a little linguistics for your ass

just surfing through some sites and found a plethora of linguistic blogs and such.

this is one of my favorites. lots of good stuff from etymology to grammar.
this one is about linguistics, science fiction and other shit. pretty good, too.

was also reading up on linguistic fun:
mondegreens--and here i thought that it was Bingo Jed has a light on.
tmesis--abso-fucking-lutely!
portmanteau--i thought Calexico was just the name of an amazing band?
spoonerism--they call me bustin.jarrett.

who knew they had names for all these things, huh?

it's pretty cool, too, that the word "mondegreen" actually is a mondegreen from a mishearing of a 17th Century ballad. sweet!

i think it would be clever if the other words actually were what they described (much like an onomatepeia and mondegreen):

tmesis would be tme-fucking-sis.
portmanteau is French, and is a portmanteau of sorts. i don't know French, so i suppose this one is immune; or at least it is as for as i'm concerned.
spoonerism should be noonerspism. i like that.

good stuff.

anyway, just having some fun with language this Friday evening, procrastinating on writing that column for Upright Against The Savage Heavens. i'm the king procrastinator. the kingrastinator. the ping krocrastinator. no one can procrasti-fucking-nate like i!

nice. my wife always wanted me to be a cunning linguist.

world cup of poetry

the fabulous poet, and soccer fan, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal has posted an amazing opus to both soccer and poetry at Upright Against The Savage Heavens, on this the first day of World Cup 2006. check it out, and learn some new things about both soccer and poetry from around the world.

in a few days (Sunday) i will be posting the second installment to Background Noise on the same blog. Look for it.

vive la evolucion!

to go off-topic from our typical poetry fare, here's a great article on the Top 10 myths about evolution. #2 is my favorite. so few know what the hell a theory actually is; how important it is, and how amorphous; and how it IS NOT an opinion.
anyway, a good primer in evolution science.

chapbook of the quarter

i received the 2nd volume of the 2nd year of the Chapbook of the Quarter Club from Bottle of Smoke Press, a great set of poems by Adrian Manning, titled A Tourist, A Pilgrim, A Truth. another fine letterpressed mini-chap by Bill Roberts.

good damn advice

so, it appears i'm not the only one who's a stickler for proper grammar and spelling.

remember folks, spelling and grammar matters.
even in email.

methinks

i received Glenn W. Cooper and Michael Estabrook's new split-chap, methink i see my father, published by Liquid Paper Press, the imprint of Nerve Cowboy's editors.
this chapbook is gorgeously designed and features fabulous poetry about each poet's father, both of whom died while the poets were young.

the book goes for $6 and is well worth every single penny.

background noise

the first installment of my weekly rant called Background Noise is now up on Christopher Cunningham's great blog Upright Against The Savage Heavens. check it out and join the discussion.
it's about why we should write poetry.