And last not least: Thank you for being the inspiration to start podcasting myself.

I will stay tuned and hope to hear you again some time!

Volker

Like someone else above said you were one of the first podcasts I found back in 2006 and I’ve really enjoyed a lot of your shows (I even recommend them in a ’starter podcast list’ on my site).

I’ll bet you got way more kudos on your ‘goodbye’ news above than any show – always the way – things are appreciated most when they’re gone! (-;

In all the hype over Youtube etc I’ve always thought podcasts were one of the best and most unique things the internet had to offer the time-pressed amongst us. That said, I’m sure the high quality productions were a huge time-suck from your end.

Cheers,

Mike

I will make due by listening to the older shows. I will cross my fingers that by the time I make my way through them you may have found a way and the energy to add more.

Thanks Again!!!!!

It’s amazing how you managed to broadcast every week; and even when you decided to cut back to every three weeks or so I always looked forward to my Word Nerds fix.

I’ve enjoyed this podcast SO much, and have learned a lot about words because of it.

All the best,

deb

Hab Dank für deine Zeit.
Hab Dank für deine Freundlichkeit,
für die Arbeit deiner Hände,
für den Mut der Wiederstände
überwindet, und alle Engstirnigkeit.
- Reinhard Mey

I’ve emailed you numerous topics that you’ve liked and two that even got used (the first one being Fustian Circumlocution, I forgot what the other one was), and I feel like a Word Nerd myself. When I discovered no podcast or update in a few months I knew the outcome already and a sadness came upon me. You’ve opened me up to new worlds, like the Reduced Shakespeare Company (who do the most awesome complete works of Shakespeare ever) and I thank you for that.

I will stay tuned, as anything you do in the future will be great I’m sure. I have never done podcasting but I know how strenuous it can be and how difficult it can be to do it for one year consistently, let alone 4. You guys have done an amazing job.

As always, keep on rocking on.

That being said, I can understand how a hobby like this can really consume you and take priority over more important things like family and career when it really shouldn’t.

An explanation would be nice.

Thank you.

Thank you guy

I have found that FB is a great networking tool for me to keep up with my friends who are geographically far away.

@John Very interesting point! The Nerds have done a show in which they talked about some clichés in the media but you emphasize the transmission aspect of it. There’s this notion that we notice patterns in word use based on some cognitive dimensions (basically, words become more obvious when we pay attention to them, for instance when we just start understanding them). But there’s also a “memetic” aspect in that some words quickly become commonplace in some contexts. Mainstream media is a ready-made context as media outlets constantly borrow from one another and the model is still one of broadcasting. Outside of mainstream media, the way some words gain currency is more “organic” in that they will become accepted and reused, through time, based on how appropriate they seem in the context. Typically, something like a virus would get several different names and people would understand that we talk about the same thing, based on context. There’s usually some confusion, but people are quite good at clearing it, all the time. Mainstream media works with words the way committees do design. They make conscious decisions as a group and impose them on the world.

What’s in a name, you ask? How about the livelihood of an industry?

Gotta be careful about how we speak, label.

You went through the etymology of the word “to write” which came from a proto-Germanic word to mean “to scratch”, and described how many modern European languages use a word that stem from a word in Latin, “scribere”. I noticed that the word “scribble” is a word that is synonymous to “to write” that stems from the same Latin as well, but has now a negative(?) connotation.

This leads me to suggest a topic that maybe you’d be interested in – the etymology of words and the development of languages. Perhaps you could describe how so many modern languages are related to one another, and how some seem totally isolated (Basque, Korean, Japanese, Albanian?).

Thanks for the fun show.

–CB

P.S. Here in Silicon Valley we don’t do the dress up for work so much.

Thanks for prompting some trips down my own memory lane! As observed above, memory seems colored more by feelings than facts. And thanks to Alexandre for the cross-cultural look at those emotions–very interesting stuff.

Cheers and keep up the great work

-wlad

That term in particular makes me cringe whenever I hear it. It’s not as strong as the “N-word” for me, but it has the same kind of deeply insulting put-down power.

“Redneck” does seem to be embraced in certain circles (as, for example, in country music) in a way that “white trash” never is.

I quite agree, a discussion of these two would be a very good candidate for a Rude Word of the Week segment.

