Thursday, December 23, 2004

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Chime-In Email This is a term that has just been waiting to be born: "chime-in email":  "messages copied to several people, each of whom replies with a thanks, a comment or an acknowledgment". I'd like to take credit for thinking of the term, but I got it from a New York Times article, quoting  Brian McLendon, a publicist at Random House. I did a quick Google search, and didn't come up with any prior appearances (even searching Groups), so I think this is a new, very useful term. It irritates me, too. I know some people who have should have their "Reply All" button removed. 11:54:25 PM    comment []

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I previously coined the term "there theirs" for Mental Typos. That makes me think of another minor language phenomenon that may be in need of a name: the (intentional and valid) occurrence of the the same word consecutively in a sentence. I think the most common example is "if I had had a chance to help, I would have". The other examples I have come across (I haven't been tracking this very long) seem to involve idiomatic phrases ending in a prepoposition: "If I had given in in the first place", for example. So, how about calling these "had hads"? (So my neologism "there their" sounds like, but is not, a had had!). Oh, just for my Mom, here is another one: "win-win" (as in, "Can we find a win-win solution"?)! 12:35:51 PM    comment []

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Took the kids to see the Lemony Snicket movie last night. It was just okay. I really don't like Jim Carrey. I read a review that said his was a "selfish performance", and I totally agree. Yech. 12:10:11 PM    comment []