THE JOURNEY OF MAN: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells
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Beware of certain homophone-like words that are frequently misused:
Tack is a direction, or change thereof, in sailing, or "a course of action or policy"-- 'we may need to consider taking a new tack.' Tact is "adroitness in dealing with others, esp. in delicate situations; intuitive social grace" -- 'this client requires some tact; he can be difficult.' Gibe is to mock, tease or taunt -- 'playground gibes often stay with us longer than we like to admit.' Jibe is to "agree; be in accord" -- 'I've spent an hour trying to make these figures jibe.' Jive is "jerky lively style of dance esp. popular in the 1950s", or the music corresponding to it, or "talk or conversation, esp. when misleading or pretentious" -- 'Barbara Billingsly speaking jive is a memorable comedic moment from the movie Airplane.' Foliage [FOE-lee-ij] -- the leaves on trees, bushes, etc. Foilage [FOIL-ij] -- slang for the act of foiling something?? -- 'That was some rad foilage of the baddies by that Jackie Chan, dude.' This is not officially a word, but is a common mispronunciation of 'foliage', though feel free to re-purpose it as above in casual interchange! (All quoted definitions are from The Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus (Second Edition)) Vanity Fair, February, 2009
ASSASSINS OF THE MIND by Christopher Hitchens "At a dinner party that will forever be green in the memory of those who attended it, somebody was complaining not just about the epic badness of the novels of Robert Ludlum but also about the badness of their titles. (You know the sort of pretentiousness: The Bourne Supremacy, The Aquitaine Progression, The Ludlum Impersonation, and so forth.) Then it happily occurred to another guest to wonder aloud what a Shakespeare play might be called if named in the Ludlum manner. At which point Salman Rushdie perked up and started to sniff the air like a retriever. 'O.K. then, Salman, what would Hamlet’s title be if submitted to the Ludlum treatment?' 'The Elsinore Vacillation,' he replied—and I find I must stress this—in no more time than I have given you. Think it was a fluke? Macbeth? 'The Dunsinane Reforestation.' To persist and to come up with The Rialto Sanction and The Kerchief Implication was the work of not too many more moments." N.B. We presume that the latter two plays must be The Merchant of Venice and Othello, though Hitchens does not reveal the answers. We, being demonstrably not one-quarter as clever as Salman Rushdie, must confess that I Googled 'Shakespeare' and 'Rialto' to come up with Merchant.... We were pleased to be able to review the terminal paper for the client's Master of Education course. We were also pleased to receive positive feedback on our work:
See the recommendation on LinkedIn, here.
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