Foenetics and typesetting

When you get old, you start noticing the obits, it seems. And sometimes you find out about amazing lives. The NYT has this on Edward Rondthaler. The name rings a bell, but not for his role as a "Foenetic Speler" — he was also a very significant figure in modern typsetting, …

by helping usher in the age of photographic typesetting. Phototypesetting was for decades a vital bridge between the hot-metal days of old and the digital typography of today.

Some of us worked with stuff* before hot-metal, but I guess we're all in the obits or reading the obits these days.

*And no, I was never told to mind my Ps and Qs.

Image from his old company, here.

Furlough update: Optimality Theorists singled out

That was a page 1 headline in the Wisconsin State Journal print edition this morning. (The online version of course would have to have a different title.)

Bad phonology jokes aside, it shows again the absurdity of the way furloughs are being handled in Wisconsin: People are furloughed as a kind of temporary pay cut, then the same people are paid time and a half to cover the necessary shifts.

Yooper makes national news

Wow, Yooper makes USA Today (and a huge string of other papers):

Upper Peninsula's dialect gets closer listen

I saw the story earlier but didn't track it down ... so, we've missed it now. It has to have been a huge success.

Image of the museum from here.

Problem solving

This actually looks like a pretty normal flow chart to solving problems in general for much of the world, from what I can tell:

Ambrose Bierce

I don't know about you, but I'm probably enjoying Safire's vacation more than he is. The set of stand-ins this week has Jan Freeman doing On Language, talking about the author of one of the first books about language and usage — maybe the first, actually — I ever owned, Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary. (Have been looking for my ancient copy, in fact, but haven't turned it up yet.)

The inventor of the term peevology (and related forms, I guess) gives pretty compelling reminder that language does change and that we have to deal with it by showing that 100 years ago, peeves were often things that make no sense to us today, like finding the word dirt "disagreeable". Bottom line:

But when did you last make a distinction between necessities and necessaries, or various and several? Half of our pet peeves could seem equally arcane by 2109 — and we don’t know which half.

Yup. You need to read the piece.

"Language Freedom"

California maybe about to get a "Language Freedom" law, if Arnold Schwarzenegger signs it, as laid out here. Jesse Choper, Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at Cal's Boalt Hall, is attributed with what we'll declare the understatement of the week:

the protection is "not off the wall by any means" … language can be a source of discrimination that people have limited control over.

Image from here.

In layman's terms

The numbers that shape our world, from the Onion:

Linguistic diversity in rural central Wisconsin

Last Saturday, I bicycled north from Madison for much of the day. Once the thunderstorms passed and the sun came out, it was beautiful riding. Biking is a great way to observe the countryside, but sometimes you get bonuses. Up around the line between Marquette and Waushara Counties, I saw some telltale signs of Old Order Amish presence -- houses without electrical lines going to them, mountains of Amish clothing hanging out to dry on lines and, yes, horse apples all over the right edge of the road. There are communities in nearby Green Lake County, so no surprise. Eventually, I saw a small buggy ahead, drawn by two horses. I passed it and waved to the old guy driving, who waved back and nodded. Before I could even start to think about how interesting it is that we're getting such robust growth of Pennsylvania Dutch (or whatever you prefer to call that language), I saw two bikes coming the other way. In that area, seeing Amish buggies is more common than bikes. The first rider was a guy and when I waved at him, he grinned and waved and yelled out "Tag!" Just as I start to wonder 'wait, what, German?', the second, a woman, comes and I wave again and she hollered back "Tag!" No doubt about it ... Germans. North Germans, in fact, judging from the very clear velar fricative at the end there.

200 yards or so, two very different Germanic languages.

"Nearly 40 edible items are served on a stick"

It's State Fair time in Wisconsin, and you know what that means:

"Nearly 40 edible items are served on a stick at the Wisconsin State Fair"

Sure, we got your Chocolate-covered bacon on a stick, and your Fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a stick. But Cheesecake on a stick?

Full story, with pictures, here. That include the image here, by Tom Alesia. Yummers.

Eskimo Snow sighting!

I'm always on the alert for references to those wacky Eskimos and their multiplicitous words for snow, and just caught one in a New Yorker article (5/28/08 - yes, I'm a little behind) about hangovers, and the words that different languages have for hangover:

In keeping with the saying about the Eskimos' nine words for snow, the Ukrainians have several words for hangover.

Nine, huh?  You gotta love the precision.  And the implication about the Ukrainians is most unkind...

(Image from here; I hope it's okay to use it - I'm never really sure what the rules are on this...)

Ben Zimmer, Superstar

Wow. Keith Olbermann just gave Ben Zimmer as his (second) Best Person in the World, for setting the record straight on Walter Cronkite's last name (not) becoming noun for journalists in Dutch and Swedish. See here with links to earlier posts.

Forgive me for quoting crude (and ironic, when it's not ironic here) material, but Wonkette said it so well:

Fuck the Pulitzer. We are talking NOBEL PRIZE here, for awesomeness.

Yes, pure awesomeness.

Kudos, "Mr. Zimmer", kudos.

Update, Tues. noon: Here's the video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/32307229#32307229

To the Mammomat, Robin!

If I told you I went to the Mammomat last week, where would you think I had gone? Perhaps to a laundry that specializes in breast washing? Or to a restaurant filled with vending machines that sell breasts? No, I went for a mammogram. Every time I go that machine name makes me giggle. But the topic doesn't. A friend has a link on her email signature to this: feelyourboobies, a great site.