Category Archives: grammar and language

Words and phrases I detest

November 23, 2020 – 12:30 pm

It’s that time again: time to disgorge those words and phrases that stick in your craw—elocution you detest. And I know we’re all filled with repressed rage during the pandemic, so I’ll vent a bit of it here. T oday we have three phrases. (I may have mentioned one or two of these before, but […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Comments (126)

California passes law to test prospective cops for both explicit and implicit bias: a poorly written article in The Washington Post

October 29, 2020 – 10:45 am

This law sounds good in principle, but seems impossible to use as a way of detecting racism in potential hires. The law and its problems are described in a long and poorly-written article in the Washington Post; I’ll have more to say about the writing later. Click on the screenshot to read: Here’s the skinny, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Get off my lawn!, grammar, journalism, journalists behaving badly, law enforcement | Comments (23)

Words and phrases I detest

September 18, 2020 – 10:30 am

It’s time for your host—now even more peevish than usual because of the pandemic—to vent about his most-despised words and phrases. And you can add yours in the comments, or perhaps you’d like to inform me that language changes and these neologisms are fine. In that case, take a number and get in line. As […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Get off my lawn! | Comments (135)

Favorite words

August 7, 2020 – 1:08 pm

Many times I’ve posted about “words and phrases I hate,” but now let’s walk on the sunnier side and list the words we like (phrases would be too onerous). I was inspired by the tweet below that Matthew sent me from Jonathan Eisen, evolutionary biologist and brother of Wormageddon instigator Michael Eisen: My daughter & […]

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Words and phrases I detest

April 29, 2020 – 1:15 pm

Yes, it’s that time again—time to take out all your pent-up, pandemic-induced frustration on those who use odious and reprehensible language. As always, nearly all of my examples come from HuffPost. I have to say that I don’t find them by reading HuffPost; I simply hear something I don’t like and google it along with […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Get off my lawn! | Comments (263)

Editor needed!

March 21, 2020 – 4:18 pm

From HuffPo, of course: I don’t think we really need this pandemic. . .

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More odious words and phrases

March 8, 2020 – 3:00 pm

It’s sunny outside, the ducks are being frisky, and I have no business trying to brain today. Here: enjoy three words and phrases I have grown to hate. It’s amazing that I rarely repeat these; I suppose that makes me a curmudgeon.  Click on the screenshots to see the source of these irritating usages. The […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Get off my lawn!, grammar | Comments (180)

Words and phrases I hate

February 6, 2020 – 1:30 pm

Yes, it’s time for another chance to blow off steam about words and phrases that irritate you. I have three today: all, of course, are from HuffPo—the source of everything risible and reprehensible. You’re invited to contribute your favorites in the comments. 1.) “Sick” meaning “cool” or “great.” This is another neologism which means the opposite of […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Get off my lawn!, grammar | Comments (129)

Lee Jussim finds a home for his “Orwelexicon”

February 2, 2020 – 1:45 pm

About two weeks ago I reported on a mini-kerfuffle at the Psychology Today website. Respected social psychologist Lee Jussim at Rutgers, responding to a piece in the British Medical Journal that created a number of Woke Neologisms, created his own piece listing anti-Woke neologisms. Here’s the original BMJ article, now publicly available (click on screenshot): […]

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Neologism wanted

January 15, 2020 – 12:30 pm

I’m looking for readers to help invent a new word, since the concept I want to encapsulate isn’t represented by any words or phrases I know. And here’s the concept. You’re all familiar with the ploy that theologians use when you criticize their ideas. Many of them—most notably Edward Feser, but also Alvin Plantinga and […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in writing | Comments (200)