October 05, 2002

Today, I'm as old as

… The Marlboro Man when he died of cancer. Or something like that.

Find out some for yourself.

October 15, 2002

Smileys

With the recent 20th birthday of the smiley, it's finally time for some history lessons. Here are some notes from The Creator.

Of course, there are those that sneer at mere ASCII smileys, and have been making more complex ones for much longer than 20 years.

And predating it all is the most annoying of all, the yellow sticker smiley face. Have a happy day!

October 17, 2002

Colored People

If you've never heard of Argyria, that's a good thing.

Apparently, there have been some famous cases of people falling for such snake-oil supplements as colloidal silver.

Of course, that isn't quite as bizarre as Sunny-Delight syndrome from a few years ago. Drink your juice; it'll put color in your cheeks.

October 22, 2002

Language Issues

I've read Politically Correct Fairy Tales, but this is much more bizarre.

There's bombasticism as above, and then there's downright fictional English, as displayed by our beloved corporations. This could prove useful at employee evaluation time, or when writing a mission-statement.

As for language as it is spoken, a professor at Harvard is collecting data on regional variations of English in the US. His survey is quite informative in itself.