Well, it took me much, much, much longer than I thought to update with the great new words created at Pop!Tech … that's the problem with conferences, the rest of your work doesn't hit the "pause" button while you're at them!
Pop!Tech, as you may or may not know, is a fabulous conference in Camden, Maine, where people talk about (among other things) new technology. But not just in a shiny, trade-show way — no, this is about technology that helps people live better, healthier, more fulfilling lives. (By the way, if you watch anything from the most recent Pop!Tech, it should be this talk.)
But — on to the words!
First off, the winner:
— attachmeant — the file you have to resend because you forgot to attach it the first time. (from Julie Meyer)
Tied for second and third were:
— polydundant — of a phrase that is redundant through the use of words from two or more languages that have the same meaning, e.g., Panera Bread Company. (from Annaliese Hoehling)
— pretoxicated — the state in which sufficient alcohol has been consumed to be intoxicated, but before feeling intoxicated. (from Tierney O'Dea)
Some other favorites from the workshop …
— forblogen — unsuitable or unavailable to be blogged about, "don't post about our new beta, it's still forblogen." (Also Julie. :-))
— techumanitarian — someone who uses technology to promote social good. (from Michelle Riggen-Ransom, a Pop!Tech blogger — she should know, right?)
— sustetic — achieving sustainability through aesthetics (i.e., the object is so beautiful you don't want to throw it away, you want to reuse it). (from Jens Martin)

Labels: bootcamps, neologism, poptech

Does that title grab you? Then you should attend the talk of the same name at the New York Public Library this Thursday!
Roy Blount Jr. & Jean Strouse
on
Words: Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts
Thursday, October 23 at 7 p.m.
Berger Forum (Room 227), NYPL, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
The mischievous and gifted wordsmith Roy Blount Jr. talks with Jean Strouse about his forthcoming book, Alphabet Juice, which has already been dubbed "hilarious, brilliant, provocative and suaviloquent."
Don't miss this rare New York City appearance!
Roy Blount Jr., a regular guest on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" has written 20 previous books, including Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South and Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story. Jean Strouse is the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Dorothy and Lewis B Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the distinguished author of Morgan: American Financier and Alice James: A Biography.
Tickets ar $15 General Admission; $10 Library Donors and Seniors. But they are FREE for students with valid identification AND for readers of this blog who use the discount code "BLOUNT" at checkout to receive free tickets! Visit Smarttix at http://www.smarttix.com or by calling the Smarttix box office at (212) 868-4444 to reserve your seat today.

Labels: events

Thanks to Marc for the link!

Labels: comics

… are included in a piece I wrote in the Boston Globe, which ran today — check it out here.
Many thanks to Jan Freeman for letting me keep her chair warm while she's on vacation!

Labels: Globe, guest-columnizing, neologism

I'm in Sapporo, Japan, and I talked at the iSummit yesterday … here's a slidecast of the talk if you would like to hear about the horrible dystopia we'd all be living in if language weren't free.

Yes, that first slide is blank. Do not adjust your set.

Labels: isummit08, talks

Yesterday a piece I wrote about Johnny Carrera's Pictorial Webster's ran in the Boston Globe … check it out, if beautiful art books inspired by dictionaries are topics of interest.

Labels: art, Globe, webster

Many thanks for all the kind words about the Semicolon Appreciation Society!
Here are some followup links, in case you just can't get enough semicolon in your online diet:
Some letters to the NYT about the original story [Thanks to RLE for the link]
Trevor Butterworth sent me a link his longer article in the Financial Times, back in 2005, in which he outlines a purported American bias against the semicolon. (I believe Americans use fewer semicolons per capita, but more as a nation, in a kind of reverse image of our carbon footprint …)
The Semicolon's Dream Journal [exactly what it says on the box]

Labels: linkiness, semicolons

After all the recent discussion of the semicolon (in the NYTimes and other places) I couldn't resist the urge to make Semicolon Appreciation Society T-Shirts. Because, really, if a thing is worth talking about, it's certainly worth wearing.


Here's the back (on the white/light shirts only, no back printing on dark shirts):

I also made some 3×5 stickers, so you can edit signs to add semicolons where they ought to be:

And, of course, a membership card:

Although I'm not happy with the wording of it. Anyone want to suggest new wording that actually, you know, includes a semicolon?
I was thinking that the Semicolon Appreciation Society's bylaws should be like those of humorous WWII servicemen's associations, with riddles and having to forfeit the price of a drink if you can't write a sentence including a semicolon on demand. Suggestions for further bylaws entertained in the comments.
Thanks are due to Garth, who recklessly encouraged me, and India Amos, who suggested the completely wonderful Cooper Poster font as the one that included the platonic ideal of the semicolon form.

Labels: semicolons, shirts