Nov. 11, now called Veterans Day, was originally Armistice Day, a commemoration of the end of World War I, in 1918, the cessation of
Category: Language/Words
I Know the Identity of the anonymous Op-Ed writer
The last editorial I wrote for Occasional Planet was on the dangers of a potential post-Trump “unity government”. Consisting of centrists and ostensibly anti-Trump
On-line comments: Where racism reigns
Against the advice of my cardiologist, I occasionally look at the on-line comments at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. No surprise the comments are
Seven words now banned at the Centers for Disease Control
If you work at the Centers for Disease Control—the nation’s top public health agency—you are now officially banned from using the following seven words:
Pocahontas: Native Americans respond to Trump’s latest slur
At a ceremony honoring Native American code-talkers, Donald Trump managed to work in one of his favorite slurs—calling Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas.” I don’t
A lexicon of sexual misconduct: There’s a word for what he did to you
When a 94-year-old ex-president gropes your backside, is it sexual assault, sexual harassment, inappropriate touching or what? As women, at long last, feel confident
Toxic word spills are poisoning democracy
Just one week into the Trump presidency, the newly inaugurated president and his circle of sycophants are working overtime to convince us that words
Political civility during the Trump administration
If one assumes that “divide and conquer” remains the ruling class’s favorite weapon, many leaders must be applauding Donald Trump for having done such
Trump’s tweets: a taxonomy of trouble
We have done such a poor job of processing Donald Trump’s tweets. Our reaction has always been to immediately parse the literal content. Fact-check
Trump’s inauguration transcript: A demagogue’s dictionary
Trump’s inaugural speech was a speech for the ages: The Dark Ages. If you couldn’t bear to watch it, you can gag your way