Although this example of salon-naming isn’t as bad as the one I previously posted, it was still enough to make my head hurt (especially at 6 o’clock this morning while on the bus into Belfast). SCIZZOR HANZ Why? Why all the Zs? Why the missing D? (Perhaps the hairdresser is called Hanz. Or more likely, [...]

Just because the comic strip below made me laugh and nod, plus the word cropped up the other day when I was reading The Eagle of the Ninth, today’s word is: decimate transitive verb \ˈde-sə-ˌmāt\ Etymology: Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare, from decimus tenth, from decem ten 1: to select by lot and kill [...]

Oh dear. This story illustrates the benefit of proof-reading in all languages when producing multi-lingual work… Out-of-office reply ends up on road sign [In other news, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow - seeing as I'm going out to see the Halloween carnival in Derry and then to a party, I will still be awake at midnight and [...]

Spotted today in the very centre of Belfast, on an empty shop right opposite City Hall, an advert for the premises, declaring how perfect they were, including in big letters prominence visilbility vitality potential I did take a photo with my mobile, but the quality’s pretty rotten (hence not posting it here). But oh dear.

The word of the day, thanks to Merriam-Webster: feuilleton \fuh-yuh-TOHNG (the “ng” is not pronounced, but the preceding vowel is nasalized)\   noun 1 : a part of a European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader 2 : a work of fiction printed in installments 3 : a short [...]

… of seeing the following in an upstairs window this morning as I drove past, presumably indicating that a hairdresser operates out of the premises: DEZINER KUT’Z I think my eyes watered. (Why is it always hairdressers who do this, too?)