from a book review by Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 25 February 2010, page C9:
“The tacitly homosexual relationship of Witold and Fryderyk further intensifies the book’s perfervid kinkiness.”
(aren’t we past writing things like this?)
Monthly Archives: February 2010
147: Gender Language
Headline and sub-head in the Washington Post, 25 February 2010, page D1:
“Olympic dream comes true for GW alum / Elana Meyers and teammate Erin Pac take home the bronze in women’s two-man bobsled”
(not “two-woman bobsled”?)
146: “Retard/ed” – The “R-Word”
The alphabet is rapidly filling. Now we have ‘the R-word’ to go along with ‘the N-word’ and ‘the J-word’, the ‘J’ courtesy of Google and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus. Perhaps only Sammy Davis, Jr., would be an example simultaneously of J-, N-, and R-.
Of course the grand original was ‘the F-word’, making four. Sammy Davis probably qualified under that, too. There are twenty-two letters of the English alphabet left. Oh, yes, we mustn’t forget ‘the L-word’, ‘Liberal’. Twenty-one. Any more ‘x-word’ candidates?
***
Somewhat more seriously, here’s a post from Scientific American sci am online for 10 February, 2010:
“The word “retarded” seems to me to imply a temporary condition — just a little slower to catch up, will eventually do so. But that’s not what happens to most “retarded” people — they never “catch up”. I believe that “intellectual disability” is the more descriptive term of the two. I observe that “retarded” was originally a euphemism, and a poor choice of terminology besides. Time for a new euphemism!”
145: An Oddity of American Surnames
An unusual number of American surnames that begin with ‘R’ end in ‘S’. Why is this?
Data: Of the 500 most common American surnames, 34 begin with ‘R’. Of these, –
12 end in ‘S’ (Roberts, Reeves, etc.)
6 others end in an ‘S’ sound (Ruiz, Reese, etc.)
The remaining 16 end in other letters or sounds.
[Source: 'Frequently Occurring Surnames in Census 1990' at www.census.gov]
144: Double-Take Headlines
(1) Washington Post, February 5, 2010, page B1:
“Parking flap ends in gun charge —- Anger counselor held in Fairfax —- Accused of pulling pistol on federal marshals blocking Jeep”
(2) And my all-time favorite headline, printed several years ago in the Washington Post:
“Self-Help Group Gets Grant”
