Word Du Jour

Well, hello stranger…

Tom Joad — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:46:53 +0000

Pic by Patrick Hoesly (zooboing) @ Flickr

I’m getting worse at this blog updating business. I have had a draft sitting around for months now, but I need the right tools before I can finish the job. If any of you lovely, lovely readers out there know of a runic font (TrueType, OpenType, that sort of [...]

Crash Blossoms

Tom Joad — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:49:22 +0000

Pic by DRB62 @ Flickr

“Has Tom lost his spherical glass playthings?”, I hear you say. Not at all. The rather lovely and fun title ‘Crash Blossoms’ is, in fact, the term now used for headlines in newspapers, magazines and journals that just don’t read quite right. The term itself comes from an American editor based [...]

Daphne Does Dictionaries

Tom Joad — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:08:24 +0000

Pic by garlandcannon @ Flickr

Hello all, remember me? The one who glibly assured you that I’d be posting more this year? Well, I have been better, but time slips by, and well, you know…

The charming Daphne Wayne-Bough has obviously noted that this blog has been emptier than the manifesto of the British National Party, and [...]

Krazy Keltic or Silly Seltic?

Tom Joad — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:19:31 +0000

Pic by Ontzy @ sxc.hu

As I am in the habit of doing, I found myself in an idle moment the other day musing upon why the Scottish football team (that would be ‘soccer’ to my American readers) Glasgow Celtic is pronounced with a soft c (an ‘s’, in effect) rather than following the usual convention [...]

Word Herd

Tom Joad — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:21:49 +0000

Rounding up this week’s mystery words

image courtesy of gumdropgas @ flickr

Nothing specific this time around, word fans. More a collection of bits that have blipped on my radar recently. I’m going to have to stop talking to Mrs Joad, as she invariably says something to the effect of “hey, word man – what does (insert [...]

Missing Letters

Tom Joad — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:32:35 +0000

No, this is not a post about absentee landlords.

OK, two resolutions for the new year. First, post more on Word du Jour, second, stop the crap jokes. Anyone care to take bets on which one collapses first?

The idea for this post comes from my curiosity about why the name Dalziel is pronounced ‘Dee-ell’ in English. On [...]

It’s Whaturday?

Tom Joad — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:06:40 +0000

Another post following a conversation in which I tried to be smug and clever and failed. Everyone knows where the days of the week get their names, right? I thought I did, but became hopelessly lost on definitions for Tuesday and Friday. So, it was a little like naming the seven dwarves: Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, and [...]

Onoes! Meme haz gon too far

Tom Joad — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:35:04 +0000

Indulge me here, dear reader (you know who you are) while I regale you with a story of how a joke can be pushed a little too far – even on the internet, where the boundaries of taste and other things differ wildly from real life.

Lolcats – and lolcat speak – thatz liek soooo last year. [...]

Absolutely ages

Tom Joad — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:39:15 +0000

…that’s how long it’s been since I posted anything. Well, I’ve been busy, what with one thing and another, you know.

Nothing too weighty this time around – just a bit of fun. I must admit to having been quite stumped when asked by Madame Joad (who considers me something of an authority on English colloquialisms) what [...]

Loosing my patience

Tom Joad — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:47:44 +0000

It’s a funny thing, language. I am guilty of defending the usage of the English language and its grammar (if ‘guilty’ is the correct term), but I am also prepared to concede that the reason English has become the worldwide lingua franca is entirely due to its malleability and adaptability. Let’s face it, the Aussies and [...]