Might I suggest you use one or both of those terms as the rude word of the week sometime.

The ACC Version

And here it is on the site of N.C. State University:

The N.C. State Version

I do recall the on-air commentary becoming quite “creative” sometime in the second half.

The score of 4-2 at the half rings an awfully loud bell.

See, memory is a funny thing, and can mess around with your nostalgia. Here’s an excellent case in point.

Powerful stuff.

Have to get back to work. Will listen to #117 soon and comment later, gators! Alan

*RILKE and SAUSAGE and RUDE WORDS IN SPANISH*
Shepherds,

I loved the Rilke “Herbsttag”–listened to the podcast a second time just to hear the poem again. Because I’ve wrestled with translation work in my grad studies and occasionally for work-related reasons, I found Howard’s Translation Challenge a particularly intriguing listen. Any chance you could post online the three translations for us Germanophiles to compare to the original? (One by Bly, one by Howard, and one by his colleague.)

When I was studying in Württemberg (decades ago), I met a student studying at the P.H. who amused himself by translating German idioms literally into English. My favorite was his rendering of “Das ist mir Wurst” (=I don’t care/It doesn’t matter) into “That is me sausage.”

I have to say that until you mentioned it, I never thought about MyChingo having a rude meaning in Spanish. Maybe it’s because I just thought it was one of those hybrid nouveau marketing names (like Accenture or Verizon). In high school, we all learned the “bad” words with glee, so “Ch**** tu madre” was a common one.

Keep up the good work, guys.
Alan

P.S. For a Translation-2 podcast, you could talk about the differences in translation between versions of the Bible, for example, King James vs. NSRV vs. The Good News (or other “modern” recastings). Lots of variation there, partly for the purpose of making language more accessible to modern-day speakers, but what is the cost inherent therein? (That is, what is lost?)

Check out this piece in the Cape Cod Times.

Have you thought of taking on an intern? Someone who’ll work for free and take care of lots of little details. You get the work done, and they get experience and a great recommendation! It can work, especially in this tenuous economy!

My 2¢,
Alan

It should have been, of course “Words and Phrases That Tick Us Off.” There are many words and phrases that ticked us off, which was evident if you heard the podcast.

Ah, multitasking! (Which I’m doing even in the moment I’m typing this comment. I’m editing edition #117, on writing.) Too much going on at once. That’s what you get when you’re a one-man production staff.

I might actually leave a message if you use Snapvine because I never had a mic on my computer, but I do have a phone to leave you a message that way.

Keep on rocking on!

P.S. It’s weird that you didn’t get my name because I only send you email from my Gmail to your Gmail and my first and last name is what I have it set to show when I send a message. But ah well, it’s not that important.

Carpe diem!

And all you blog readers should be aware that Michael is the mystery man also known as “renaissance247.” We just didn’t recognize his email user ID, because it didn’t come into our Gmail account. Thanks for the topic tip, Michael!

Also, to me the MyChingo off your page (you implied you wanted to)… the Mobatalk.com site isn’t up yet to get an embed code, but it seems it’s a video talking and not audio service… you can try getting Snapvine which a lot of MySpace users have on their page. Everyone can play it and listen to all the suggestions and comments people record on it for you, which I think is a cool thing so we can all experience other listeners feedback.

Just thought I’d let you know, keep on rocking on!

Just a thought.

I just want to add a small correction to the show about Translation.

You said in your last podcast in the “Rude Word” section that the word “shmuck” might come from the polish word “smok” that means “serpent” or “tail”,but it actually means “dragon” .

I love your show!
You’re doing a great job!

Adrian

First, the story about the Chevy Nova not selling in Spanish-speaking countries isn’t true. Yes, it indeed means “no go” when written as two words, but as one, it refers to the same thing in Spanish as in English–a star suddenly increasing in brightness. My Mexican family remembers the Nova selling in Mexico and I’ve even seen a few still on the streets! How’s that for a car that supposedly “doesn’t go”?

Furthermore, Pemex, the Mexican government-owned petroleum company has sold for years (and still sells) a regular grade of gasoline known as Nova, our equivalent of regular unleaded. When I pull up to the pump, I always ask for Nova and my car goes just fine!

