Reversal Demon And The Primo Heathen

There are some pretty ridiculous band names out there. Some of my favorites include Throw Me the Statue, Fall on Your Sword, and The Phenomenal Handclap Band. And there are plenty more out there, these are just ones I can think of off the top of my head. So why all the weird names?

 The delightful ABBA.

I think that there are two factors at play here. One is originality and the other is...originality. Let me explain. There are an awful lot of bands out there, which means that an awful lot of band names are already taken. If you're a band on the rise I guess you could use your own names, but even those can repeat. I heard somewhere that David Bowie is not actually David Bowie, but had to change his name because some other famous singer had his real name (Davie Jones or some such; I'm not particularly familiar). And if everyone just used their given names for a band title, not only would that result in a super long string of names (for everyone in the band, naturally), but it would also get super boring.

Language Oops, and Some More Serial Killers, and the Spoken Language, and Other Stuff Too

Ever have one of those moments when you intend to say something and it sounds right in your head, but when you say it out loud it just comes out all wrong? This is the land of the “that's what she said” jokes and endless mockery from friends, naturally. I have fallen victim to this myself, like the one time I was debating whether to say “hold your horses” or “chill out” and I ended up saying “chill your horses.” That might not sound funny to you now, but I guess it's just one of those “you had to be there” things. And I do this all the time. Perhaps the reason I have so many language blunders is because English is my second language, though considering how long I've been speaking it, maybe I'm just an awkward person.

But I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one. Like this entertaining image I found on tumblr some time ago.

So I guess this also applies to the malleable nature of Wikipedia.

I'm Not Really a Rhetorician

I'm not particularly girly about many things, though nail polish is definitely one of the few exceptions. I tend to love colors that are dark or rather unusual and although I like to think that I am not attached to any particular brand for any sort of products, I do have a soft spot for OPI, when it comes to nail polish.

I think one of the best things about OPI is the creative names of their nail polish colors. And that's really why they can charge almost nine dollars for each bottle. Sure it's a well designed and esthetically pleasing bottle, but the polish itself is probably very similar to some other, less expensive brand. But it's the names that get me.

Nerdview? Or BS?

This man is Charles Dickens and the relevance of this will become clearer a bit later on.

I recently read an article on Language Log about the use of “nerdview” in a British article covering the recent murder of a young man. The Language Log article talks about the British article's use of the term “bladed items” over the use of the layman's term of “knife”. The article goes on to give more context on the usage of the term, citing it as a use of “nerdview”, when the language reflects the way an expert views something, that is, technical language used in a context where the audience is composed of people who are not necessarily experts on the subject. So “bladed items” was not simply an elitist use of the English language.

Quotations and Serial Killers

A couple of classes ago we discussed the structure of a speech. One component of the speech is the introduction, which requires an Attention Getter, that is, something to capture the attention of your audience. One possible Attention Getter is the often-used quotation. Why do so many people like quotations? Well, they are things said by famous people (usually), and we generally tend to like famous people. But let's turn our attention to quotes that are not necessarily geared towards public speaking.

I am a particular fan of quotations, but not only the kind that comes from famous people. I also like the ones said by the wisest of all people – Anonymous.

I Believe in Nancy Drew

Accuracy, and Passive Voice, and “Grammar Nazis”, Oh My!

I recently read an article online about the use of passive voice. And the article was really interesting in that it criticized the critics of passive voice. Or rather, what the general public has come to perceive as the passive voice.

Now, my own connection, if you will, to the concept of the passive voice goes back to my junior year of high school, when I became the editor-in-chief of our school's newspaper. We had a new adviser that year and she had more journalistic tendencies than any of our previous advisers. She taught me that in journalism, passive voice is to be avoided like the plague (likewise with the cliches). Why? Well, because passive voice is weak, whereas active voice is powerful and portrays interesting action, which is necessary for a newspaper. So in my editing I became more watchful for passive voice, though I couldn't help but continue believing that if it read well, that is, if it sounded good, should it really matter if it was passive or active?