Recently I was having an email exchange with a gentleman I had never met before. During the course of our communication, he replied to one of my questions by writing, “Well of course, silly.”
“Silly”? I’m sure he meant no disrespect in his word choice, so I brushed the incident off. However, it got me thinking [...]

In August, I wrote a blog about hippie-era slang that coincided with the 40th anniversary of Woodstock . I explained how speech has always been a principle medium for cultures to define and differentiate themselves. Today, it is clear to linguists and laymen alike that people are incorporating language that reflects their online activity into [...]

In my last blog post I made a reference to the phrase, “right on” as having appeared in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. I’ve received dozens of inquires from interested readers who want to know who spoke this phrase, so here it is:

The Woodstock Music & Art Fair celebrates its 40th anniversary on August 15th, 2009. The “flower-power” generation was partly-fueled by the message of limitless self-expression, creativity and freedom. Speech has always been a principle medium for younger generations to define and differentiate themselves, and Woodstock not only created timeless music and art, but it also [...]