July 20, 2009 I Love It When You Talk Retro by Ralph Keyes This book is definitely best when browsed or kept in the bathroom, but as it was I got it from the Leisure section of Parks Library, thus 4 weeks only with no renewals. Quite a fun book, it gives the pop(?) culture …
Scoffery
Scoffery Have you ever wondered just why we as people have such a terrible issue with plain speaking? It seems that we are always looking for ways to express ourselves in the unclearest of ways, whether it be with irony, sarcasm or the most beloved euphemism. Ralph Keyes has done the research for us and …
MADreads
Book News and Reviews from Madison Public Library Using the Veg-O-Matic while listening to my victrola July 30th, 2009 My mother had a saying: “That and fifty cents will get you right on the bus.” The meaning was, no matter what, you still have to pay for the bus. An example: Me: “That woman has …
Brazen Broads Book Bash
A Book About Why We Speak As We Do We tend to read a lot of fiction here at the Brazen Broads Book Bash, so it’s always nice to get our hands on some good nonfiction books almost as a way to cleanse our palettes sometimes. Ralph Keyes book, Euphemania, is the perfect mix of …
Mississippi Library Commission Reference Blog
August 2009 We post the interesting and kooky things we find while looking for the answers to reference questions. I was especially tickled by the entry on mattresses in the furniture section of I Love it When You Talk Retro. It seems that before the insides of mattresses were monitored by any sort of law, …
Fritinancy
Fritinancy In his new book Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms2 Ralph Keyes devotes two pages to the language of US workplace firings: Discharging employees is one of the leading occasions for euphemistic discourse in the workplace. No one is fired, of course, or sacked, though they might be furloughed (or, more likely, placed on …