Casa Jonsson

Nils & Araceli’s home on the web, est. 2003

The things they advertise these days

I heard a radio commercial last night for Zim’s Crack Creme. It raised a few questions in my mind.
Um, for external use only? 

One step closer

Amazon.com announced today the availability of a new service. “Search Inside the Book” allows you to search the full text of 120,000 books, in addition to conventional searching by title, subject, and author.

Gadg

The director of my favorite movie is dead at the age of 94.
Elia (“Gadg”) Kazan was not an uncontroversial figure. He cooperated with the House Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities in 1952, naming the names of a handful of people with whom he had been a member of the Communist Party. He subsequently received five […]

Great minds «burp» think alike

After I posted my linguistic curiosities, I googled the words I thought I had coined. It turns out that one of my heroes, the incorrigible punster Richard Lederer, had been there before me. But he gives a different meaning to ‘contranym’ than I do. 

Speaking of speaking

I’ve been collecting linguistic curiosities. Have a look. 

New song

I wrote a song this week. Now do I get my supper? 

I prefer to call it “euthanizing” time

It’s becoming a problem for you; admit it. You’re checking jonssons.org thirty or forty times per hour just to see if we’ve served up anything new to slake your thirst for incisive commentary, poignant verse, rapier wit.
Give your mousing finger a rest and use a news aggregator.

Losing marbles

Imagine playing a game for money in which marbles are drawn out of a bag and then replaced. 60% of the marbles are white. If one of the white marbles is drawn out, you win whatever you risked. The other 40% are blue. If one of the blue marbles is drawn, then you lose whatever […]