Casa Jonsson

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

Casting spells

Greg just suggested two new spelling-related autonyms: “mispelled” and ‘olde.’ He also contributed ‘English.’ 

Putting one’s left foot forward

Christopher Hitchens has a blistering diatribe in yesterday’s Slate on the subject of Michael Moore’s latest effort.
I have already said that Moore’s film has the staunch courage to mock Bush for his verbal infelicity. Yet it’s much, much braver than that. From Fahrenheit 9/11 you can glean even more astounding and hidden disclosures, such as […]

Secret admirer

I’ve been keeping an Amazon.com package unopened for about a week because I thought it was a Fathers’ Day gift from Araceli. Today I opened it. It was an item from my wish list, but it was not from my wife. Some nice person in San Francisco, whose name does not ring a bell, decided […]

Suffering—I mean, um, suffrage

It’s about time to go to the polls again in my town, and the mudslinging by direct mail is reminding me of the pig races at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Somehow, electing government officials never amounts to the stirring, patriotic experience that your momma said it was, does it?

My own two feet

I just added two entries to my archive of linguistic curiosities. The list of autonyms now includes ‘trochee,’ and the list of contranyms, ‘iamb.’