‘They’ gives more options to count people in
A peek under the blog “hood” shows that a post about looking for a gender-neutral option for man-hours is one of the most-read on my blog. I’m clearly not the only one who has looked this up! (Long story short, try work-hours or staff-hours.) Women...
‘The cooling power of a cat yawning’ + more metaphor magic (Wordnerdery)
In a world where skimming and snacking is our default way of operating, vivid images can be an express trip to understanding. Metaphors are magic when you want to explain something complicated, give an idea of size, make a point memorably – or just make someone smile....
A leap of faith and I’m celebrating 29 years
This seems unreal even to me, but I’m celebrating 29 years in business this month. Wow! Starting my business was a leap of faith. Or, as I put it in a post in 2017, it wasn’t really as fast as a leap. It was more like stretching and warming up and slowly building up...
Switch your thinking to keep New Year’s resolutions on track
Happy New Year! Oops, the year has hardly begun and we’re heading for the New Year’s resolution danger zone. Already, “chances are pretty good that all those lofty resolutions you made before the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31 have fallen by the...
Top 10 on the blog in 2019
The flurry of end-of-year lists is well underway, and I’m jumping in. As 2019 winds down, here’s my last post this year: The top 10 most-viewed posts on the blog. 1. The post that got the most traffic this year by far was on a topic I periodically revisit: Is blogging...
Life is short; eat the shortbread (Wordnerdery)
In my house, Christmas isn’t Christmas without shortbread cookies, made with my mother’s recipe. Almost all of us have food traditions for family gatherings, especially during the holidays. Some of the food is expected, even demanded. Not all of the dishes are...
Our curiosity decides the word of the year
What topics caught the public’s imagination this year? Which words drove you or your friends to the dictionary? (Asking your Mom doesn’t count.) We’re starting to find out as dictionaries report the popularity of word searches over the year. The searches show...
Fun things to know about Christmas trees
When it comes to Christmas trees, it seems people are either in Camp Real (oh, that fragrance!) or Camp Artificial (oh, so easy). For many years, my family was away over the holidays, so for safety’s sake, we went with artificial. And having one, we keep using...