One story that truly is funny is the one about Parker Pens. As the story goes, they sold very well in Mexico, especially to young women. Why? The tagline in English was something like, “Because they don’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” But the translator mistranslated ‘embarrass’ as ‘embarazar’ which is a false cognate actually meaning ‘to make pregnant!’ So young women snapped up the Parker Pens that don’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant!

¡Gracias! I love your podcast. Keep up the great work!

mark

I was listening to your description of the challenges of simultaneous interpretation, and could not help but think that as a college student in an ASL-English interpreter training program, I will be doing this every day. As a sign language interpreter, simultaneous interpretation is the rule, not the exception! However, we always prefer consecutive interpretation when possible, as accuracy is greatly improved.

Thanks again; this is still my favorite podcast!

Anna

And as a German-English translator living in Germany, I particularly enjoyed this episode and listening to you talk about Rilke in familiar American accents just as I was passing signs for “Imbisse” and all sorts of other mundane German words all around me – almost surreal.

In general, however, I’d say that it is practically impossible to translate poetry – there is no way to transport all the elements that make up verse into another language. Having said that, I suppose that the same thing can be said for (most) prose, even if it isn’t as striking. When we translate, we tend to recreate a new text based on the original, even as we strive for some sort of equivalency.

For the word schmuck, I would suggest that this could be a case of multisourced etymology. In other words, possibly both source words may have played a role in forming how people perceived and used the word. There is, perhaps surprisingly, a Facebook group dedicated to just this sort of thing: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5659126407

Anyway, thanks again and all the best,

David in Germany

However, as @Phil comments, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more meaty discussion of language; it seemed to be more of an acknowledgment that different language was being used than an analysis of this evolution.

That aside, I very much enjoyed the show and will definitely be listening again.

Thanks,
Lucy

One phrase I was sick of hearing in the past months was “team of rivals.” It seems to be another phrase like “prefect storm” that became popular after a book of the same title came out.

A very good show again, and you select very good music for it, too!

Best wishes from Hamburg,
Volker

That makes a lot of sense, but, truthfully, my instinctive reaction to that was, “uhh, weird.” I grew up with the Internet, so my Facebook “Home” is much less of an intangible thing for me; it truly, literally occupies a place in my social life. It’s not an “extension” and it’s not a “representation.” People older than MTV will invariably describe Facebook as if it’s the metaphorical phantom limb of any person whose social life has been severed by the millennium. “Facebook: it’s the futuristically bionic super-prosthetic X-treme!” Meh. For MY generation, the Internet is all we’ve ever known. So when it comes down to it, my “Facebook home” is very “reality” to me; I would expect my facebook friends to observe the same social norms that would be observed in a real home. So if I invited all my friends to a slumber party, one or two of them would be really close to me, and the rest would have their own spots along my friend-acquaintance continuum. Howard and Dave seemed to be saying (correct me if I’m wrong on this) that Facebook effectively combines my “friends” with my “acquaintances,” but it doesn’t. If I say, “Make yourself at home,” it wouldn’t be a lie, but if you’re more “acquaintance” than “friend,” I wouldn’t *really* expect you to go digging in the back of my fridge. So if you have a midnight snack while I’m asleep, you’ll probably tell me that morning, “By the way, I ate some of your fritos last night.” Not that it’s a major social transgression, but wouldn’t it just feel weird to keep something like that to yourself? Same thing with Facebook. Facebook is Fritos to us.

But remember, that was the favorite term used by
Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.

(BTW, Im told that TTFN is sooooo Gay, LOL)

And one phrase that ticks me off is “grammar nazi.” Especially when it’s directed at ME. Hrmph. I prefer the term, “word activist” (less genocidal; equally badass).

About “thinking outside the box” and “pushing the envelope”: At least the latter is derived from an engineering term, where “envelope” means some kind of limit or boundary. It’s very common to talk about power envelopes, which means the maximum amount of power that can be provided (perhaps under different operating conditions, so the envelope is a complex shape, not just a single number). So when you’re pushing the envelope, you’re extending what is possible. Not sure about the box, but that may also have some kind of basis in engineering or design (think 60’s .

About words that are redundant and drive me nuts: all-new. All-new episodes! The all-new Acura such-and-such. What redundant nonsense!

