Comments for Word Du Jour

Comment on Crash Blossoms by Tom Joad

Tom Joad — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:15:21 +0000

The man himself

Many thanks, Dan, for taking the time to point out my errors (and sorry for calling you ‘Tom’ – I must be obsessed with the name ). As far as the blooms/blossoms thing goes, the words were way too close. None of my readers pointed it out either, and they are usually pretty unforgiving!

Another apology is in order as, at the time of writing, my blogging platform flatly refuses to publish your second comment. Never fear, I have the original in the database and will certainly research and write about the suggestions you made. I am currently working on another post, but my output is somewhat sporadic given the other things that occupy my time.

I think I’ve corrected everything in the post now. I must admit that, even re-reading it, I was hard pushed to see the errors. That’s what comes of subbing your own copy, eh?

Many thanks again for contacting me and for your suggestions. Congratulations, too, on your internet fame!

Comment on Crash Blossoms by Dan Bloom

Dan Bloom — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:12:23 +0000

Examples of crash blossoms wanted « The Inquiring Mind5 Feb 2010 by adamsmith1922
Another participant in the forum, Dan Bloom in Taiwan, suggested that “crash blossoms” could be used as a label for such infelicitous headlines that encourage alternate readings, and news of the neologism quickly spread. …

http://adamsmith.wordpress.com

Comment on Missing Letters by Dan Bloom

Dan Bloom — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:08:25 +0000

by the way, Tom, a friend in UK coined a new word today too; re missing letters. she calls them sub-atomic typos, a specise of atomic typo, google both terms to see origins, a sub AT is a word like faulty vs faculty which the spellcheck cannot find. an AT is when nuclear gets typed as unclear and also spellcheck cannot see it. Needs a human eye. These are both new proofreader terms but most people even seasoned newspaper editors have never heard of them before. maybe blog about both. No idea who coined atomic typo, but Rhian Howell in UK coined sub-atomic typos today. Give her credit. Do blog on this. Danny in Taiwan, coiner of crash blossoms and snailpapers….

Comment on Crash Blossoms by Dan Bloom

Dan Bloom — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:03:39 +0000

Tom, great post but a few corrections are in order. One: Dan Bloom is the name of the guy who suggested the term “crash blossoms” — not Tom Bloom, and not “crash blooms”. Do you know Tom Bloom? I think he is a cartoonist / illustrator for the New York Times. He had nothing to do with this crash blossoms thing. And they are called crash blossoms, note, not crash blooms. But your minor gaffes were cute and fun, and I myself am a major gaffe-maker from way back. I coined a new word recently, snailpapers, for print newspapers, as a term of endearment, not derision, wonder if you can blog on snailpapers as a new term one day, pro or con, your take, your POV, and see my recent oped on snailpapers in the Juneau Empire last week or google it in Google News under “Dan E. Bloom” + snailpapers. I also wrote a comedy song called “I Just Can’t Live (Without My Daily Snailpaper)” and it’s now online too. Google it under google blog news. It’s honor of people like Ben Bradlee, Bill Keller, Alex Beam, Modo, Dave Brooks, the old Her Ex in LA and Frank Sinatra, too.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2712867/novelty_song_about_newspaper_business.html?cat=68

Comment on Crash Blossoms by Tom Joad

Tom Joad — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:05:26 +0000

Ha ha – makes me wonder why The Sun had cut down on the lie count

Comment on Crash Blossoms by Autolycus

Autolycus — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:22:17 +0000

You’re forgetting the WW2 classic “Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans”.

I have an old Private Eye “Book of Boobs” from the 1980s, which includes:

Daily Mail: “Boy Wanted to Kill The Queen”

The Times: “New York Ban on Boxing After Death”

Trinidad and Tobago Express: “Man Assists Police in Rape of Nurse”

and The Sun once ran a front page teaser: “Lies! Lies! Lies – pages 4 and 5″

Comment on Daphne Does Dictionaries by Daphne Wayne-Bough

Daphne Wayne-Bough — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:47:55 +0000

Oh fer fuck’s sake Mallett. Solskaer always came on in extra time and scored the winning goal, or have you forgotten? I never understood why he was always on the bench, that little lad was brilliant. ScotsMEN referred to you and the Grammar McNazi. Keep up, man, keep up.

And yes of course you’re with Mallett and the GN, Tom. Can’t breathe for the testosterone in here.

Comment on Daphne Does Dictionaries by Tom Joad

Tom Joad — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:45:23 +0000

I can only express my dismay at Tony using an American spelling to get 73 points. Tsk, tsk. I fear Daffers, that, although you very kindly contributed this piece, I’m with Tony and the GN. Of course Solskaer’s a Scot – Like Ole McDonald.

Comment on Daphne Does Dictionaries by Tony Mallett

Tony Mallett — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:06:57 +0000

Ole Gunnar Solskaer’s a Scotsman??!

Comment on Daphne Does Dictionaries by Daphne Wayne-Bough

Daphne Wayne-Bough — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:48:07 +0000

So that makes you the Ole Gunnar Solskaer of Scrabble ? Ach you Scotsmen … To play Scrabble properly you need an old-fashioned tabletop set. Unless anyone knows an electronic version with “British” rules? I don’t think I want to play against you, you’re obviously out of my league.