February 25th, 2008

Evolution of Rhetoric

“Give me liberty, or give me death!”
- Patrick Henry, 1775

“Our most basic civil liberty is the right to be kept alive*.”
- Mitt Romney, 2008

*Please note:  It’s not even  “to stay alive,” but rather “to be kept alive.”  There’s a scary double-entendre for you.

February 15th, 2008

This just in: falling on sharp objects is dangerous

http://cbs2chicago.com/investigations/hook.accidents.display.2.650699.html

Give me a fucking break, people. Are we going to begin a worldwide crusade against all sharp objects? Hold your kid’s hand in the store for fuck’s sake.

Assholes.

February 14th, 2008

Mondegreens and Eggcorns

Today I came across the Wikipedia entry for “eggcorn,” a recently-coined linguistic term that describes one of my ultimate pet peaves. I know I should be forgiving, but to my mind few things make a person seem stupid than the use of a term they have mis-heard or misunderstood, an “eggcorn.”

A few examples:
“For all [...]

February 11th, 2008

What will we shake it like now?

Polaroid has announced that it is getting out of the instant-photo business.

I’ve always believed that the only reason so many people invested in the small, expensive, terrible-looking instant photos that are the product of Polaroid cameras is because they want to avoid the embarrassment (or potential legal ramifications) of bringing their amateur porn to the [...]

February 11th, 2008

Death by Diet Soda?

This is the second time I’ve seen an article that supposes a link between diet soda and “metabolic syndrome” (basically another name for all the bad stuff that happens to you — diabetes, heart disease, etc — when you’re fat) and it pisses me off.  The way these surveys are done is basically to take [...]