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The Most Popular Posts of the Inky Fool
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This post has already gone up twice; but, as it's the one on which I worked hardest, and as this blog is always gaining and losing adh... -
Just a brief post as I'm running round the country giving talks (Booka Books in Oswestry tonight). I met a German-speaking lady in Edin...
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Because of all the attention this post is getting, I ought to point out that I was not intending to disclose some outrageous Orwellian con...
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I've been staying in the flat of an American friend and found amongst his books an American-English dictionary . It is a slim volume, a... -
A poop-noddy is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: Sexual intercourse (rare) I don't know about you, dear reader, but I... -
Here is the updated list of the fifty most quoted lines of poetry on the internet, including all the readers' suggestions. We started ... -
If I wish to do an impression of a Chinese chap, I will not allow myself to be hampered by the fact that I don't speak a word of Mandar... -
Pluto was the god of the underworld. He was also the god of wealth. That is why we have plutocracy (government by the wealthy), plutocrats ... -
Back when I was writing The Horologicon , there was one word that I desperately wanted to include. But I couldn't because I didn't ...
Brilliant! "Bold as Brass" – I wish I'd known this last week, when I was teaching metal idioms to my students.
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteOoh, excellent talk and, on a side note, you're cute!
ReplyDeleteClancy Sigal's 1961 novel/memoir "Going Away" suggests an answer to JFK's "Profiles in Courage" under the name "Profiles in Snollygostering." It may be hard to believe after decades of post-assassination reverence, but I can confirm from experience that JFK was not much admired on the Left.
ReplyDeleteI bought and enjoyed The Etymologicon, and I enjoy the Inky Fool. However, regarding your TED lecture, I found a major chronological problem. You talk about the debate between the House of Representatives and the Senate over what George Washington should be called, and how the two bodies eventually decided upon "President." The title "President" is in the US Constitution, which was drafted before either the House or the Senate existed. There was a Constitutional Convention in 1787 which created the two houses, which began operation in 1789 when Washington became President. Before that, under the Articles of Confederation, there was a unicameral body in the area that would become the United States. It is possible that there were element in the country who held the different views that you delineated, but these people were not Congressmen and Senators.
ReplyDeleteQuite right. I gave a wrong date, when I should have said 1789. It's the perils of speaking without notes.
ReplyDeleteJust heard your piece on TED Radio. I work at Wise's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria. There's a plaque on our building that reads "Here on April 16th 1789 George Washington was for the first time addressed as President of the United States." I never thought much of it, or its importance, till today. Thanks for the education!
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