Words Can Heal
A new non-profit was launched in September 2001 to reduce verbal violence and gossip in the United States, particularly in American schools. America was reeling from September 11 and we were in a state of crisis. Anger and fear caused us to strike out and nationalism and patriotism had the unintended side effects of alienating … Read more
Arty Words
From the New York Times Art Candy Mel Bochner’s Blah, Blah Blah (maroon) 2008Courtesy of Peter Freeman, Inc Words show up in the most unexpected places and in the most unusual ways. While walking through New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in the spring of 2004, discovering what the latest and greatest trends were … Read more
Scrabble for the Right Word
It is a game that generates debates over the merits of quintar, qoph and qua as well as ba, be, bi, and bo – these are all legitimate words for SCRABBLE, a game invented during the American Great Depression by Alfred M. Butts, an out-of-work architect from Poughkeepsie, New York. The history of SCRABBLE is … Read more
For the word nerd who has everything (or it’s for a good cause)
This Scrabble board is exclusive and encrusted with about 30,000 Swarovski crystals. It was designed by Hasbro to mark the 60th anniversary of the game and was exhibited at the American International Toy Fair in New York. It is priced at $20,000 and is set to be auctioned this summer. At this time, all the … Read more
Keep the Words during Summer Vacation
Taking a break from schoolbooks during the summer doesn’t mean your children need to push words into the closet until autumn. Without the pressure of deadlines, structured assignments and exams, reading and writing on a lazy summer day can be just plain fun. If just plain fun feels too dangerous or too lazy, you can … Read more
The Dictionary Lady spreads the words
This is another article first published at Suite101.com years ago, but it’s still relevant now. I just checked the Dictionary Project Web site and discovered it’s still going strong. The “Dictionary Lady” put words in the hands of every third grader in South Carolina in 2001. What began as a one-woman project to deliver dictionaries … Read more
Pressing Sushi
Pressing Sushi After a while A lonely feeling Yosa Buson, a Japanese haiku poet and artist, wrote this “aha” moment captured in three lines. He could have been writing about a teeth-gritting Santa Ana wind in the San Fernando Valley or a Kansas summer evening after chasing fireflies. Or maybe he was talking about a … Read more
Bethump’d with Words
“Zounds! I was never so bethump’d with words since I first call’d my brother’s father dad!” William Shakespeare, King John, act II, scene 1, line 466 Word nerds, word lovers, word enthusiasts—whatever you call yourselves, you’ll love this game. But, I suppose I shouldn’t make those blanket statements so at least I’m pretty sure you … Read more
Crowd Words
When you’re ready for “crowd words” check out this article about a wiki book publisher for collaborative writing at Springwise: “We’ve already written about both magazine and book publishers for the content-producing masses, but now a wiki-like site aims to leverage the wisdom of the crowds to create, rate and elevate into publication the best … Read more
Far Out
This begins my first installment of adding previously published Suite101.com articles from my “Words, Words and More Words” column Slang. I’ve been thinking about slang words lately. Also, hip words and words of hype. I’ve been searching for Web sites focusing on English slang and then perhaps I’ll move on to slang in other languages. … Read more
