Posts Tagged: USA

  • Text: The Tolerance Paradox—if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

    Tolerance—the paradox

    It has been a strange time the last week after the killing of Charlie Kirk (11 Sept 25) who was characterised as a major Trump supporter, killed by Tyler Robinson, characterised as a left wing domestic terrorist. Those from the centre are witnessing a complicated morality which exposes us to the Paradox of Tolerance. Charlie […]

  • AI generated image of a sailing ship in a cyclone.

    Hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons and tornadoes—the angry gods

    Over the last few days we have watched the destruction in the US after Hurricane Milton made landfall on Thursday (AEDT) before tracking across the state. When fierce storms wreak havoc, we hear them described as hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons or tornadoes. These words are used for different types of storms in different places and even […]

  • A food canteen for those on hardscrabble times

    Hardscrabble time

    I came across the word “hardscrabble” recently and I realised that I have heard it a few times coming out of the US media. It is starting to have a resonance in Australia with cost of living increases biting hard (May 2024). Hardscrabble is a word that has strong usage in the US characterised to […]

  • Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull pork barrellers together

    Pork barrelling their boondoggles

    You have to love the elections. Even if the politicians are failing to stir us with soaring words our journalists are at least trying to create some interest with theirs. Townsville football stadium Earlier this week (13 June 2016) Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised $100 million for a new Townsville football stadium saying it was […]

  • Crime fiction sub-genres - cosy and noir

    How do you like your murder?

    My wife is fan of English murder mysteries and for her birthday recently one of her friends gave her a boxed-set of the first eight seasons of Midsomer Murders.  She was excited, however, the rest of us were not looking forward to the prospect of having to sit through fifty episodes of murder at the village fete. I […]

  • BOGSAT - Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around Talking - 1960s-style illustration of President John F. Kennedy meeting with advisers around a White House conference table, with plum-coloured chairs, carpet and curtains.

    BOGSAT—a bunch of guys sitting around talking

    I was reading a very serious blogpost this week, which, much to my annoyance, kept dropping acronyms into the text without explanation. Nonetheless, it did make me laugh when I looked up BOGSAT. It means a Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around Talking. According to the Urban Dictionary, it refers to regularly scheduled but worthless daily […]

  • Knidos - 500 BC - silver drachma - head of lion - head of Aphrodite If Grexit occurs Greece goes back to its old currency

    The Grexit and who invented economy anyway?

    There is (2015) widespread fear that the world economy is going to have another downturn because Greece has defaulted on its IMF loan (the first developed country to ever do so according to the world’s media). This may lead to Greece leaving the EU which has become known as Grexit. Now as a etymologist, rather […]

  • Former Governor Sarah Palin speaking with attendees at the 2021 Young Women's Leadership Summit at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. Palin is famous for using malapropisms. Image by Gage Skidmore

    Improving your vocabulary using MALAPROPISMs

    Improving your vocabulary and word choice will help you properly reticulate [sic] your ideas. I am not incinerating [sic] that any of you lack the consecration [sic] needed to focus on writing good English but I can safely say, without fear of contraception [sic], that poor word choice can reach into all aspects of communications and […]

  • Cartoon showing Hilary Clintion at a dais saying "we were under fire in Bosnia" with a thought bubble saying "oops misspoe" and a second bubble showing her drinking wine with Bill and two others

    Ms Clinton “misspoke”

    Last week (23 March 2008) news reports showed that Hillary Clinton’s account of her exposure to sniper fire in a trip to Bosnia in 1996 was at the very least, an exaggeration of the danger—and her spokesperson admitted she may have “misspoke”. In contrast, an entertainer, on the same trip, said the scariest part for […]