• August 23 2011

    Phoenix, AZ - Local woman, 31, suffers heart attack while chasing cat around 400 square foot apartment.

    Local authorities say it appears that the native Phoenician, known only as Ronnie D, was simply really, really, really out of shape.

    D, after walking briskly yet lightly so as to not fall through the termite-damaged floor, suffered cardiac arrest after turning into the ‘hall area’ of her small home. It was at that time that she stopped to catch her breath and fell forward into a pile of old Easter baskets, raver beads, and incredibly filthy clothes.

    “Yeah, well, looks like we have a woman just past the prime of her life living off bong rips and cheese,” commented a local man who apparently had no connection to the victim but was the first to arrive at the scene, even before emergency response vehicles. “I knew something was gonna happen someday the way she’d just stay motionless on that ‘couch’ of hers, getting up only to get more cheese. It was actually kinda sad to watch. But I still did.”

    Diagnosis was also not so good for D when emergency personnel arrived at the scene. “There was no chance she was gonna make it,” Smith Smith said as he rummaged through the deceased’s countless piles. Smith is a member of the voluntary Tent City Medical Services Chain Gang, a part of the Republican legislative response to health care reform that not only provides health services to the uninsured, but simultaneously rehabilitates violent criminals. And it looks like it’s working.

    Smith believes that providing lifesaving services to his local community is a great way to escape the sweltering summer heat in those infamous tents. “It feels good to help others. And the sheriff gives us all the water we can drink - even way out here! We truly are blessed.”

    Who is not blessed, however, is the woman taken later than those who performed her autopsy can believe. “Her respiratory system was completely clogged with dust and cat hair,” explained Dr. Oz as he performed the exploratory procedure live on primetime TV.

    “You could tell this woman didn’t have much to live for,” commented Joey Lawrence, Dr. Oz’s special surprise autopsy guest star assistant. “I mean, sure, I still wear flannels around my waist occasionally, but this woman… this woman was wearing only a flannel - backwards - like some sort of twisted lumberjack hospital gown when they found her. I mean, who does that?” Lawrence shook his head in disgust, “Not to mention all her major organs had actually turned to cheese. Whoa.”

    It’s true, D’s organs had all turned to cheese. After passing her liver through the first row of the live audience, it was whipped into a low-cal, gluten-free dish by Dr. Oz’s special surprise autopsy chef, Gordon Ramsay. “She’s still got a number of organs left,” Ramsay slyly remarked, “Not that I’m saying anything in particular, but it looks like the upcoming fall season of Master Chef is going to be HOT.”

    After the show aired, reporters attempted to contact D’s surviving relatives, but none are coming forward, leaving only her cats as heirs to her pile fortune. Astonishingly, while opening her ‘estate’ for the neighbors to loot, workers discovered that the felines communicated with an elaborate mixture of signs, a systematic series of meows (what can only be described as Morse Meow), and air guitar from extremely emotional 1980s power ballads.

    “It’s a linguistic breakthrough,” exclaimed Sara-Ruan-Diebfrau, an out-of-work linguist who picked up a part-time position with the estate reclamation company. “It’s a tough market out there, and this discovery gives me an edge and focus for my dissertation. Not to mention an entirely new linguistics library! I can’t believe an out-of-work barista had so many books on the topic. She must have dated a linguist or something.”

    Memorial and looting services for D will be held at her former residence until the city comes to remove the body, which is scheduled to occur sometime before the real football season starts.

    Aug 23, 2011 @ 11:06 am

    post tags: Joey Lawrence cats cheese losing my mind summer in Phoenix linguistics

  • September 25 2010

    "

    White space, I would argue, should be considered a form of punctuation, partly because other traditional marks of punctuation work have been designed to create it. Let’s take, for example, borscht belt comedian Henny Youngman’s most famous joke, which I found punctuated four different ways online:

    1. Take my wife, please.
    2. Take my wife … please.
    3. Take my wife. Please.
    4. Take my wife — please.

    If the secret of humor is timing, then the secret of timing on the page is punctuation. In this case, my preference is #4. The comma offers the least separation between the premise and the punch line. The ellipsis is too airy. The period separates elements of a complete thought, turning what should be one sentence into two. But the dash manages to both connect and separate the elements. Notice that part of that separation is the creation of white space between “wife” and “please.”

    "

    Roy Peter Clark :: On National Punctuation Day, Let’s Celebrate White Space : Poynter Online

    via sasquatchmedia

    (via opalandtheidiot)

    Oh how I love this sort of talk.

    Maybe I do need to go back for my doctorate…

    Arg.

