The New Badger Partnership at S&W

Over at Sifting & Winnowing, some public discussion has finally begun about the so-called "New Badger Partnership". This is the Chancellor's plan to gain budget 'flexibilities' from the state. These changes, given the current political and fiscal environment, could be dramatic and we need to know what's going on.

If you have any connection to the UW, you need to be informed about this issue. I'm checking S&W regularly.

Smash mouth, every which way

With the Badger State in full collapse and the once great University of Wisconsin – Madison in grave danger, I've taken to my bed, stopped eating, thinking and blogging. Just hanging on, trying to make it to Super Bowl Sunday, like most of the state.

But Ben Zimmer's On Language column this week has pulled me back from the edge. Or at least gotten me to venture to the computer and write this post.

The topic is smash mouth, in three cool ways: Early attestation as UW student slang (meaning 'to make out'), in football usage (something the Badgers have long specialized in), and as the name of the great band, Smash Mouth.

Wow, it suddenly feels like the days are getting longer and maybe we'll make it after all. At least maybe I'll start blogging again.

Go Pack.

American Community Survey data on language use

Readers of this blog might be interested to see the latest data on language use from the American Community Survey, part of the U.S. Census Bureau. Go here and you'll find some useful information on U.S. home language use (English and other languages), as well as interesting reports and papers/presentations on related topics.

Mark

Unbank me, you scoundrel!

Today's New York Times (not that I usually read the business section) had a column about banks starting to charge more fees, and they quoted JP Morgan Chase bank as saying, "We don't want to raise fees on our customers... But unfortunately, regulation is forcing us to do it. And as a result, some customers may end up unbanked." Since one of my responsibilities for the honor of participating in the Mr. Verb empire is to search out weird verbs, I thought I would report this one. It was new to me, but gets "about" 214,000 google hits, including its own Wikipedia entry (where I learned that you could be unbanked or underbanked). So I guess it's fairly common. Still makes me giggle, though.

Not me. Never again.

Forgive me, but lolcats make me laugh. Especially this one.

Allan Metcalf's OK: The improbable story of American's greatest word

Ah, reader mail. I got this back in November:

Hey Mr. Verb,

Long time fan, first time caller. Er I mean, mailer. Just a quick question about this recent NYT Book Review article I saw.

I’ve always wondered about the etymology of OK, but find the explanation given as a misspelled abbreviation for “Oll Korrect” to be less than satisfactory. It’s so pervasive that this seems like a strange place for it to have spawned from – editor speech and/or a joke in newspapers. Do you happen to know more about this? How valid is this theory??

Thanks for any light you can shed on it!

Now I'm finally reading Metcalf's book, the subject of that review. He follows a line of argument developed by the late great Allen Walker Read, who originally traced the history. Metcalf in fact lays out in great detail just how unlikely that etymology would seem to be, but just how strong the case for it is. It's a remarkable story, but probably the key is that there was a craze, or maybe kraze I should write, of odd abbreviations and joking misspellings in the Boston Morning Post. It caught on with other papers and went viral, to really chop the story down. The same editor, Charles Gordon Greene, apparently used lots of other playful things, like O.W. for 'all right', which did NOT catch on. Word history is a weird and shaky enterprise most of the time, but this is a pretty decent looking story, from what I can see.

Metcalf goes through a pile of other stories. I highly recommend the book -- which Oxford sent to a member of Team Verb for review, by the way -- as a nice read. This is exactly the kind of book, by the way, that people who call themselves 'language lovers' should read ... it's clear and accessible and gives non-specialists, I think, a good picture of how to think about language history and language use. And Metcalf writes in a really easy style. If you've ever seen him preside over the Word of the Year discussions, you'll hear his voice as you read.

Pack your bags ...

News reports on the upcoming Linguistic Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh are getting more numerous, and the word is now out in Pittsburgh itself, here. Kind of amazing to see how much coverage the field is getting … extended quotes there from Keren Rice, Allan Metcalf, and others, including the LSA's own Alyson Reed.

PhD challenge 2011!

For the academic readers of this blog, the website phdchallenge.org should be a well-worn bookmark. Here's the deal:

The idea of the PhD Challenge is to have students perform some task that the average graduate student is too timid to perform. It takes a unique caliber of student to overcome adversity and the ire of their adviser in order to complete this challenge.

Well, maybe YOUR adviser. Here is this year's challenge. The basics:

The goal of this year’s challenge is to get one of the nicknames “Dirty Old Man” or “Crazy Cat Lady” included in the byline for at least one author of a final, camera-ready version of a peer-reviewed academic paper. As an example, an eligible submission could contain the authors John “Dirty Old Man” Smith and/or Jane “Crazy Cat Lady” Smith. The target nickname must appear in the front matter of a paper that is at least three pages long and is published in the proceedings or journal of an English-speaking academic organization. See the contest rules for additional information and conference requirements, or refer to the FAQ for additional examples.

Now sure, you could 'win' this 'challenge'. But them's small potatoes. For this, you could become an academic legend for generations to come. To the doctoral students of Team Verb: We would be sooooo proud. And while we're at it, bonus points for John "Crazy Cat Lady" Smith and/or Jane "Dirty Old Man" Smith.

Image is one of a gazillion of the Simpson's character. Opted against the lolcat 'crazy cat lady starter kit' images.