on the subject, the DOLRers moaned that they despair of succeeding where … [Read more...]

Language is the dress of thought.—Samuel Johnson The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.—George Orwell Language is the light of the mind.—John Stuart Mill Mechanical difficulties with language are the outcome of internal difficulties with thought.—Elizabeth Bowen The great thing about human … [Read more...]