    Sep 25, 2010 @ 5:25 pm

    post tags: linguistics language grammar syntax awesome arg

  • August 22 2010

    Micchi and Yoko were our next door neighbors last year at Burning Man. They were from Japan and starting a year-long vacation in BRC. They only knew a few words of English… and we didn’t know any Japanese.
As a linguist, this was an incredible experience. To interact without a common language in the best city on the planet. We drew pictures, we pointed at things for hours, we took our junk out. Together.
I can’t wait to see what this year holds…
The Man burns in 13 days!!!

    Micchi and Yoko were our next door neighbors last year at Burning Man. They were from Japan and starting a year-long vacation in BRC. They only knew a few words of English… and we didn’t know any Japanese.

    As a linguist, this was an incredible experience. To interact without a common language in the best city on the planet. We drew pictures, we pointed at things for hours, we took our junk out. Together.

    I can’t wait to see what this year holds…

    The Man burns in 13 days!!!

    Aug 22, 2010 @ 7:53 pm

    post tags: burning man burners brc black rock city awesome things to be happy about linguistics language communication culture

  • July 1 2010

    "Phoenix has become a portal for just about anything bad."

    The Trouble with Arizona | The New York Review of Books (via opalandtheidiot)

    Jul 1, 2010 @ 8:39 pm

    post tags: Phoenix Arizona local issues language linguistics definitions immigration SB 1070 politics activism

  • June 22 2010

    When dinner has this many adjectives, you know it’s gonna be good.

    When dinner has this many adjectives, you know it’s gonna be good.

    Jun 22, 2010 @ 8:53 pm

    post tags: dinner grammar language linguistics syntax adjectives frozen pizza

  • June 6 2010

    Oh my God. Where on Earth do I live??
This truck was also sporting the “Keep the Change” bumper sticker I’ve been seeing around town more and more.
Summer in Phoenix 2010… you’re gonna be a rough one. I can feel it.

    Oh my God. Where on Earth do I live??

    This truck was also sporting the “Keep the Change” bumper sticker I’ve been seeing around town more and more.

    Summer in Phoenix 2010… you’re gonna be a rough one. I can feel it.

    Jun 6, 2010 @ 2:24 pm

    post tags: bumper stickers Phoenix Arizona local issues vegetarian socialization linguistics definitions

  • December 10 2009

    "Definitions do nothing but describe our linguistic habits."

    S.I. Hayakawa from Language in Thought and Action

    Dec 10, 2009 @ 10:56 am

    post tags: Hayakawa definitions linguistics

  • I’m exhausted by The Patriarchy. I’m tired of the false sexual empowerment of women today. Women becoming more and more “comfortable in their sexuality” as they slide into pleasure roles dicatated by those in power. To appear exactly like a porn star, to be there solely for the sexual satisfaction of men.

    Last night I watched the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. I watched the search for the newest runway Angel, hoping Tyra would fly in out of nowhere and wreck shit. I watched these highly chiseled women stand in front of some balding physical trainer while he pointed out every body part that wasn’t good enough. He made them lunge across the floor to get rid of the parts of their “butts” that “bothered [him].” And as they were suffering, working out harder than ever before and in pain, he made them yell that they still loved him. And as they pleaded for your vote, America, they added nice porn touches to the end, letting you know that they were doing it - for you.

    I watched the women in the audience go crazy during the runway show. I saw their men go fucking nuts. I saw the marketing towards Baby Boomer males trying to lower their cholesterol. And I saw the newest commercials from Victoria’s Secret.

    Women, they want you to know you are a bombshell, a beautiful instrument of war. Hey bombshell, buy this, drive every man crazy. That’s what you want. That’s what you need. That’s all you exist for.

    Men, they want you to know that their products are really for you. Their lingerie is just one gift for her, but a thousand fantasies for you, you fucking strong, dominant man. Then the commercial, directed by Michael Bay, flashed through all the possibilities of things women will do for you in Victoria’s Secret lingerie. Of course, with a little violence, multiple women at your beck and call, and an homage to the facial at around 00:48.

    I think that paintballplayer700 said it best when he commented on this commercial:

    “Anyone who doesn’t like this commercial is not a man. It’s like if you took a shitty Michael Bay movie and edited out all the shitty parts where people are reading his ham-fisted dialogue, just leaving the explosions, big-breasted women, helicopters and fighter planes, and sex.”

    Well said, paintballplayer700.

    And with that, I’m convinced that the word “man” is long overdue for its semantic revolution.

    2009-12- 10T10:32:00Z Dec 10, 2009 @ 10:32 am

    post tags: The Patriarchy Victoria's Secret be a man facials linguistics gender socialization