Read “Lederer on Language” every other Saturday in the San Diego Union Tribune and on this site
Please Read My Labor Day Lament: Nothing Works For Me
With Labor Day coming up, I’ve decided to share with you my checkered workplace history: My first job was working in an orange juice factory,
Hospitable English is the ‘Great Lagoon of Nations’
Much in the news these days is the spirited debate about nativism vs. “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
When The Name And The Game Turn Out To Be Same
At the nearly completed Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games, Usain (pronounced Yoo-sane) Bolt, the jet-propelled Jamaican dash man, retained his title as the fastest man
Animal Exhibits Commorate Our Zoo Centennial
Starting with only a handful of animals in 1916, our world-famous San Diego Zoo is now home to more than 4,000 creatures representing 800 species.
The Olympics Spotlight Our Sporty English Language
Sometimes it seems that almost all Americans either play sports or watch them. Because competition occupies such a central place in American life and imagination,
Celebrate Our Zoo With A Noah’s Ark Of Group Nouns
You know that a bunch of sheep crowded together is a flock, a group of antelope loping together is a herd, a cluster of fish
U-T Sports Headlines Often Feature Intriguing Phrases
Mark Zeigler’s Aztecs basketball story in a late-March Union-Tribune was headlined SDSU TAKES CARE OF GEORGIA TECH, HEADS TO NIT SEMIS IN BIG APPLE. The
It’s Best Not To Rain On San Diego’s Pride Parade
July is Gay Pride Month, and this morning in San Diego begins a parade celebrating our LGBT residents. This is a good time, then, to
Don’t Let Beastly Verbs Like ‘Buffalo’ Buffalo You
Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a possible sentence, and it raises the question why buffalo has become a verb denoting “to confuse, frustrate, intimidate.”