Here's a very niche question: does anyone here study ancient languages and has experience in the pronunciation of Akkadian words? And before a million randos tell me that we don't know what dead languages sound like, there are scholars who spend their whole lives on this stuff.

Best book title encountered recently: _Scatalog: Quick ID Guide to Southern African Animal Droppings_. And not only is this real, but it's published by a major publisher (@penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social)! www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/scatalo...

"A thoroughly delightful read, from that arresting introduction to the copious and often hilarious endnotes." My review of "Unabridged," by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social: fritinancy.substack.com/p/book-revie...

New entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "Encyclopedia Galactica", prominently (though not originally) in Asimov's Foundation series, but also in HHGTTG, Carl Sagan, _Contact_, & more. We love reference works of all kinds! sfdictionary.com/view/1447/en...

Stefan's reading yesterday was an absolute delight! Community Bookstore was packed, they sold out all their copies, Stefan and Vinson were an awesome team, audience asked great questions. Get the book if you don't have it already!

@lancerichardson.bsky.social being interviewed by @shamblanderson.bsky.social at the NYPL, for the publication of True Nature, his biography of Peter Matthiessen

Happy pub day to me! Also pictured, bottom to top: Webster's Third (1961); battered Webster's New World (1974; my first dictionary); Webster's Collegiate, Fifth Edition (inscribed by my immigrant father in 1949)

Eight years ago, I drove to Sag Harbor and sat down for tea with Maria Matthiessen, telling her I wanted to write a book about her late husband, Peter. She warned me against it: a Sisyphean task! I pushed on anyway. (Maria was right.) And today, miraculously, is publication day for TRUE NATURE.

Thorough look at the history of the former name of the Washington Commanders, esp. as seen through the @merriam-webster.com files, from @stefanfatsis.bsky.social (whose new book about dictionaries is being published this week).

“It *is* an acronym”

My new book, UNABRIDGED, published by @groveatlantic.bsky.social, is out! It took a long time to report and write and I'm proud of it and would be grateful if you bought it and would love to see people when I'm traveling to promote it. Consider this an official book thread

Do you have an allergy to LaTeX? Try groff instead! (Shamelessly copied from @[email protected] on Mastodon.)

Here for @modaviau.bsky.social's NYC launch of her great new novel Epic and Lovely, at Lofty Pigeon Books in Kensington. Also bought @davidwondrich.bsky.social's new Comic History while here. Support local bookstores!

New entries for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: the "retro-futurism" terms, to support upcoming entries. Mostly based on the OED entries (though "-futurist" is an antedating). 1980s–. sfdictionary.com/view/3045/re... sfdictionary.com/view/3052/re... sfdictionary.com/view/3044/re...

If it's October it must be GDoS Update time. And so it is: #36. A few notes (and a pic of an invaluable supporter) here: jonathongreen.substack.com/p/gdos-updat...

Some pretty impressive harvest supermoon action going on in NYC right now. (I'm not a photographer, I'm not even gonna try.)

Current reading: Sloane Crosley on the writer's drinking life: yalereview.org/article/cros...

More on Jilly Cooper: Just wanted to point out that the term _bonkbuster_, appearing frequently in coverage of her death, is in fact really used in the UK, not just a one-off joke. And yes, it's in the OED! Here's the entry, which has the deets:

Attn whisky fans in NYC: Astor is having a big sale on Lagavulin 16, probably my favorite non-"special" single-malt bottling, at the fantastic price of $80/bottle: www.astorwines.com/item/37788

RIP Jilly Cooper. I skeeted this last year as part of a discussion on the meaning of "middle-class" in BrE vs. AmE:

And 10 months later it's grown considerably: over 150 names featured, many of them with (I'd say) fascinating lives. Please take a look—try picking a name at random—and share/link to the website if you know anyone interested in the #OED or its history. (Yes, I'm autotrombating again.)

Struggled through yesterday's WSJ #crossword puzzle, admiring how smart it was, and only when I finished it did I realize that it was of course by @benzimmer.bsky.social.

