Month: November 2017

• “Slur”: an etymology dragged in mud

  At a White House event yesterday honoring Navajo code talkers, President Trump called Senator Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” as he has on many past occasions. Native American leaders, among so many others, are rightly decrying the disparaging remarks as a racial slur, as it drags native peoples into the mud—and literally so, if we look to…

  John Kelly

  November 28, 2017

  Feature

• Mashed Radish on Grammar Girl

  Mashed Radish is taking the week off for the US holiday of Thanksgiving, though I may sprinkle in a little etymology here and there as time permits. In the meantime, enjoy the latest episode of the award-winning educational podcast, Grammar Girl. Its host and creator, the incredible Mignon Fogarty, reads an article I wrote for…

  John Kelly

  November 21, 2017

  media

• Reams of “ream”

  Sexual assault scandals, mass shootings, military coups, tax cuts for the rich, trophy elephants, the impending devastation of climate change, the looming threat of nuclear war—there are reams and reams of heavy news right now. So, I think we could use something that brings us all together. Sorry, I don’t have any puppy videos, but…

  John Kelly

  November 17, 2017

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• Talk, talked. Sing…sang?

  What are all those letters we don’t say doing in the word knight? Why is talked the past tense of talk but sang is the past tense of sing? What’s up with m in whom and how come we eat beef but raise cow?

  John Kelly

  November 14, 2017

  media

• Persian pleasure gardens, the Christian afterlife, and tropical tax havens: the origins of “paradise”

  The 13.4 million-file leak called the Paradise Papers are exposing the offshore, tax-avoiding dealings by some of the world’s richest companies and people, from Facebook to the Queen of England. Boosted by alliteration and allusion to last year’s Panama Papers, the BBC explains the paradise name:  The Paradise Papers name was chosen because of the…

  John Kelly

  November 10, 2017

  Feature