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Fabulous collection of Soviet Christmas cards.

Merry Christmas!

"A Hard Day's Night"

Peter Sellers doing his version of Laurence Olivier's version of "Now is the Winter of our Discontent" through The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" version.

"How to Hold Up a Bank"

On the issue of "Unfortunate book titles": On World Wide Words some Henry Willis contributes a recollection: “Thirty years ago, when I was a desk clerk at the library of the US Department of the Interior in Washington DC, I was given the job of organising all the check-out slips for the previous three years in Dewey decimal order. (This, by the way, was punishment for being caught reading the books that were being returned; I was told that doing so was ‘inappropriate’ for someone in my job.) One of the slips was for ‘How To Hold Up A Bank’. That intrigued me enough to get me to descend a few floors into the stacks on my lunch break to find it. Unfortunately the book wasn’t there, but I was able to get an idea what it was about from the other books on that shelf, all of which concerned soil engineering.”

To All You Swedish People Out there...

Från Aftonbladetartikel med anledning av "Bonde söker fru".

Billy Goat Blue

These Guys Couldn't Turn on a Radio

The year is drawing to a close, and it is time to look at the “100 Unsexiest Men 2007”. I am very pleased to see Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Ronaldinho and Karl Lagerfeld on the list, plus of course the Pope. The presence of Bob Dylan, Devendra Banhart and Colin Meloy makes me doubt it’s credibility though.

My pretty, pretty car!

My very own V-Dub, styled and ready! Make your own at: dubmodder.com

Presenting Wordie.org

The connection between Flickr and Wordie might seem far-fetched, but there are some relevant likenesses. Wordie must be the no 1 social site for word geeks, in the same way as Flickr must be considered the equivalent when it comes to photo sites. Both sites rely on members adding their choice of selected, in one case photos, in the other case words. On both sites you are able to comment on added pictures/words, your own as well as others. On both sites you are able to introduce yourself through a profile. No avatar on Wordie, but then what could better represent you than an onomatopoeia, alongside your favourite and your least favourite words. On both sites you are able to post a written presentation of yourself and add links to other sites.

Just like one on Flickr creates sets of pictures, one creates lists of words on Wordie. There are all sorts of lists to be come across: Fantasy Words; Sports Page Headline Words; Bureaucratic Words; Geek Words; Irritatingly Misused Words; Words About Words; Words That Are Funny To Say etc. Personally I have had great fun remembering and listing words I can remember from my days in the rag trade. Making a list of Decemberist (the band) words have been an eye opener to the genius of Kevin Meloy. I am sure there are plenty of other artists and bands it would be interesting to scrutinize in the same way. My list of Nature Words That I Find Particularly Awesome includes words like tundra, creek, talon etc. This is a list that existed in my head long before my Wordie days.

There are no pictures on Wordie, and thereby zilch stealing the attention from the characteristics of the words themselves. The only advertisments are pictureless Google AdSense. I find the site pleasurably attractive in it’s simplicity, and it is furthermore easy to navigate and understand.

Each word posted has hyperlinks pointing to related entries from eight different sources. These include Google, Merriam-Webster, Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and Ninja Words. Thus a word that cannot be found in one dictionary is most likely to be found in another, thanks to the diverse styles of lexicons. It is furthermore possible to see how many times a particular word has been posted; this fact is supplied with links to whomever has previously posted it.

I am a sucker for social sites and Wordie is definitely one of my favourite such. The interacting bit is enhanced by, for example, ones ability to see the profiles of all users who has put the same words as oneself on their site, including the profile question of favourite and least favourite word.

I am also a logophile and Wordie enables me to share the love of words with other word-loving people. To submit a word I like or just find interesting or fascinating, and then know that other logophiles will see it and assess it feels very cool.

Klick here to see my latest words. And if you decide to join, please let me know!