In which a black guy is accused of being a white racist. I guess that’s one of those things that white people like.
Me, I didn’t see it as being about Obama. He didn’t write the bill, after all. The cartoon was obviously about Nancy Pelosi. So I guess it’s sexist. Or botoxist. Or something.
This is primarily a matter of mathematical curiosity to me, because I’m not a triskadecaphobe, but we get two Friday the thirteenths in a row this year. Because February happens to be a month exactly divisible by a week (it not being a leap year). Today is the first, four weeks from now will be the second.
In case you cared.
A young woman is suing Central Michigan University for being discriminated against as a heterosexual.
It was bound to happen eventually, such is the state of academia.
An updated survey of desirable attributes between 1930 and now, with a lot of interesting discussion. I agree that in a more-free, secular culture, evolutionary traits are going to be more powerful. But I also agree that college students aren’t necessarily representative.
Did Harry Reid commit one?
While I defer to no one in my disdain for our mentally challenged Majority Leader, this may be a little unfair. Unless he wrote it, how can one be sure that he said “…another thing coming,” rather than the (correct) “…another think coming”? I haven’t heard the audio, but how does the listener discern between the “k” sound at the end of “think” and the same consonant sound at the beginning of “coming”?
I discussed a similar problem previously, in speculating why aerospace engineers say “detail design” rather than (the more grammatically correct, in my opinion) “detailed design.” The “d” at the beginning of “design” masks the one at the end of detailed, and perhaps many just hear “detail design” and it has become an industry standard phrase (that I hate).
And yes, I was in fact previously unfamiliar with the concept of an eggcorn.
[Friday update]
Wow. I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe.
I have two commenters (one close to my age) who have never (or at least they think that they’ve never) heard the expression “…another think coming” and always heard (or said) “…another thing coming.” I am exactly the opposite. Until yesterday, I had never heard anyone say “…another thing coming,” whereas I’ve heard the expression from childhood with the word “think.” While it’s not grammatical (yes, “think” is a verb, not a noun), it’s colloquial, and it makes sense — “if you think that, you have another think coming.” Another “thing” coming makes no sense at all to me. “Another” implies that there was a first one, but what was the first “thing” being referred to? I’m pretty sure that it’s a confusion caused by the similar consonants that join the two words.
And while we’re on the subject, another one that I see on line all the time (and was very prevalent in Usenet) is “dribble” for drivel. Again, a case of mishearing the word.
A collection.
I don’t blame Michael Phelps for apologizing. He has a living to earn, so he did what he had to do.
In the meantime, I merely note that this broken wreck of a man’s failure to win any more than a pathetic fourteen Olympic gold medals (so far) is a terrifying warning of the horrific damage that cannabis can do to someone’s health—and a powerful reminder of just how sensible the drug laws really are.
At any rate, now we know the real story of why he ate 10,000 calories a day…
Wayne Hale is shocked, shocked to discover gambling in this establishment.
Sorry, but that’s how bureaucracies work, Wayne. It goes with being a federal agency, unfortunately, particularly when what the agency is doing is perceived to be politically unimportant.
More discussion over at NASA Watch, where I found this.
From Lileks. But “tweeted” for the past tense of “tweet” just doesn’t sound right. Wouldn’t “twat” be better?
Oh. Right.
..that should die. As they note in comments, he left out the Evil Corporation, and tired trope that businessmen are heartless monsters. I’ve written about the latter in the past.
Of course, if you got rid of all these cliches, Hollywood would pretty much be out of business.