But the one that takes the cake is FREE GIFT! It’s printed on every single piece of junk mail I get, and it bugs to no end. It’s a gift! AND it’s FREE! Wow, how unexpected!

I am Jonny Algaranaz. I am a 32 year-old non-native English teacher from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I live in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the largest city in the country. My mother tongue is Spanish. I’ve been teaching English for four years mostly to adults and young adults.

I like listening to your podcasts because in every show I learn something new that I can learn and share it with my students as well.

See you

Jonny

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_in_cheek

1. I met them at a conference in Zurich.
2. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Boy manages to screw it up.
3. Shirley is meeting with the whole engineering team this afternoon to clarify the specs.

I’m sure there are a million others

I just wanted to clarify that a German “Töpfer” may well have been a pot maker in the olden days, but nowadays simply describes a person using clay to manufacture ceramic goods in general, much like the English “potter”.

For those not in the know, it stands for the French words “répondez s’il vous plaît,” which literally mean “respond, if you please.”

RSVP is an abbreviation that I didn’t understand for a very long time. But then, I don’t speak/understand French.

LOL: I think of it as three letters, “ell-oh-ell.” I didn’t think of it this way two years ago.

ASAP: I’ve been thinking of this as letters (not an acronym) for 25-30 years, I imagine.

OTOH: I’m pretty sure I’m still thinking of this one as words: “on the other hand.”

OMG: I’ve just started thinking of this amusing abbreviation as letters within the past 12 months or so. “O. M. G.” (With full stops after every letter, for emphasis.)

WTF: If I were writing haikus about a baseball team or something like that, I think it would be most amusing to spell out the letters syllabically, thus: “double-you-tee-eff.” I think it’s strong enough and ubiquitous enough that at least I would get the joke if you did that. Particularly if you followed it with a question mark:

“Double-you-tee-eff?!?”

YMMV. (Your mileage may vary.) Others may feel free to chime in, particularly about “WTF.”

As you might recall (probably not, I mentioned it here only once and I’m not exactly a frequent contributor) I have a couple of haiku blogs, where counting syllables is obviously very important.

I wanted to use “WTF” to express my anger on the Cubs blog (www.thecubsinhaiku.com) after a particularly annoying loss. I wasn’t sure whether it should be counted as 3 syllables or 5 syllables.

My daughters were certain that it was 5 syllables, and thought it was silly that I would have considered it to be only 3.

Here’s the thing … when I see “WTF” or other such abbreviations I think of the actual words. It seems that it’s sort of like learning a foreign language. To middle-aged parents, these shortcuts are new words. So, just as I think “water” when I hear or read “agua”, I think “Oh my G-d” when I see OMG.

My kids, and their contemporaries, OTOH (did you read “OTOH” or “on the other hand”? … see what I mean?) are more comfortable with the abbreviations as words. So, when some of our younger office staff started putting up “Happy Birthday” signs we got stuff like “OMG … Lori is 40 Years Old … LOL!”. None of the over 40 folks would have even THOUGHT do make a sign like that.

Conversely, there are “old” abbreviations that we old guys use similarly to how the younguns use the texting shortcuts. One example … do you say “ASAP” or “As Soon As Possible”?

Those abbreviations and acronyms are part of our “native” language. The internet shortcuts are not.

TTFN

Ed

Realtor (not relator)
Jewelry (not jewlery)

and, of course

Nuclear (not newcular).

I even know some realtors who call themselves relators. WTF?

Also … concerning “affect” and “effect”, I have a little trick. Most of the time, “affect” is a verb and “effect” is a noun. So, since a verb is for an action (starting with “a”) it’s usually correct to use “affect” when one thing is having an effect (sorry) on another thing.

I won’t post the details here, but Merriam-Webster online did have a noun definition for “affect” and a verb definition for “effect” but those seemed not to be the most common usage.

“Never explain, never complain.” –Henry Ford
“Never apologize for your art.” –Magnet on my (artist) wife’s office

Ditto on “exetera” and “literally”! Argghh! Makes my skin crawl up a chalkboard (to mix metaphors).

No personal problems distinguishing effect/affect or complement/compliment or lay/lie or infer/imply.

My own stumbling block: figuring out if a word ends with -ent or -ant. (Sends me scurrying to the dictionary all the time!)