miniZibaldone

Languages in a Globalising World by Jacques Maurais Italici: encounter with Piero Bassetti Second Latin Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music by John McWhorter   Globish by Robert McCrum   The Joy of Words by Fritz Spiegl   The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester   Do You Make These Mistakes in English? by Edwin L. Battistella Does Accent Matter? by John Honey The College Latin-English Dictionary Book of Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge American Slang by Robert Chapman Cambridge Latin Course 1 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

I like “He swings a mean pen” and “You said a mouthful” tremendously. Our most happy word, I think, is “blotto,” though an Englishman is always at his best in terms of address. If he calls a friend “Old bean” on Monday, it would never do to repeat it on the next day. Tuesday it would be “Old egg” and Wednesday would undoubtedly bring forth “Old crumpet.”   The chief characteristic of English humor is that it is cautious. American humor takes chances. That is the principal difference. The American humorist is single-minded; he wants to be funny. The English humorist wabbles; he would like to be funny, but he is haunted by the fear of being vulgar. The English humorist leads a sheltered life. Generally he is born in the private income class; he goes to a public school, then to a university, and then he is probably called to the bar. The American humorist, I believe, has not been sheltered in this way. As a rule, he has been a newspaper man. His humor is spontaneous; his jokes...

The Numerati by Stephen Baker   American Slang by Robert Chapman   Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl   Robert Musil and the NonModern by Mark Freed   Levinas and Lacan: The Missed Encounter by Sarah Harasym   The China Price by Alexandra Harney   The Meaning of Recognition by Clive James