Muse Editorial

12/22/2022

Thank you, yesterday's workday, for the term "Mesoamerican codices"!

09/25/2021

Just yesterday was National Punctuation Day!!! How could I have missed it?? Certainly, I owe a debt of gratitude to these, my lovely little traffic signals of language. Special shout-out to the semi-colon for its coverage of fine points in meaning and of course, the exclamation point, that has supplied me with huge quantities to use in my texts and e-mails (where for some reason, I find it constantly necessary to exclaim)! Another shout out to the question mark, subcategory, rhetorical questions. Where would we be without you?? And for those who cannot get enough of seriation: gratitude, love, and more for the colon. Commas, periods, you know how I feel about you. You know. You, know. You. Know. There are so many punctuationals to thank! I could go on and on...

National Punctuation Day, September 24, celebrates the importance of proper punctuation.

11/12/2019

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/syzygy

one of the coolest words ever. if you went to this word's high school, you and all the other words would have wanted to sit at its lunch table. not only are there three y's, but it also has to do with astronomy, one of my favorite subjects. (btw - sometimes i write in all lowercase letters as a choice. it saves time, and it also makes the text look smoother. i promise i know how to capitalize appropriately.)

Definition of syzygy from Dictionary.com, the world’s leading online source for English definitions, pronunciations, word origins, idioms, Word of the Day, and more.

11/05/2019

https://www.bar.com/bar-jokes/grammar-walks-into-a-bar/

A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

10/22/2019

Didn't know you needed this word, but now you know you do, right? You're welcome!

noun: An abrupt breaking off in the middle of a sentence, as if one is unable or unwilling to proceed.

10/11/2019

What's not to love about English?

12/30/2018

Flotsam Versus Jetsam: The Inside Story

Have you ever wondered while you travel by ship - and who doesn't these days - what words you can use to describe cargo floating in the ocean, besides "cargo floating in the ocean"? Surely there must be more nuanced language to accommodate the complexities of these objects.

Here they come to save the day, Flotsam and Jetsam (capitalizations mine), the most endearing lexical binary since hither and thither!

Their definitions:
Flotsam: Cargo and debris floating in the ocean after a shipwreck.
Jetsam: Cargo and debris thrown overboard a ship.
Entropy versus intention. The inevitable versus the endeavor.

Such teeny, tiny words, given the scope of their respective meanings; how romantic their quaint antiquity.

If you can use them in any context, please do! They probably don't get out much these days.

- Muse

12/27/2018

Four a.m., lying in bed, trying to reach around my back to that spot my arms fall shy of reaching. Do I get out of bed and find the back-scratcher? Maybe the itch will go away on its own. Maybe if I try a little harder I can get to it with my nails. Guess what! There is a word for it! (Oh, come on, you knew that was where this post was going!) Click on the link below. If you don't, then do something creative today. Make a paper snowflake or cut your sandwich in a different shape! Do just one thing and post it here, and I will respond with my own thing and post. Who's up for it?

12/01/2018

Musing over the idea of grounding myself in the present, I thought perhaps I could then describe myself as "presented." Well, meaning for this particular assemblage of letters is already taken, but how about a past participle? With the emphasis on the first syllable, rather than the second?

11/15/2018

Muse likes inspirational grammar:
Never put a period where God has put a comma. - Gracie Allen

11/15/2018

Muse asks: Hey, did you notice that in recent years, grocery stores have changed their signs to "12 Items or Fewer"? They used to say "12 Items or Less"! (The former, for those who don't know, is grammatically incorrect.)

03/02/2018

Driving to the grocery store Wednesday, I came upon this conundrum: Is the plural of "paradox" then "paradoces," in the vein of "index/indices"? Or is it a condition, such as suffering, usually without individual units? Yes, I really think about this stuff.