Archive for March, 2007

Meredith Burgmann was, until recently, the president of the NSW Legislative Council. She recently retired. Meredith Burgmann, collector of political idiocy While in her position, she enjoyed a sideline hobby collecting the headlines from politicians’ press releases. It turns out to have been a highly entertaining hobby and she sent a list of her...
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I don’t tend to write too much in the medieval fantasy, cavorting elves and grumbling dwarves vein of fantasy. Nonetheless, this list from rinkworks.com cracked me up. In particular, I enjoyed no. 33. Click here for the Fantasy Novelist’s Exam.
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I thought I’d figured out what was causing all those strange !–– and !–– codes that pop up in Internet Explorer. Alas, I haven’t fixed it. I have no idea why it’s happening and will continue to try to find out what’s going on. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know...
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A reader directed me to check out a beta version of a new website called Story Code. It’s a site to compare novels, where readers enter details of books they’ve enjoyed by way of a coding system. That system then draws comparisons to other books in the site’s database and offers further reading recommendations...
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A reader of The Word from Wellington in New Zealand sent me this picture that he thought I’d like. He was right – I do like it. It’s such a mean sign. This is a car park and it’s for the public. But it’s closed. Permanently! Mwaaahahaha! Why don’t they just put up a...
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We’ve all heard one variety or another. When the great anti-nutrition factory, McDonald’s, began naming lots of its products with a Mc prefix, the floodgates were opened. There’s a McMuffin, a McFeast, even a McCafe for lovers of truly awful coffee. Here in Australia we have a McOz burger. The Mc’s are regional. McHurl...
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Bolivian coca farmers are trying to pressure one of the world’s largest companies to abandon one of the world’s most recognisable brands. Bolivia is rewriting its constitution and wants to re-establish the standing of the humble coca leaf to its religious and cultural importance once more. The move could force the Bolivian government into...
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It’s been pointed out to me that a number of posts here at The Word are coming out a bit strangely when the site is viewed through Internet Explorer 7. There are occasional !–– type things cropping up. I don’t know why this is and I’m looking into it. However, if you use...
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Every once in a while a book comes along that really changes the world. I’m not talking about publishing phenomenons like the Harry Potter books or John Grisham’s superselling novels. I’m talking about a book that stops the world in its tracks and makes everyone perform an intellectual backflip. Not a world changing book...
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An ongoing series of letters in the Sydney Morning Herald recently has been discussing the strange words people think they hear in verse and songs. It all started with one person asking what ‘gibbous’ meant, in reference to a gibbous moon. (To put that to rest early, gibbous refers to the moon when it...
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