Sunday, April 01, 2007
Lord of the Flies. “Thousands of people have no idea that responding to a listserve will broadcast your response to all recipients. Repeated ‘But I don’t even smoke!’ messages reveal an apparently deep-seated belief that spam is somehow targeted at individuals rather than carpet-bombed. Each recipient seemed to think that each unsub demand was directed to them—which reveals how many people have never been on a listserve before, have absolutely no idea what they’re experiencing. Everyone threatens to rat the spammer out to their own ISP (‘If you don’t stop, I’ll tell AOL on you!’). Even after hundreds of repetitions, people are not able to infer that all replies are being refelected to all—which made me wonder how people get through the day to begin with.”
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
Recent Entries
- A hearty endorsement of shout quotes: scare quotes used for emphasis
- How to buy a dictionary
- Jinx and padiddle: games we play
- Saying it wrong on purpose
- Nicknames from the Underground: Busharraf, Chillary, and Killadelphia
- New slang unpacked
- UPDATED: Crosswords in Black and White
- Find me in American Way Magazine
- Recent catchwords: read-alike, violin hickey, throw a Porsche at someone, Q-tip cruise, 1-800 car
- The Tell-All of the Century: Snitching Slang
- Fog line, instant ancestor, trashout
- See, ya kid: saying goodbye in slang
- Interview with British slang lexicographer Jonathon Green
- New Scientist: “Word nerds capture fleeting online English”
- The blueprints of a Craigslist apartment scam
Recent Catchwords
- mill and fill n. (7/3)
- snake run n. (7/2)
- hurricane amnesia n. (7/2)
- dollar-a-year man n. (7/2)
- tranny n. (7/1)
- secular adj. (6/30)
- commuter trip n. (6/30)
- wendy v. (6/30)
- double-dekker n. (6/30)
- gas-sipper n. (6/29)
- nuke the fridge v. phr. (6/29)
- mannyhose n. (6/29)
- run one’s pockets v. phr. (6/29)
- gay-lister n. (6/29)
- cross-shopping n. (6/29)
- weird stacking n. (6/29)
- block busting n. (6/27)
- beek n. (6/27)
- sweatbox n. (6/26)
- bump-out n. (6/26)
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