Last year I was previewing a textbook that I was about to use in a Human Development course I was teaching. The book was the usual flamboyant montage of facts, grids, and pictures, but then I suddenly ran across a most unusual sentence. It read, ?As a folksinger once sang, how many roads must an individual walk down before you can call them an adult.? I was stupefied. — Bernard Chapin —The Language Police Live Inside of My Head (Strike the Root)
How many roads must a man walk down,
Before you can call him a man?
The question, my friends, offends tender minds.
The question offends tender minds.
Similar:
Avoid static, wordy nominalization. Prefer compelling verbs.
New graphic for a handout I first posted...
Essays
My college writing students are out making short videos responding to a prompt.
While my students are out of the room ma...
Academia
Most Americans have a high opinion of the humanities, and 81% use at least one humanities-...
While some survey respondents were unfam...
Academia
Nicholas Winton, “Britain’s Schindler,” Dies at 106
Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker w...
Culture
How to Create a Welcoming Culture for Autistic Students
An autistic undergraduate has tips for p...
Academia
Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812
When he saw “by the dawn’s early light...
Aesthetics
Heh… yeah, I think I made my point with that list. :)
Whew! Since I am on the topic of Star Trek, this is hilarious from your site: ..to boldly go where no humanoid, android, robot, intelligent gaseous cloud being, non-corporeal energy entity, holographic projection, psychokinetic thought-pattern reflection, or anything else has gone before. (Not exactly a snappy opening narration.)
Bobby, I’ve got a few thoughts about that on my “Gender Neutral Language” web page, where I discuss my opinion of those who would change famous quotations like “No man is an island.”
Dennis, I am glad I am not the only one who caught that. But should people like me who research popular culture and love oldies music worry about these wrongly quoted lyrics?
Gee, I don’t know…may as well teach ’em PC in college if they haven’t already learned to speak doubletalk in daycare.