For you conspiracy-theory fans, a very important new entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "medbed", in use regularly since the late 1980s: sfdictionary.com/view/3049/me... (We do not discuss the conspiracy-theory stuff; that's not our jam.)

"There's artificial intelligence, and there's actual intelligence" is a _great_ tagline.

A lot of great things in this auction, but for the modernists out there, here's Allen Tate's annotated first edition, first issue copy of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land www.swanngalleries.com/auction-lot/...

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. — D. H. Lawrence, "Self-Pity"

WE HAVE LIFTOFF www.kickstarter.com/projects/tom...

I just nominated Paper Airplane’s lead article, “The Shape of Color” by @korystamper.bsky.social, for next year’s Best American Science & Nature Writing! Here’s a preview.

I guess I should share this, as I'm in it. On the other hand, if you read it and don't think you'll be interested in the conversations with any of the other lexicographers in the book, then you're that much less likely to buy the book. But what the hell. lithub.com/how-to-build...

That thing where a Parisian friend asks _me_ about the best cocktail bars in Paris. #smug

Thrilled to see @sternbergh.bsky.social used as a source text in Charles Bonnot's paper about the difficulty of translating the word _fuck_ into French.

Sent to me (nothing to do with the current trip). #Linguistics #Scots #dialect

Question from an Englishman: "If you were going to elect him as king, why did you bother rebelling against George III in the first place? You could have stuck with us and had a bit of class!"

That sad, sad thing where you are leaving town just before the World French Fry Championships begin.

BIG NEWS, FRIENDOS

Sad news that the double bass player Danny Thompson (Pentangle, Richard [no relation] Thompson, Bert Jansch, Alexis Korner, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Donovan, Marianne Faithfull, Peter Gabriel, and so many other greats) has died.

A scolding usage note, from Webster's 1864. Does anyone know of such things (as an organized category of typeset notes) in an earlier dictionary? @misterslang.bsky.social @jessesword.com @jacklynch000.bsky.social

I am not generally an overly fancy person, but why does this sound like an industrial waste product? "Parsley stem"? Why not "compost"?

Topics of conversation at academic conference in northern France, in approximate order of concern expressed by interlocutors: 1. WTF is going on in America now? Really, WTF? 2. Who is Charlie Kirk? I'd never heard of him before. ... 99. [academic topics that are the focus of the conference]

Just in case any of you are in rhe Midwest and want to attend this Medieval Monsters conference, I'm giving the keynote on Oct 17! www.dom.edu/medieval-mon...

France, I am in you! For the wtf.sciencesconf.org conference (thank you @fmoncomble.tract-linguistes.org for organizing!). Decided to treat my jetlag by walking 5 miles across Paris with my luggage and joining @misterslang.bsky.social for a wine-soaked lunch. Terrible idea. OR WAS IT A GREAT IDEA?

A thrilling and important essay about H.W. Fowler by @byagoda.bsky.social in The New Yorker: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Fascinating @merriam-webster.com entry for "aulos". I'm not sure I recall ever seeing a #dictionary entry that corrects a misconception in the body of the definition itself. Feels particularly un-Merriam. @petersokolowski.bsky.social?

Trying to get ready for a flight, but accidentally found a 24-year antedating of OED's entry for _pre-cum_, from an Olympia Press book, so had to send that in.

Technologically advance a band: Streaminghead

A rare contextual example of the slang term _Abe_ 'a $5 bill', which appears in today's NYT #Crossword. This one is Williams S. Burroughs, "The Evening News," from _Exterminator!_ (1973). cc @rexparker.bsky.social

Finalizing a conference talk. I love being able to write sentences like "I simply don't believe that anyone other than someone writing bad pornography for money has ever referred to a woman's vagina as her 'fuck cave'."

New entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "Mercurian", a language/dialect spoken on Mercury or by Mercurians. Like many of the language-of-our-solar-system terms, it was common mid-century, but is now rare. From 1914, but antedatings welcome! sfdictionary.com/view/2665/me...

Store I must visit: Bookz&Booze, in Antwerp. Sells a curated selection of books that are paired with a bottle of alcohol that matches them in some way. bookznbooze.be/antwerpen/

What idiot called them publicists instead of hypewriters?