Weird News – It Happens

Updated: 11-22-2009
 

Posts Tagged ‘words’

Frenemy, locavore among words from pop culture and trends chosen for Merriam-Webster update

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

I just have to know who comes up with this stuff!   It’s bad enough we have a bazillion texting abbreviations now we have dozens of new net words!  Stop IT!  I can’t memorize this many LOL

words2[1]SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Do you use a sock puppet to secretly keep track of your frenemies?

Plan to spend your staycation watching vlogs and webisodes? Or perhaps you plan to signal a flash mob for a quick bite of shawarma.

If you’re not entirely certain what all that means, turn to the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, which has added about 100 new words that largely reflect changing trends in American society.

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Tale of flowin’ rum and screamin’ seafarers honored in bad writing contest

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

I am not sure why someone would want to try and win this contest, but I guess if you can’t compete being good, be the best at bad. You win.

writeSAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A shambling sentence about screaming seafarers on the sturdy whaler Ellie May stood shoulders above the rest in an annual bad writing contest. David McKenzie, 55, of Federal Way, Wash., won the grand prize in San Jose State University’s annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this:

“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin’ off Nantucket Sound from the nor’ east and the dogs are howlin’ for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the “Ellie May,” a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin’ and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

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‘i’ before ‘e’ except after… well nothing

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Here I am 40 years down the road of life and I have mastered a few things, one of them being ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.  Now that’s going away in the UK?   What’s next A squared + B squared = C squared?

ieLONDON (AP) — It’s a spelling mantra that generations of schoolchildren have learned – “i before e, except after c.”

But new British government guidance tells teachers not to pass on the rule to students, because there are too many exceptions.

The “Support For Spelling” document, which is being sent to thousands of primary schools, says the rule “is not worth teaching” because it doesn’t account for words like ’sufficient,’ ‘veil’ and ‘their.’

Jack Bovill of the Spelling Society, which advocates simplified spelling, said Saturday he agreed with the decision.

But supporters say the ditty has value because it is one of the few language rules that most people remember.

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