Here are various odds and ends that have interested me enough to think they might interest you. Hope I'm right.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Why it's important to capitalise proper nouns

From the BBC website this morning. Enough said, I think.

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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

The sentence above is really that: a sentence. Thanks to Jim Davies of writers' group 26, I've discovered this wonderful thing, as well as many other similar sentences, on a great Wikipedia page.

How can this ridiculous construction be a real sentence? Well, first you have to know that 'buffalo' is an obscure verb meaning 'bully'. (I didn't.) And, of course, that Buffalo is a city in America. (New York state, to be precise.)

That means you can construct this mad sentence, which means, in extended form:

'The buffalos from Buffalo that buffalos from Buffalo bully ('buffalo') also bully other buffalos from Buffalo.'

It may be clearer if you try the sentence with people instead of buffalo:

'Buffalo people Buffalo people buffalo buffalo Buffalo people.'

Or it may not.

This is exactly the sort of thing that can keep me from proper work for hours on end. Enjoy.

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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

What? (Again.)

Since when did 'Never mind' become one word? (No smartarse comments about Kurt Cobain, please.)

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