Category Archives: Language and Communication

Playing with, and ranting about, language: miscommunication, badly worded signs and questions, and changing usage (Anyone heard from “take” lately? Didn’t think so.).

The Although-Comma

Posted on 11 August 2017 by Isabel Gibson

Yes, “although” goes with the first part of the sentence: the part from which it is separated (Oh, the horror) by a comma. Here we have the domesticated Although-Comma, its wild origins lost in the mists of time. Continue reading →

Can Giraffes Be Saved?

Posted on 09 July 2017 by Isabel Gibson

A look at today’s media ecology. Who knew that was a thing? Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently, New Perspectives | Tagged Word Play | 8 Comments

What It Is

Posted on 11 June 2017 by Isabel Gibson

A sneeze by any other name would sound . . . the same? Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged Word Play | 22 Comments

Who You Gonna Call?

Posted on 09 April 2017 by Isabel Gibson

I’ve been robbed. Call the police. Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently, Officialdom | Tagged Aging | 12 Comments

Up To Or More Guaranteed

Posted on 15 January 2017 by Isabel Gibson

To communicate or not to communicate? Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently, Thinking Broadly | Tagged Word Play | 12 Comments

Poetry and Prose

Posted on 08 January 2017 by Isabel Gibson

Nichols, Frost, Edison and Cuomo – and me. Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Thinking Broadly | Tagged Quotations, Word Play | 10 Comments

The Ize Have It

Posted on 02 October 2016 by Isabel Gibson

I don’t say it’s wrong, exactly, but it is faintly precious, this current British preference for the “s” over the “z.” A preference clearly on display for me these days, working with some writers from England. They analyse, categorise, characterise, … Continue reading →