I've started to read "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive
Scrabble Players" by Stefan Fatsis, the book that had us going on the non-word 'abceghilnoprtuy' a while back. I'm only 60 pages in, but already this holds promise as a source for generating some interesting
word discussions, or if nothing else, providing opportunities for crossthreads.
one of the first things that came up was
Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, founded by Dmitri Borgmann (author of "Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought")
which led me to this link:
http://www.wordways.com/articles.htm
seen on a Scrabble player's T-shirt:
DOES ANAL RETENTIVE HAVE A HYPHEN?
"Luck is considered responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the game. 'You can't control the tiles,' Joe Edley tells me. This given doesn't stop pros from whinging, but...."
-Stefan Fastis, sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal
the page in front of the first chapter has three terrific quotes. is there a word for this practice? a publishing term perhaps?
"Virtually everyone suffers from the deeply ingrained habit of considering language as a medium of communication."
- Dmitri Borgmann
three terrific quotes So tsuwm,
-what are they? and
-are you going to put them in three terrific posts?
the page in front of the first chapter has three terrific quotes. is there a word for this practice? Uh, I think it's called listing quotes...
tsuwm, your brain has a lot of dord.
"Virtually everyone suffers from the deeply ingrained habit of considering language as a medium of communication."- Dmitri Borgmann
Hmmm, this would go well paired with the Meaningless Maxim thread. We could call it a Meaningless Quotes... like... "The road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs" - Ernest Hemingway (I think).
Borgmann's books seem to be concerned with word games and puzzles, so perhaps he said this with tongue firmly planted in cheekiness.
But is it a good read Tsuwm? Apart from a AWAD inspiration would you recommend it?
>Uh, I think it's called listing quotes...
tsuwm, your brain has a lot of dord.
dord?
department of redundancy department?
no, you must be referring to the ghost word:
http://www.snopes2.com/language/mistakes/dord.htmand I'm sure you're right, but I'm also sure there must be a word for the placement of these quotes in the frontispiece....
>but is it a good read?
the first 60 pages were...
department of redundancy department
The county constituting Martha's Vineyard, though commonly referred to as Dukes County, Massachusetts, is in fact titled "County of Dukes County." And yes, the inscription of the courthouse, above the pillars, reads County of Dukes County Courthouse.
In reply to:
the page in front of the first chapter has three terrific quotes. is there a word for this practice? a publishing term perhaps?
I believe the quotes themselves are called epigraphs, so epigraphologise? 
Bingley
thanks, Bingley; the noun has, of course [d'oh], been verbed.
the book has been epigraphed thusly:
1) the Borgmann quote given above
2) "Without effort, he had learned English, French, Portuguese, Latin. I suspect, nevertheless, that he was not very capable of thought. To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract. In the overly replete world of Funes there were nothing but details, almost contiguous details." (Jorge Luis Borges, Funes, the Memorious)
http://www.bridgewater.edu/~atrupe/GEC101/Funes.html3) "Words, words, words. I'm so sick of words!" (Elliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady)
so, what does this epigraph(s) (this is why I was searching for the concept) suggest as a central tenet of the book?
obfuscation (aka wordplay, tribal talk, exclusivity, rap, etc etc - all the established polar opposites of "communication", Max!)
so, what does this epigraph(s) (this is why I was searching for the concept) suggest as a central tenet of the book?
I know, I know! That words are not to be considered as a reliable representation of what was really intended. Hmm?
the quote, of course, is taken out of context -- we really don't know what Borgmann had in mind. but in juxtaposition with the other quotes, the epigraph in total (having now read 180 pages) seems to be getting at the notion that Scrabble, in the hands of the competitive 'geniuses' is no longer a recreational word game testing the players' luck and vocabulary depth; but more an exercise in memory, anagramatic skill, psychology and competitive nature -- based on mathematics and symbology rather than language, with the rules being an arbitrary set of (meaningless) character strings.
this can be applied to a lot of the strange games that are played with words, like anagrams and palindromes -- little or no real information is communicated.
btw, Borgmann's other major title gives one more clue as to where he was coming from: "Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orhographical Oddities", which smacks of some of Anu's weekly themes.
"Virtually everyone suffers from the deeply ingrained habit of considering language as a medium of communication."- Dmitri Borgmann
Please forgive my ignorance, but if language isn't a medium of communication, what is it?
The very fact that you don't understand the quote underscores its validity.
County of Dukes County Courthouse.
Shouldn't that be County of Dukes County County Courthouse?
glad I am not the only awkward sod - I didn't like to raise that one
Which brings me to a piece of doggerel I learned as a child. I'd be grateful if anyone can tell me the author:
"William the Conqueror, 1066,
Said to his barons 'I mean to affix
England to Normandy; go out and borrow
some bows and some arrows, we're starting tomorrow.'
So William went conquering hither and thither
Till Angles and Saxons were all of a dither.
He conquered so quickly
You could not keep count of the counties he conquered.
Ten or a dozen, or maybe a score
And I haven't a doubt he'd have conquered some more,
But death put an end to his tactics, thank Heaven
Of William the Conqueror, 1087".
[out-of-breath -e]
CapK, it sounds like it could be one of the poems in "Now We Are Six", by Milne. But I'll be darned if I can find the book right now! I shall continue the hunt tomorrow--I got it for my son years and years ago, when he was almost 6.
could be one of the poems in "Now We Are Six", by Milne
Sounds a bit like Milne's style but not any of his standard works methinks. Lost quotes site asked for the author last October with no replies that I can see.
I am intrigued myself now.
And a (nother) plug for "Now We Are 60".
<<And, if language isn't the medium by which I communicate with others, how the hell am I doing it? >>
Ah, Max! You are no friend of irony!
<DOES ANAL RETENTIVE HAVE A HYPHEN?
No, a colon.
DOES ANAL RETENTIVE HAVE A HYPHEN?No, a colon.Ohmigawd!
You're on your way back, insel.
>but is it a good read?
well, I know you've all been waiting breathlessly for an answer to this. it's a detailed (but somewhat narrow) view of a fascinating subculture. It reminded me, in that regard, of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (which I'd also recommend).