The Wednesday Word Wise Roundup

• Given how much I write about the holidays at work (and usually starting in July) I’m not big on reading articles in the press about the hottest gifts, gifts for her, gifts under $25, gifts for numismatists, etc., etc., etc. (as Yul Brenner would say). But about 15 colleagues of mine pointed out William Safire’s New York Times Magazine "On Language" column this past Sunday headlined “Bibliogifts,” filled with his suggestions for books you might give to the writers and writers wanna-bes in your life, so I took a look. Lots of ideas, with one of his faves the new Dictionary of American Slang, which, he writes, has “an appendix of text-messaging abbreviations, from the ancient ASAP and AWOL to the more recent @TEOTD ‘At the end of the day’; BTDT ‘Been there, done that; FOFL ‘falling on floor laughing’: KISS ‘Keep it simple, stupid’; MorF, ‘Male or Female?’; PU ‘That stinks!’ TLK2UL8R is code for ‘Talk to you later,’ but strikes me as a WOMBAT, the name of an Australian marsupial that sneers, ‘Waste of money, brains and time.’” 

• I love the blog called American Copywriter (“A blog about a podcast about advertising and other stuff people think about too much”). In July I posted a list of boring, overused and empty corporatese (best-of-breed, seamless, etc.) and a few weeks ago so did American Copywriter – an entirely different list than mine and totally wonderful. I’ll never be able to look at the words “brand architecture” or “minor tweaks” in the same way, again.

Comments

[American Copywriter]

Thanks for the shout out. We have been lurkers here for a long time!