Also

'Also', which ironically once meant 'similarly', is now the word of choice to introduce a non sequitur into internet comments and posts. Its impact is highest when the preceding text is long and somewhat formal.

Also, it's kinda funny.

Acceptability status: OMG RANDOM!!!!1!!

Counting Words

Hearing this piece on Terry Gross last night is actually what inspired me to get this blog up and running again. A linguist named Geoffrey Nunberg talks about the latest craze of counting words to prove points. If this man is to be believed, some American media outlets may use half-baked analysis to add some meat to mind-numbing, unproductive debates.

Surrected Again

Really Smart Parrots is back, though I'm sad to say I deleted all the traces of the old blog. I may try to recreate some of the posts if I can remember them, but that remains to be seen.

I'm casting a wider net this time and will be keeping the concept of this blog pretty vague, though the general focus will be modern English usage, and I don't mean that the way your 10th grade English textbook does. Sometimes I might mean it like that, though. I would call this "amateur linguistics," but I don't want to scare anyone off.

This is not a blog about "correct" usage, mainly because I don't want to have to triple proofread every post and justify every comma. Also, I don't want to attract googling grammar snobs.

In keeping with one of my new rules about not being a perfectionist about every post, I'm signing out now. Stay tuned.