A life in words

  • ‘they’ is not a drop-in replacement for ‘he’ and ‘she’, but we could use one

    Singular usage of ‘they’ is well-established in English, going back centuries. Depending on your exposure to it, you may yourself use it regularly, as I happily do. It’s great having a single word that can refer to individuals whose gender is unclear or unspecified. However, gender-neutral ‘they’ and its friends ‘them’, ‘their’, and ‘theirs’, do…

  • In Memoriam J. P. H.

    This one’s a bit macabre—caveat lector! March first has known some tragedies. On this day in history, in 1910, the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history swept over the rail depot in Wellington, Washington, killing 96. (So heavy was the slab of ice and snow, that the last of the bodies weren’t retrieved until July of…

  • The crisis in Ukraine—a few thoughts

    The Internet is rife with Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns. In any comment section on any platform, you’ll see the trolls. I’m posting this video from my tiny little blog, to do my part against that wave. It is stunning that anyone could hear such eloquent pleas for peace, and not back down. The cynicism…

The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves… to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection [and] opens the door to foreign influence and corruption….George Washington, Farewell Address