I was reading up on Erin McKean, Anu's guest today, and came across this great story on her and others in the March 19 2005 NY Times (no, Jackie, you do not have to register for this one; it's on Evan Morris's site! ):

http://www.word-detective.com/lexicographers.html

"...They include Steve Kleinedler, 38, who is second in command at American Heritage and has a phonetic vowel chart tattooed across his back..."

maybe it's time for a career change for me... <smile>


http://www.americannationalcorpus.org/

this is a new one to me. Max?


(actually, now that I look more closely at the Corpus thingy, what is it?)

They include Steve Kleinedler, 38, who is second in command at American Heritage and has a phonetic vowel chart tattooed across his back..."

Geeze - it's gotta be hard to consult that resource. He must be VERY flexible.

hard to consult

It's probably just for others to consult. He, no doubt, has it memorized.

Geez; I can picture one of his co-workers saying, "Hey, Steve, I've forgotten the symbol for u--lemme see your back a minute".