The Union-Tribune’s 7th Festival of Books will return to USD’s gorgeous campus on Saturday, August 19, 10 am-5 pm. The Festival is our city’s main event for book lovers of all ages. Attendees will enjoy speakers, workshops, photo booths, authors’ tables, discussions with award-winning writers, live entertainment, and more. Match each real or imaginary […]
Savor this unusual column, which contains this paragraph you now look upon. How quickly can you find out what is so uncommon about it? It looks so ordinary that you may think nothing is odd about it until you match it with most paragraphs that go on for this long. If you — smart […]
DEAR RICHARD: When I answer the phone and the caller says they would like to speak to Selena, what is my proper response? — “This is I.” “This is she.” “This is me.” “This is her.” Or “Speaking.” – Selena Destro, Scripps Ranch When you answer your phone and the caller asks, “Is this […]
DEAR RICHARD LEDERER: I was gobsmacked (a fun word too) to hear for the first time the word bafflegab, which means exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately, there’s so much of it these days. –Cindy Veinot, Chicago Bafflegab, which entered American English in 1952, does indeed mean “unintelligible jargon.” Words that describe words that […]
Brand names spring from the practice of branding animals — and human beings — to indicate ownership. A product that is “brand new” is as fresh as a newly branded calf. I don’t spark forth a lot of logology (letter play) in this space because mucking around with letters isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, […]
First, they came for the adverbs, and I said nothing, even though I knew that this action did not bode good for our language. Then they came for the verbs, and I said nothing, even though I seen it coming and knew that good grammar had went away and that verbing weirds our language. […]
I’m button-burstingly proud to announce that today marks the 11th anniversary of my sharing “Lederer on Language” with you word-loving, verbivorous readers. So I’m giving you all an air hug. When is enough not enough? Well, enough is a six-letter word. Take the first three letters — e-n-o, anagram them, and you will get […]
Peter Fitzgerald, of Imperial Beach, shares his take on punning with a Shakespearean twist: “All the world’s a pun and all the men and women merely players with words.” How true. My invitation for you readers to wing me your original puns generated a veritable tsunami of submissions. I’ve placed 20 additional readers’ puns […]
Brush up your Shakespeare. Start quoting him now. Brush up your Shakespeare, And the women you will wow. – Cole Porter, “Kiss Me, Kate” Name a play written by Bartley Campbell. Of course you can’t, nor can just about anyone else alive today. Yet Campbell (1843-1888) was a popular American playwright whose giant ego […]
A good pun is like a good steak — a rare medium well done. In such a prey on words, rare, medium, and well done are double entendres, so that six meanings are packed into the space ordinarily occupied by just three. Punnery is largely the trick of compacting two or more ideas within […]