Currently playing in theaters is the powerful film “Darkest Hour,” in which Gary Oldman portrays the titanic Winston Churchill in 1940. Against all odds, the new prime minister rallied Britain with soaring oratory against the might of Adolf Hitler. As President John F, Kennedy once said, “Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into […]
We citizens of America’s Finest City were stunned and saddened last week by the sudden passing, at 82, of Dick Enberg, America’s finest sportscaster. As U-T columnist Nick Canepa wrote, “The sporting world suddenly has gone hoarse, losing its consummate voice.” Dodgers announcer Vin Scully dubbed Dick “the greatest all-around sportscaster who ever lived and […]
Yappy Howl-a-Days, dear readers! With help from Clement Clark Moore, who created the original “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and some internet sources, I present my canine version of one of the best-loved poems in the English language: ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not […]
My Aunt Matilda is a very peculiar relative, a woman of strong likes and dislikes. For example, my Aunt Matilda likes apples but not oranges and tennis but not golf. She likes supper but not lunch and butter but not margarine. She likes waffles but not pancakes and jazz but not rock. It took me […]
Nobody gets fired anymore. Nowadays, when people lose their jobs, they are “reclassified,” “rightsized,” “deselected,” “outplaced,” “nonpositively terminated” or any other of dozens of euphemistic verbs that really mean axed, canned, sacked or given the heave-ho. In the continuing search for newer, softer and more ambiguous verbs with which to administer the final blow […]
Language is like the air we breathe. It’s invisible, inescapable, and indispensable, and we take it for granted. But when we take the time to step back and listen to the sounds that escape from the holes in people’s faces and to explore the paradoxes and vagaries of English, we find that hot dogs […]
DEAR RICHARD LEDERER: Please explain the difference between the words historic and historical. –Dennis Cormier, Point Loma Historic refers to events, places and artifacts of great significance, as in “President Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court was an event of historic importance.” Historical refers to history, as a subject, as […]
Thanksgiving is a delicious time of year to nibble on a spicy, meaty, juicy honey of a topic that I know you’ll savor and relish. Feast your eyes on the veritable banquet of mushrooming food expressions that grace the table of our English language and season our tongue. As we chew the fat about […]
November 12-18 is National Bible Week, a time meant to celebrate the power of the Bible in so many lives. The word bible derives from the Greek biblia, which means “books.” Indeed, the Bible is a whole library of books that contain many different kinds of literature — history, narrative, short stories, poetry, philosophy, […]
The Festival of Books, held this past August in Liberty Station, celebrated both literature and literacy. One of the most astonishing stories of acquiring literacy is the life of George Dawson. He was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1898 as the first of five children, a farmer’s son and grandson and great-grandson of African American […]