Tag Archives: communication

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll

Posted on May 25, 2009 | 13 Comments

That’s short for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

What is this gobbledygook, you ask? One very long word, for starters. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a village in Wales; the name is shortened to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and commonly known as Llanfair PG or Llanfairpwll.

Wow, long name, Batman!

I am not making this up.

Llanfair station sign, photo by cyberinsekt

Llanfair station sign, photo by cyberinsekt

I started giggling while trying to pronounce it, from the English orthography guide: Llan-vire-pooll-guin-gill-go-ger-u-queern-drob-ooll-llandus-ilio-gogo-goch. My tongue was tripped up a few times.

The name is Welsh for “St. Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio of the red cave”.

I love new words! I love language.

Listen to the name of the town, as spoken by a person with a South Wales accent.

Satellite maps of the village.

Photos taken in the village.

OK, you can start making fun of me for enjoying this now.

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Comics and publishing

Posted on April 20, 2009 | 5 Comments

Today’s Non Sequitur:
non-sequitur-042009

Today’s Pearls Before Swine:
pearlsbfswine-042009
(Click to enlarge)

First, I was struck that two comics, on the same day, both making the same point: Newspapers are dumb (perhaps book publishers, too) to give away their content for free.

Second, that point (aside from not being funny, either time) is such an old, worn out, answer!

Some well-known facts:

  1. Information, especially news, needs to be on the internet; that’s where people look. (Newspaper readership is down, down, down.)
  2. People don’t like paying for internet content; that model doesn’t work.
  3. Resisting or just ignoring change doesn’t make things stay the same.

Instead of rehashing statements older than yesterday’s news, read this forward-thinking look at the publishing revolution for some hope of a positive solution. (I offered some brief commentary on the piece last month.)

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Posted in journalism, newspapering, publishing

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Today’s National Grammar Day

Posted on March 4, 2009 | 2 Comments

The official site for the event, hosted by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG). The site boasts a Bad Grammar Hall of Fame Playlist, not to mention a Top Ten list of grammar tips. The site also has links to many, many other grammar-related blogs. (Here’s the SPOGG blog.)

Meanwhile, Arnold Zwicky at Language Log is shunning National Grammar Day and its “nastiness”.

I’ll admit, some of the language on the official Grammar Day site does sound a bit militant. Nathan Bierma, writing in the Chicago Tribune, urges a middle ground. He also cites Grammar Girl as hoping for civility in the discussion.

So, instead of celebrating this day cheerfully fault-finding, howzabout we celebrate good grammar where we find it?

How will you celebrate National Grammar Day 2009?

My post about National Grammar Day last year. And a related post from nearly two years ago.

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Weekly Geeks: What’s in a Geek

Posted on January 17, 2009 | 13 Comments

deweys-weekly-geeks27For this second Weekly Geeks of 2009, this second installment post-Dewey, Joanne of The Book Zombie, posts this question:

For those who have been with the group, either from the start or joined within recent months, what does being a member mean to you? What do you enjoy about the group? What are some of your more memorable Weekly Geeks that we might could do again? What could be improved as we continue the legacy that Dewey gave us?

For those just joining us, why did you sign up for Weekly Geeks? What would you like to see here?

I’m going to consider myself a bit of a hybrid as far as this set of questions goes. I read all the Weekly Geeks posts, but I only participated a few times. I wasn’t a full-fledged member of the club until this year. So, I’ll answer as I feel qualified to from the first list.

Being a Weekly Geek means being a part of seeking to establish community among book bloggers. This was something Dewey was all about, a big part of why (I think) she started Weekly Geeks. It also means honoring that legacy, though. I love that it’s so inclusive — anyone can, and is welcome to, join/play along/participate at whatever level. Those are the same things I enjoy about it, at this point.

My most memorable Weekly Geek was week 16, in which each participant interviewed another about a book that needed to be reviewed, and the pair of interviews were posted on both blogs. (Here’s mine.)

I’m not coming up with anything that needs to be improved …

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Study: Reading on the rise

Posted on January 12, 2009 | 3 Comments

From today’s Shelf Awareness:

Hope it’s not fiction.

For the first time since 1982, “the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen [to 50.2%],” according to a National Endowment for the Arts study being released today, reported by the New York Times.

The increase was most notable among 18-24 year olds and involved novels and short stories more than poetry or drama. Literary reading also increased among Hispanic Americans.

For the first time, the study included Internet reading, which some thought might have helped boost rates, although the AAP’s Pat Schroeder suggested that some people don’t count reading online or on e-readers as “book” reading.

Other possible explanations for the jump: one community, one read programs; the popularity of the Harry Potter and Twilight series; and “individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders” to promote literature and reading. Booksellers, too, we’d think.

The study is called “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy” and is based on data from the Census Bureau compiled last year.

The Times article is accompanied by a nice chart, showing the percent of people reading literature over time.

I hope it’s not fiction, too. As I read the Times piece, it’s clear that whether this is entirely good news isn’t all that clear. As with most surveys, polls, etc., it’s hard to know for sure what the data means.

(I posted briefly here about the state of literacy in the USA based on a study by a different firm in August 2007.)

EDITED TO ADD: Here’s the NEA press release on the study.

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Weekend linkage

Posted on January 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

A couple brief snippets for you today.

Author Ted Dekker talks, in a recent blog post, about why his new suspense novel, BoneMan’s Daughter (set to be released in April 2009), is the first of his books to not sport the Christian Fiction label. The title of his post? The Challenge of being Gay. It’s a worthwhile read, if you care about this subject (I do). The comments have quite the discussion going on, too, and he’s got a poll where you can succinctly express your opinion (after reading the post, of course!).

Secondly, The Curator lists Top Ten Reasons Real Books Are Better than eBooks. One of my favorites from the list: No. 5. You’d look silly burying your head in your iPhone. (‘Course, I might not agree with this particular item as much if I was the owner of an iPhone …)

I’ve got some great posts simmering for the near future (including wrap-up stuff from 2008), but hopefully this tides you over for a bit.

Happy weekend!

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Weekly Geeks 27: Remembering Dewey

Posted on December 6, 2008 | 1 Comment

wg1readathonbutton-stackAs Becky suggested, I’m paying tribute to Dewey today. Although I only participated in her Weekly Geeks once, I feel welcome to participate in this.

I know Dewey mostly through my participation in and helping with the 24-hour read-a-thon, both in June and in October of this year. We emailed back and forth, we chatted in Gtalk, we shared Google Docs, we traded cell phone numbers — and during this last read-a-thon, she left me a voicemail when it was time for my next shift to start. We talked about a lot more than the task at hand, though.

We talked about books (go figure). We talked about knitting. She told me she was in pain. She told me to read Maus and Maus II. She suggested my husband and I should move to the Southwest. We talked about the future.

She believed in community, and that’s at least part of why she spent so much energy on things like Weekly Geeks and the read-a-thons. “My favorite part was seeing members of the book blogs community connecting in a new ways,” she said in a read-a-thon post in June.

I plan to complete the reading assignment she gave me (above), reading my first graphic novels.

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I’m with Suey

Posted on December 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

I just wanted to second Suey’s quick response to what we each just read.

I’m in shock, I think. Certainly I’m sad, mourning. We will certainly miss you, Dewey. I’m praying for your family during this difficult time.

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