LATEST ADDITIONS

An eggcorn, as regular readers of <A HREF="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/"><I>The Language Log</I></A> are aware, is the label given to non-standard reshaping of expressions in common use. Substituting "eggcorn" for "acorn" or "baited breath" for "bated breath," for egg samples.

Suhas Sreedhar writes about CD over-compression in <I>IEEE Spectrum</I>. It's a good 'un that goes beyond the usual hand-wringing to the real danger it poses.

I have a <I>Slate</I> <A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2172543/">column</A&gt; today, an appreciation of Max Roach, who died last week at age 83. (Sometimes my editors let me break away from war and peace, though I have one of those <A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2172634">columns</A&gt; today, too.) The headline writer has me calling Roach the “greatest drummer” in jazz. I think Billy Higgins was probably better, but I didn’t make a fuss. In any case, all great jazz drummers who came up after the mid-1940s, Higgins included, leaned or built on Max Roach’s innovations. Listen to the sound-clips that I link to in the column, and be sure to watch the YouTube clip toward the end. If you didn’t know before, you’ll see and hear what we’re all now missing.

I've written before about the Crippen & Landru publication of <I>The Archer Files: The Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Private Investigator, Including Newly Discovered Case Notes</I>, edited by Tom Nolan, which has a cover by my buddy <A HREF="http://www.jeffwong.com/caricature.htm">Jeff Wong</A>, who also happens to be an internationally acknowledged expert on Macdonald.

Nick Hornby gets an unusual request.

According to an AP poll, one out of every four Americans hasn't read a single book in the last year. Okay, maybe I <I>can</I> believe that, but whenever I read articles like this, they inevitably include some guy (and yes, it is always a guy) who says something like, "I just don't have time for fiction, when I read I want to learn something."

Hola Familia.<br>
I hope you're all doing very well. It's an unusually cool and rainy day here in NJ/NYC.