Category Archives: language

Shared Experience, Shared Language: A Review of Lakoff and Johnson on Metaphor

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Boz

Each of my efforts to write about George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By uncannily comprises a demonstration of its thesis. As I started to plan my review, I wrote, I am late to the dance—referring to the … Continue reading →

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It Quacks Like a Duck

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Boz

I have learned many important lessons since beginning this blog three months ago, and I have relearned many others. Already this morning, I have experienced one of each (in reverse order): I know a minuscule amount; and Amazon Prime is … Continue reading →

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Our Whole Heart: Language and the Book of Common Prayer

Posted on August 6, 2016 by Boz

Along with the King James Bible and the collected works of Shakespeare, the Book of Common Prayer has permeated the English language and given Anglophones worldwide some of our most beautiful and evocative phrases. Even the most secular among us get … Continue reading →

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Ode to OED (and Friends)

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Boz

When I was a girl in the dusty mining town of Globe, Arizona, with the sulfur odor in the air when the wind blew from the west, our house had a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom … Continue reading →

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Codifying Honor

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Boz

I first saw the topic discussed on Facebook by the gay son of a dear Mormon friend. It then flooded the mainstream press, including ABC, CNN, Time, and the New York Times. I am referring to the noisy and–to me, at least–disturbing public controversy about the honor … Continue reading →

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The Prison of “I Am”

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Boz

For a number of years in my late twenties and early thirties, if I didn’t have a long, skinny, brown More cigarette between my lips or fingers, I was nonetheless enveloped in a malodorous, smoky haze that I am sure … Continue reading →

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The Issue Issue

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Boz

I can’t pinpoint when issue reared its euphemistic head and took the place of problem or difficulty in the general parlance, but the usage is now of epidemic proportion. The media are replete with sidebars about anger issues and relationship issues and weight issues. Students’ excuses for late homework … Continue reading →

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Customer Service

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Boz

Regrettably, I spent thirteen years of my life working at Kmart. I sold shotguns and fishing rods and licenses to use both; I drilled bowling balls and hoisted 110-pound barbell sets into shopping carts; yes, I even announced Blue Light … Continue reading →

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Bathroom Words

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Boz

Since March 23, North Carolina has been embroiled in a war of words about the so-called “bathroom bill,” House Bill 2, whose most controversial—and, notably, most innocuous—provision states, “Local boards of education [and public agencies] shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom … Continue reading →

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Gonnegtions

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Boz

In the early 1980s, I was watching  an episode of Charles Kuralt’s Sunday Morning in which he chronicled the demise of an important family-owned newspaper. I’ll have to call it the Tribune because I have long since forgotten the newspaper and the family and the … Continue reading →

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