It's been more than a month, but that's mostly intentional this time. Here's some especially good stuff I've found since the last installment. I could call this the November edition if I hadn't procrastinated.

Headsup - Journalism, science, grammar
Back in October, Words at Work linked to a terrible NYT squib on a supposed new generation of "gotcha" grammarians. Many of us were probably annoyed by this article, but only Headsup took the effort to step up with a takedown. Bonus: He also coined the term "ham, and eggs" comma.

lowercase L
Niche language peeveblogs are the best sort. (In fact, the more generalized "grammar" peeveblogs are usually unbearable.) I thought that this one had an amusing focus.

NYT Magazine - What's in a Name?
When gendered first names cross genders. Mentions a few girl's names that I'd never have thought were once boy's names.

World Wide Words - Boondoggle
The origin on the term boondoggle. Interesting stuff, and it touches on a pet peeve of mine: phony etymologies in journalism.

You Don't Say - Red alert!
John McIntyre's preemptive strike against bad Christmas copy. Worth reading if you're going to be editing anything Christmas-related.

Words to the Wise - More Milwaukee-ese: The bubbler
As someone who went to school in Wisconsin, I found this post on the local word for drinking fountain particularly interesting. Words to the Wise has the blogosphere's Milwaukee-ese market cornered.

Amazing Coincidences in Linguistics
I found this via Wordworker: a list of unconnected but very similar words for the same concept, in different languages.

Bradshaw of the Future - Punch and Finger
Apparently this blog is all re-runs now — oh, and I'm not "with-it" — but this post on the etymological connection between punch (originally made with five ingredients: spirit, water, lemon, sugar, and spice) and finger will make good cocktail chatter fodder.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
A Reuters blog featuring responses to proposed reader corrections, with a format other copy desk blogs would do well to emulate. via The Editor's Desk.

Neatorama - Origins of Common Abbreviations
The origins of V.I.P., Mrs., K, Rx, B.O., D-Day, XXX, and the British £.

Labels: links